Quotes About Biology

I think by and large, humans prefer to think of themselves as minds from the neck up. We don't really like to think of ourselves as another animal, another digesting, excreting, mating, snoring, sleeping kind of sack of guts. I don't think we like that. I think we'd rather not be reminded of it.

The biggest organism on earth is not a whale or a tree but a mushroom—a honey fungus in Oregon that is 2.4 miles wide.) Stamets contends that these mycelial networks are in some sense

Artificial selection has become a much more important chapter in natural history as it has moved into the space once ruled exclusively by natural selection.

The adult human brain accounts for 2 percent of our body weight but consumes 18 percent of our energy, all of which must come from a carbohydrate.

The classic example from biology is the huge, towerlike structure that is built by some ant and termite species. These structures only emerge when the ant colony reaches a certain size (more is different) and could never be predicted by studying the behavior of single insects in small colonies.

some types of neurons may be found only in specific species.

Ahora puedo resumir veinticinco años de investigación de este modo: «Me he dado cuenta de que los seres humanos somos mamíferos. Todos los mamíferos se esconden o se aíslan para dar a luz. Necesitan intimidad. A los humanos les sucede lo mismo. Hay que tener constantemente presente esta necesidad de intimidad».

My fundamental premise about the brain is that its workings—what we sometimes call "mind"—are a consequence of its anatomy and physiology, and nothing more. —CARL SAGAN

It is remarkable that a gigantic, city-size computer is required to simulate a piece of human tissue that weighs three pounds, fits inside your skull, raises your body temperature by only a few degrees, uses twenty watts of power, and needs only a few hamburgers to keep it going.

However, animals apparently dream differently than we do. In the dolphin, for example, only one hemisphere at a time sleeps in order to prevent drowning, because they are air-breathing mammals, not fish. So if they dream, it is probably in only one hemisphere at a time.)

Atomic machines are actually found in nature. Cells can swim freely in water because they can wiggle tiny hairs. But when one analyzes the joint between the hair and the cell, one sees that it is actually an atomic machine that allows the hair to move in all directions. So one key to developing nanotechnology is to copy nature, which mastered the art of atomic machines billions of years ago.)

The brain, like it or not, is a machine. Scientists have come to that conclusion, not because they are mechanistic killjoys, but because they have amassed evidence that every aspect of consciousness can be tied to the brain. —STEVEN PINKER

When bathed in telomerase, skin cells divide indefinitely, far beyond the Hayflick limit. ..... But it should be pointed out that telomerase has to be regulated very carefully, because cancer cells are also immortal and they use telomerase to attain that immortality.

There are an estimated 100 billion neurons residing inside the skull with an exponential amount of neural connections

Social animals, on the other hand, are more intelligent than those with just a reptilian brain.

The fruit fly has roughly 150,000 neurons in the brain.

Likewise, even life on Earth seems to violate the second law, because it takes just nine months to convert hamburgers and french fries into a baby, which truly is a miracle.

The most ancient part of our brain is at the very back, where balance, territoriality, and instincts are processed. The brain expanded in the forward direction and developed the limbic system, the monkey brain of emotions, located in the center of the brain. This progression from the back to the front is also the way a child's brain matures.

Of these, one and only one method has proven to extend the life span of animals, sometimes even doubling it. It is caloric restriction, or severely limiting the intake of calories in an animal's diet.

On average, animals that eat 30 percent fewer calories live 30 percent longer. This has been amply demonstrated with yeast cells, worms, insects, mice and rats, dogs and cats, and now primates. In fact, it is the only method that is universally accepted by scientists to alter the life span of all animals that have been tested so far.

According to him, microscopic robots, or nanobots, will circulate in our blood and "destroy pathogens, correct DNA errors, eliminate toxins, and perform many other tasks to enhance our physical well-being.

Ihmiskunta on lehmien loinen samalla tavoin kuin lapamato on ihmisen loinen. Ihmiskunta on imeytynyt lehmien utareisiin iilimadon tavoin. Ihminen on lehmän loinen, niin luultavasti määrittelisi ihmisen eläinopissa ei-ihminen.

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?

Indeed, if "biology is chemistry with history," as somebody has said, then nature writing is biology with love.