Genome Quotes

I'm fascinated by the idea that genetics is digital. A gene is a long sequence of coded letters, like computer information. Modern biology is becoming very much a branch of information technology.

The chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans.

When I read about genetics, I see breakthroughs every day. And while I'm trying to learn more about behavioral science, I must say that I don't feel I get tremendous intellectual stimulation from most of the things I read.

Human experience depends on everything that can influence states of the human brain, ranging from changes in our genome to changes in the global economy.

Billions of dollars have been put into genetic research.

So that's when I saw the DNA model for the first time, in the Cavendish, and that's when I saw that this was it. And in a flash you just knew that this was very fundamental.

Decoding the human genome is the most significant undertaking that we have mounted so far in an organized way in all of science. I believe that reading our blueprints, cataloguing our own instruction book, will be judged by history as more significant than even splitting the atom or going to the moon.

We are all 99.9 percent genetically equal. It is one one-hundredth of one percent of genetic material that makes the difference between any one of us.

The genome could be thought of as a kind of piano with twenty-five thousand keys. In some cases, a few keys may be out of tune, which can cause the music to sound wrong. In others, if one key goes dead the music turns into a cacophony, or the whole piano self-destructs.

Our understanding of how DNA informs our health and development is advancing at an incredible pace.

I think genetic research is a fascinating and fertile area.

… we think once we do activate a genome, that yes, it probably will impact people’s thinking about life.

Fractals, the theory of relativity, the genome: these are magnificently beautiful constructs.

I have this idea of trying to catalog all the genes on the planet.

Though social eugenics was discredited long ago, we still often think of the genome in quasi-eugenic terms. When we read about the latest discovery of a link between a gene and a disease, we imagine that we've learned the cause of the disease, and we may even think we'll get a cure by fixing the gene.

Knowing what your parents have gives you hints of things, but your genome is a totally unique combination of and interchange of DNA from your parents. There is no one else like you genetically.

According to physical measurements, DNA chains are, on the average, 10,000 units long.

Biology is the most powerful technology ever created. DNA is software, protein are hardware, cells are factories.

When I discover something about the human genome, I experience a sense of awe at the mystery of life, and say to myself, 'Wow, only God knew before.' It is a profoundly beautiful and moving sensation, which helps me appreciate God and makes science even more rewarding for me.

We have discovered the secret of life.

Genes are natural resources.

My genetic makeup is a little bit crazy.

We have discovered over 95 percent of all the genes that have been discovered by science off the deck of my sailboat.

It's terrifying the way molecular biology has become more and more jargon ridden. But I strongly believe that my book can be read by the intelligent layman. I want everyone who bought a copy of 'A Brief History of Time' to buy a copy of 'Genome'.

You contain a trillion copies of a large, textual document written in a highly accurate, digital code, each copy as voluminous as a substantial book. I'm talking, of course, of the DNA in your cells.