Philip Kitcher Quotes

There's this very interesting and complicated connection between our environment and our genes and the traits that come out of the environment plus genes. And there's huge potential. I mean we see amazing abilities. Marie Curie, Albert Einstein. All sorts of arts, and literature and so forth. These are not typical traits of everybody on earth.

My experiments with single traits all lead to the same result: that from the seeds of hybrids, plants are obtained half of which in turn carry the hybrid trait (Aa), the other half, however, receive the parental traits A and a in equal amounts. Thus, on the average, among four plants two have the hybrid trait Aa, one the parental trait A, and the other the parental trait a. Therefore, 2Aa+ A +a or A + 2Aa + a is the empirical simple series for two differing traits.

The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.

Genes are like the story, and DNA is the language that the story is written in.

Whereas recessive traits require two bad copies of a gene to become noticeable, a dominant trait expresses itself no matter what the other copy does. A benign example of dominance: If you inherit one gene for sticky wet earwax and one gene for dry earwax, the sticky earwax gene wins out every time.

If A denotes one of the two constant traits, for example, the dominating one, a the recessive, and the Aa the hybrid form in which both are united, then the expression: gives the series for the progeny of plants hybrid in a pair of differing traits.

Genes themselves are made of bits.

Genetics is about how information is stored and transmitted between generations.

Nuclear DNA encodes all the proteins and enzymes that make you you, basically.

Your genome isn't really secret.

Every cell in your body contains the same genetic information.

If you want to stay young-looking, pick your parents very carefully.

My genetics are good, but they aren't crazy He-Man style.

Heredity is nothing but stored environment.

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

Genetics is all about showcasing human beauty along with high-quality performance.

I have my father to thank for my build and height, and my mother to thank for my lips and eyes.

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.

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

Each race (or variety) is characterized by a more or less distinct combination of inherited morphological, behavioral, physiological traits.

TIVO was a big shift in how people watched TV, but everyone understood the concept of TV. No one really understands the concept of, well why would I want my genetic information?

Just as we have addressed discrimination based on race, gender, and age, we must now prevent discrimination based on genetic information.

… the policy of genes

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about genetic information and what you can and cannot learn.

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.