J. Philippe Rushton Quotes

One of the things about genetics that has become clearer as we've done genomes - as we've worked our way through the evolutionary tree, including humans - is that we're probably much more genetic animals than we want to confess we are.

With my background and genetic makeup,buddy, you're lucky I'm as normal as I am. (Katra Agrotera)

Well, it arose out of two long-term concerns - the first being the possibility of genetic manipulation, nature versus nurture, what constitutes how people get to be how they are.

Genes can't possibly explain all of what makes us what we are.

Heritability pertains to the entirety of the genome, not to a single gene.

A few small changes in your DNA can turn your eyes blue, make you lactose intolerant or put some curl in your hair.

Genes don't mean necessarily that you have got a certain strand of gene that makes you particularly acceptable as a public official.

Genes are not destiny!

You know, there's a tremendous amount of genetic propensity not necessarily for what TV shows you like but for literally how you view the world, how you react to things, how things touch you and how things move you.

People think genes are an absolute cause of traits. But the notion that the genome is the blueprint for humanity is a very bad metaphor. If you think we're hard-wired and deterministic, there should indeed be a lot more genes.

Identical twins are ideal lab specimens for studying the difference between learned and inherited traits since they come from the womb preloaded with matching genetic operating systems. Any meaningful differences in their behaviors or personalities are thus likely to have been acquired, not innate.

One of the things that got me interested in genetics was the relationship between genes and environment. We are all dealt a certain deck of cards, but our environment can influence the outcomes.

It's an important point to realize that the genetic programming of our lives is not fully deterministic. It is statistical - it is in any animal merely statistical - not deterministic.

It's interesting: I think, genetically, there are people who need different things, like exercise. I need the exercise, others not so much, and I think more and more, we'll start to understand why people's bodies function in certain ways.

Genes are not about inevitabilities; they're about potentials and vulnerabilities.

Genes are thought to contribute a certain amount to the cause of autism but it's not 100 per cent. It might be about 60 per cent genetic. So there are going to be environmental factors that mediate the impact of autism.

The nice thing about genetics is, I can see my kids doing what I used to do, which is inhaling books like breathing.

Man is the control experiment of heredity and environment; and since his heredity controls him, he tries to control his environment.

I think we all have a slightly gay gene inside us, don't we? It might be 0.00001 per cent as mine is, or one per cent as yours is.

Essentially, I mean the almost self-evident fact that individuals, ethnic groups, and races differ among themselves in intelligence and in many other traits, and that intelligence, as well as less controversial traits of temperament, are in large part hereditary.

Heredity is what sets the parents of a teenager wondering about each other.

Genetics do play a role in how you consciously or subconsciously manifest your true self.

Some people are genetically programmed to be difficult.

Genetics play a huge part in who we are. But we also have free will.

A mutation can create an alternative form of a phenomenon - a phenotype or trait - and we can learn a lot by seeing this alternative state. Once I saw a mouse with no eyelids. It simply had a membrane over the eyes. I found it fascinating that there is a single gene required for eyelids to develop.