Quotes About Genes

No matter how civilized we are and how much society has curbed violent behavior. Human beings still have the same genes they had 10,000 years ago. Our bodies are designed to have a certain amount of physical stress and violence in them. We're designed to run from jaguars and fight to defend our territory.

What does gene A do? What does gene B do? What does it do in different contexts? What's its importance? We know the answer to that for a very small number of genes, the ones that made themselves evident many years ago.

Scientists have found the gene for shyness. They would have found it years ago, but it was hiding behind a couple of other genes.

Yes, genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology, etc., etc. But the regulation of genes is often more interesting than the genes themselves, and it's the environment that regulates genes.

People ask me why it is that when I portray the 'angry young man' on screen, I really look angry. They reason that it is due to some suppression in my childhood. But, it's just that I can't help it; it's in my genes.

I've been thinking about disowning some of my genes lately. I have a few healthy, happy, long-living optimists in my family tree - most of them fans of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, a major champion of positive thinking. But I've got plenty of ancestors who played out more tortured hands.

Charles Darwin and I and you broke off from the family tree from chimpanzees about five million years ago. They're still our closest genetic kin. We share 98.8 percent of the genes. We share more genes with them than zebras do with horses. And we're also their closest cousin. They have more genetic relation to us than to gorillas.

We don't get to pick the genes we want. There's room in this world for beauty to be diverse.

However precise the results offered by paternity testers, the truth was recognized by societies that flourished long before they appeared: that fatherhood means more than genes alone.

All human beings are, in fact, born with dozens of mutations their parents lacked, and a few of those mutations could well be lethal if we didn't have two copies of every gene, so one can pick up the slack if the other malfunctions.

Imagine that: If you could change one of the genes in an experiment, an aging gene, maybe you could slow down aging and extend lifespan.

In the past, geneticists have looked at so-called disease genes, but a lot of people have changes in their genes and don't get these diseases. There have to be other parts of physiology and genetics that compensate.

Each of the genes of the human body is spelled out explicitly in this dictionary, but what each does is still largely a mystery.

Safeguards already exist against the release of such a dangerous virus, but steps must be taken to further strengthen them and add new layers of security. In particular, if a new virus suddenly erupts in some distant place on Earth, scientists must strengthen rapid-response teams that can isolate the virus in the wild, sequence its genes, and then quickly prepare a vaccine to prevent its spread.

Is everything we do determined by the cause-and-effect chain of genes, environment, and the cells that make up our brain, or can we freely form intentions that influence our actions in the world?

Biology isn't just genes playing out some unalterable script. It is sensitive to the world around it

Just like a single cell, the character of our lives is determined not by our genes but by our responses to the environmental signals that

Just like a single cell, the character of our lives is determined not by our genes but by our responses to the environmental signals that propel life.

The roots of tyranny and freedom trace back to long before recorded history, and are etched in our genes.

Identity lies not in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells.

We are built to pursue happiness as a tool to replicate our genes.

Growth is kinda built into everyone's genes. It's built into management's genes, the salesman's genes, the investors' desires. People expect companies to grow.

Basque and Celt. Criminals and barbarians. I didn't think there could be a more primitive pairing of genes.

People talk about heredity as if it's linear and vertical. Dead people pass things "down" to the young.