Quotes About Genes

Natural selection consists of competition among genes to be represented in the next generation, and the organisms we see today are descendants of those that edged out their rivals in contests for mates, food, and dominance.

All five of the major personality dimensions are heritable, with perhaps 40 to 50 percent of the variation in a typical population tied to differences in their genes.

Falling in love indicated that your genes were complementary to those of the loved one. It told you nothing about when your personalities and sexualities were compatible.

The utility that allowed emotions to persist in the genes of our species may have been the ability to personalize value. Rather than simply detecting risk and avoiding danger, the organism could consider, "How dangerous is this to me?" Other animals can represent value, but only humans can make it personal. In this view, an emotion is the experience that something of value is happening to you. If so, emotions could not exist without autonoesis. No self, no emotion.

When altruistic behavior benefits individuals belonging to another species, it is impossible for the gene to be benefiting some other copy of itself.

Once a genetic component has been established, the search for the genes involved can begin. This is a time-consuming and complex process that has recently been greatly facilitated by the information obtained by the Human Genome Project.51

Heritability in psychiatric disorders typically involves complex inheritance patterns controlled by multiple genes that interact with environmental factors to produce their results.

This has been used with some success in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, which results from the loss of neurons that make dopamine.116 Areas responsible for motor control depend on dopamine, and its absence leads to dysregulation of the associated circuits and results in tremors. In gene therapy for Parkinson's, genes are attached to viruses that are injected into the motor control regions of the basal ganglia and carry the new genes into neurons. The

So on the one hand you can have identical genes leading to very different phenotypes, and on the other you can have dissimilar genes producing exactly the same

the popular conception of the gene as a simple causal agent is not valid. The idea that there is a gene for adventurousness, heart disease, obesity, religiosity, homosexuality, shyness, stupidity, or any other aspect of mind or body has no place on the platform of genetic discourse.

Whether it's through introduction of the right gut bacteria or direct modification of the genes of cows and pigs, I think we're going to have to introduce something like this into our livestock - a way to consume the methane rather than releasing it.

I believe in glamour. I am in favor of a little vanity. I don't rely on just my genes.

Blessed with Mom and Dad's remarkable genes, raised on big words and big, iconoclastic attitudes, Larry and I, before entering kindergarten, knew who we were, what we wanted, and how we would get there.

There are scientists all around the world looking for the genes responsible for bipolar illness and major depression.

We found out that, contrary to what many people thought, in the immune system, genes can change during the life cycle of the individual.

It used to be thought that our genes were historically immutable and that it was not possible to imagine a conversation between culture and genetics.

People's genes can say a great deal about their health. There are genes that reveal an increased likelihood of getting cancer, heart disease or Alzheimer's.

I am aware that I look good for my age. It's my genes. My dad looked incredibly young, so did my mother. And a younger husband helps. Scott is only 45. If he hadn't come along, I don't know what I'd have done.

As I learned more about evolution, I realized that from nature's point of view, you and I ain't such a big deal. Humans are just another species on this planet trying to make a go of it, trying to pass our genes into the future, just like chrysanthemums, muskrats, sea jellies, poison ivy … and bumblebees.

The renowned biologist and thinker E. O. Wilson calls the study of gene-culture coevolution "one of the great unexplored domains of science.

Humpback song has clearly had its effects on human culture—influencing both our music and whaling practices—but what of our interest in whale culture? These discoveries are particularly important for us because there is only one way large numbers of animals can sing the same song that evolves over periods of time that are much less than an individual's lifetime: culture. Genes

Disruption is in my genes. My father owned one of the first discount toy stores, Duane's Toyland, in Albany and Schenectady, near where I grew up. Discount was always a huge disruptor - it disrupted Sears Roebuck.

I learned that the first technology appeared in the form of stone tools, 2.6 million years ago. First entertainment comes evidence from flutes that are 35,000 years old. And evidence for first design comes 75,000 years old - beads. And you can do the same with your genes and track them back in time.

My idea right from the beginning, I guess, was to dismantle the immune system one gene at a time so we could track the mutations that cause problems.