Quotes About Genetics

Not only were we diverse in our skin color long before the dispersal from Africa, we were diverse in our skin color before we were our own species.

DNA subtly changes over time via the genetic equivalents of typos—spelling mistakes which slip through due to inaccurate copyediting by the proteins that check the code after it has been replicated.

any action predicated solely on DNA sequence seems to me to be a high-risk endeavor, prone to specious failure.

In the human genome, in total, there are around 3 billion individual letters of DNA. Of the analogies of scale, the one that gets trotted out most frequently is that this is equivalent to some twenty standard-issue phone books, though when I use that in lectures these days most school kids have never seen a phone book.

A zebroid is a zebra with any other equine animal. A ligur is a male lion with a lady tiger. A mule is a jack donkey with a female horse. A hinny is a jenny with a male horse. And a grolar bear is a polar bear with a grizzly. Very rare but presumably utterly terrifying.

For our purposes, if we are to look at the evolution that led to where we are now, instead of the nice neat tree, I think it could reasonably be described as one big million-year clusterfuck. Whenever humans met - Sapiens, Neanderthal, Denisovans - they had sex. What a time to be alive.

The question of our relationship with Neanderthals has been refined with genetics, in terms of our shared ancestors; our lineage moved away from theirs around half a million years ago. But what DNA analysis revealed more categorically than anything else was that we had sex with them, repeatedly, probably as soon as these two peoples met, and every time afterward.

There's no trace of genetic fair skin between those two dates.

crunching. The amount of introgression from Neanderthals is proportionally lower on the modern X than on the rest of the chromosomes. X chromosomes are only passed on by males half of the time because we also have a Y, but all of the time by women, who have two Xs. The observation that there is less Neanderthal DNA on our Xs implies that the first encounters we had with them that resulted in procreation were male Neanderthals with female Homo sapiens.

from the point of view of a geneticist, race does not exist. It has no useful scientific value.

Just as important as what genetics can tell us is what it can't.

Eighty-five percent of human variation, according to the genetic differences in blood groups, was seen in the same racial groups. Of the remaining 15 percent, only 8 percent accounted for differences between one racial group and another.

Ogni incrocio di due esseri di grado diverso dà come prodotto una via di mezzo tra i diversi livelli dei due genitori; starà più su dell'elemento inferiore ma non sarà elevata quanto il superiore

We can now diagnose diseases that haven't even manifested in the patient, and may not until the fifth decade of life - if at all.

In genomics, there's a massive amount of information in which you can look for patterns and develop insights.

People say I look like my father. My son is very much like him.

Many people assume the diseases that kill us are pre-programmed into our genes. High blood pressure by 55, heart attacks at 60, maybe cancer at 70, and so on... But for most of the leading causes of death, our genes usually account for only 10-20 per cent of risk.

There is still this perception in football about whether people are 'English through and through.' Essentially there is not any such thing without going into a whole discussion on genetics and bloodlines of each player.

Life, though, really means a cell membrane. In biology, what defines life is the ability to self-reproduce. And only things with cell membranes can reproduce on their own.

Cancer is caused by mutations. Mutations that pile up until runaway cell division occurs. We have random DNA damage happening in our bodies all the time.

Saying that genetics could be dangerous is like saying fire is hot. Warning that soon everyone will be able to hack the genome is like predicting, back in early caveman days, that soon everyone will have fire.

So in most people, all these intelligence genes add and subtract against each other, to result in, on average, a single IQ point. The intelligence genes do not determine your IQ.

According to an extensive study comparing identical twins to fraternal twins, headed by University of New Mexico's Dr. Philip Dale, only 25% of language acquisition is due to genetic factors.

Science doesn't work by voting. Did people vote on the theory of relativity? No! It's either right or it's wrong. Do we vote on whether genetics is a good theory or not? Of course not.