Quotes About Biology

In any complex organism, brain formation and function must be controlled in part by genes.

Type a few lines of code, you create an organism.

There's nothing like evolution for engineering beautiful organisms.

What I was concerned with was life: what are the major features that are common to all living organisms that subtly define life. So I looked at the whole problem as a chemist, as a biochemist, and as a molecular biologist.

Algae are such basic, simple organisms.

It's insanely difficult for people to accept the extent to which we are biological organisms without agency.

Jumping genes are fundamental because they're agents of change. Everybody knows that organisms evolve. What makes them evolve is that their genes are dynamic and in motion. A familiar example is the stripe-y corn - called Indian corn - that you buy in the fall.

If you look at the ecological circuitry of this planet, the ways in which materials like carbon or sulfur or phosphorous or nitrogen get cycled in ways that makes them available for our biology, the organisms that do the heavy lifting are bacteria.

Most organisms have loads of junk DNA - less pejoratively, noncoding DNA - cluttering their cells.

What I'm very concerned about is how do we bolster our self-awareness as humans, as biological organisms?

From spending my decades thinking about behavior and the biological influences on it, I'm convinced by now free will is what we call the biology that hasn't been discovered yet. It's just another way of stating that we're biological organisms determined by the physical laws of the universe.

The brain is the most complicated organ in the universe. We have learned a lot about other human organs. We know how the heart pumps and how the kidney does what it does. To a certain degree, we have read the letters of the human genome. But the brain has 100 billion neurons. Each one of those has about 10,000 connections.

There are certain mutations you can find across cancers in different organs.

One of the great issues in biology is the origin of altruism - of why you would do something for someone else that could hurt you - and Darwin posited that it might be rooted in maternal instinct, in sacrificing yourself for your children.

A chicken grows up in a little less time than an ostrich. An ostrich takes a whole year. A chicken takes a few months.

The logical outcome of evolution is that it makes monsters. We turn into monsters because evolution takes away everything that makes us human in the sense of our moral accountability, our moral absolutes, and our idea of being distinct from the animal kingdom.

I liked natural history. I liked the outdoors. And I found the sea quite interesting.

If you look at most of the Royal Houses in Europe, the inbreeding was pretty outstanding.

The only difference between men and women in science is that the women have the babies. This makes it more difficult for women in science but should not be seen as a barrier, for it is merely another challenge to be overcome.

I graduated in biology by overcoming an incredibly impossible science workload in college. The knowledge does nothing for me, but knowing I achieved that makes me feel like I can achieve anything because those science classes in biology are just impossible.

Do codons overlap? In other words, as we read along the genetic message do we find a base which is a member of two or more codons? It now seems fairly certain that codons do not overlap.

It is during fertility that a female loses herself and enters that cloud overly rich in estrogen.

I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will.

Now I understand why some species eat their young.