Quotes for All
Paleontologists had long been aware of a seeming contradiction between Darwin’s postulate of gradualism, confirmed by the work of population genetics, and the actual findings of paleontology. Following phyletic lines through time seemed to reveal only minimal gradual changes but no clear evidence for any change of a species into a different genus or for … Read more
In the course of individual development, inherited characters appear, in general, earlier than adaptive ones, and the earlier a certain character appears in ontogeny, the further back must lie in time when it was acquired by its ancestors. Ernst Haeckel
The nucleus has to take care of the inheritance of the heritable characters, while the surrounding cytoplasm is concerned with accommodation or adaptation to the environment. Ernst Haeckel
The genetics of autism are real, but there are also environmental triggers. Elizabeth Emken
We are compelled to drive toward total knowledge, right down to the levels of the neuron and the gene. When we have progressed enough to explain ourselves in these mechanistic terms…the result might be hard to accept. E. O. Wilson
No species … possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by genetic history … The human mind is a device for survival and reproduction, and reason is just one of its various techniques. E. O. Wilson
Humanity is a biological species, living in a biological environment, because like all species, we are exquisitely adapted in everything: from our behavior, to our genetics, to our physiology, to that particular environment in which we live. The earth is our home. Unless we preserve the rest of life, as a sacred duty, we will … Read more
It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. Francis Crick
The problem [with genetic research] is, we’re just starting down this path, feeling our way in the dark. We have a small lantern in the form of a gene, but the lantern doesn’t penetrate more than a couple of hundred feet. We don’t know whether we’re going to encounter chasms, rock walls or mountain ranges … Read more
A lot of people think PMI is the genome project 2.0. No. This is about all the influences on disease – genetics is in there, but the environment is in there as well, health choices, behaviors, all the factors that are important, otherwise we’re not doing what we promised we would do – which is … Read more