Lewis D. Eigen Quotes

There are no shortcuts in evolution.

With evolution, things are always changing, so I sort of think: Should we all be growing three heads?

Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science - in all of biology.

Evolution - evolutionary change - does not happen quickly.

The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is - a change from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity, accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.

What humans can't engineer, evolution can.

Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.

The fuel for evolution is diversity, with natural selection leading to continuous adaptations and improvements in Nature's handiwork.

Evolution is all about looking forward.

We share deep admiration for evolution, a force of Nature that has led to the finest chemistry of all time, and to all living things on this planet.

Your creatures can come into being only, like shoot from stem, as part of an endlessly renewed process of evolution.

Natural selection certainly operates. It explains how bacteria will gain antibiotic resistance; it will explain how insects get insecticide resistance, but it doesn't explain how you get bacteria or insects in the first place.

As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification.

Evolution is one of the two or three most primally fascinating subjects in all the sciences.

The study of evolution is an evolution in itself.

Chance alone is at the source of all novelty, all creation in the biosphere.

The idea that you would affect evolution is a very profound thing.

Life is a process of evolution.

Biology is the science. Evolution is the concept that makes biology unique.

Natural selection is not evolution.

Evolution is fascinating to watch. To me it is the most interesting when one can observe the evolution of a single man.

As Darwin himself was at pains to point out, natural selection is all about differential survival within species, not between them.

You can't even begin to understand biology, you can't understand life, unless you understand what it's all there for, how it arose - and that means evolution.

The laws of nature are structured so that we grow and change, and get to experience the full spectrum of biological existence.

I remember my first lecture on my first day in evolutionary biology, how populations and species change. I sat thinking, 'Why doesn't everyone know this?' I look back on it almost in horror: I came so close to not knowing how exciting our world is.