The ribosome is the ancient and enormous molecular machine that reads genetic information on mRNA to synthesize proteins. Although it was discovered in the 1950s, it took several decades to determine an atomic structure of the ribosome because of its complexity. This talk will cover my own efforts to unravel its structure and aspects of its function. I will also speak about my own career which involved living on three continents and involved switching from my initial training in physics to learning and carrying out research in molecular biology.