In order to be a biologist, you need to take a major in biology or biochemistry (I would recommend biochem, because it's more rigorous and harder to learn later in your career), then, assuming you want to be an independent scientist running your own lab, you need to get a PhD (4-6 yrs), an MD with research training (4-5 years not counting internship), or an MD/PhD (7 years, again not counting post-grad work). Then, you need to do at least one postdoctoral fellowship, preferably in a top international laboratory (3 years)- often, 2 post-docs are required for very high-level training. So, after high school, you are looking at 4 years of college, 5 years of grad school on average, and about 5 years of post-doctoral work-Generally scientists are hired as professors (or scientists by pharm companies) when they are around 27-30...this is when you start your independent career.
For me, and all those I know who run their own laboratories, it is a dream job- fascinating work, travel around the world, the feeling you are doing something important and helpful to humanity, nearly complete independence, close association with often brilliant and always interesting people, teaching and mentoring young students, good pay (about $80,000 to start), very very stable job security, never having to worry about being bored, ability to choose your own hours and work schedule, ability to research whatever you find most interesting or personally important, constantly challenging at a very high levels, being on top of the newest technology and discoveries....I could not imagine doing anything else.
A recent job satisfaction pole put University Professors as the second most satisfying careers because of a combination of job security, pay, community respect, intellectual and professional satisfaction, and relatively low stress.
About your specific question-no, they (don't say "he" since over half of the grad students coming up are women) don't make as much as physicians, generally. As a prof, you make $80-150,000 a year, as a scientist in a pharma company you make $100-200,000 a year (but lose your independence)- The working hours are fairly low for a professional occupation with that pay-certainly lower than most physicians, but you pick what you work on, where you work, when you work, when you take time off...there is incredible independence and freedom.
Now, about the qualities-Ill cut and paste the other question
Moral values or professional values? Ethically: honesty would be the most important by far- Modesty or at least the ability to admit when you are wrong ( so you dont cling to a hypothesis against the data), generosity-this leads to collaborations and sharing of data, which accelerates the process of discovery; kindness, so that you design the experiments with the wellfare of the animal in mind.
As far as the professional values go: Open-mindedness for examining data and coming up with correct conclusions; logical thinking..that;s obvious; intuition, for those many times that verbal and mathamatical thinking fail you; conservation, to design experiments that use the least amount of material, time, and animals (or whatever test material or subject is being employed); sexiness, by this I mean the excitement or current interest level of the public or scientific community, so that you can obtain grants for your research; delayed gratification, because often it takes years to answer the question; patience, both for the time it takes through trial and error, and the training of students in a very difficult and demanding career; judgement, so that you choose the *most* important question to be addressed, and apply the proper proportion of effort; discipline, because the work requires extreme care and attention to detail, you must be able to ignore some very interesting questions so that you can apply them.