Human Genome Project Quotes

• The ever quickening advances of science made possible by the success of the Human Genome Project will also soon let us see the essences of mental disease. Only after we understand them at the genetic level can we rationally seek out appropriate therapies for such illnesses as schizophrenia and bipolar disease.

  James D. Watson

  Essence, Bipolar, Levels

  "Watson retires". Prof. James D. Watson's statement on blacks and whites just before his retirement from the post of Chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, www.theguardian.com. October 25, 2007.

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• Sometimes it is claimed by those who argue that race is just a social construct that the human genome project shows that because people share roughly 99% of their genes in common, that there are no races. This is silly.

  J. Philippe Rushton

  Silly, Race, People

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• We share half our genes with the banana.

  Robert May, Baron May of Oxford

  Science, Half, Bananas

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• The overall view of the human genome project has been one of great excitement and positive press, but there are people who have concerns that are quite reasonable, and they are frightened of things they don't understand.

  Thomas Cech

  Views, People, Excitement

  "Funding above and beyond scientific research". EMBO reports interview, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. September 15, 2001.

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• Recently, results of the Human Genome Project have shattered one of Science's fundamental core beliefs, the concept of genetic determinism. We have been led to believe that our genes determine the character of our lives, yet new research surprisingly reveals that it is the character of our lives that controls our genes. Rather than being victims of our heredity, we are actually masters of our genome.

  Bruce H. Lipton

  Believe, Character, Research

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• As was predicted at the beginning of the Human Genome Project, getting the sequence will be the easy part as only technical issues are involved. The hard part will be finding out what it means, because this poses intellectual problems of how to understand the participation of the genes in the functions of living cells.

  Sydney Brenner

  Mean, Science, Cells

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• We share half our genes with the banana. [After the announcement Jun 2000 that a working draft of the genetic sequence of humans had been completed by the Human Genome Project.]

  Robert May, Baron May of Oxford

  Science, Half, Bananas

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• In all probability the Human Genome Project will, someday, find that I carry some recessive gene for optimism, because despite all my best efforts I still can't scrape together even a couple days of hopelessness. Future scientists will call it the Pollyanna Syndrome, and if forced to guess, I'd say that mine has been a way-long case history of chasing rainbows.

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Couple, Best Effort, Chasing Rainbows

  "Damned". Book by Chuck Palahniuk, 2011.

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• Some software is actually pretty good, by any standard. Think of the Mars Rovers, Google, and the Human Genome Project. Now, that's quality software!

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Thinking, Google, Quality

  Interview with Jason Pontin, www.technologyreview.com. January 1, 2007.

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