Statistically, the probability of any one of us being here is so small that the mere fact of our existence should keep us all in a state of contented dazzlement.
The capacity to blunder slightly is the real marvel of DNA. Without this special attribute, we would still be anaerobic bacteria and there would be no music.
The greatest single achievement of nature to date was surely the invention of the molecule DNA.
Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions. It is time to acknowledge this, perhaps even to learn to do it better.
We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
It is in our genes to understand the universe if we can, to keep trying even if we cannot, and to be enchanted by the act of learning all the way.
The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance
Animals have genes for altruism, and those genes have been selected in the evolution of many creatures because of the advantage they confer for the continuing survival of the species.
All of today’s DNA, strung through all the cells of the earth, is simply an extension and elaboration of [the] first molecule.
Cats – a standing rebuke to behavioural scientists . . . least human of all creatures.
Most things get better by themselves. Most things in fact are better by morning.
Worrying is the most natural and spontaneous of all human functions. It is time to acknowledge this perhaps even to learn to do it better.
Survival, in the cool economics of biology, means simply the persistence of one’s own genes in the generations to follow.
The cloning of humans is on most of the lists of things to worry about from Science, along with behaviour control, genetic engineering, transplanted heads, computer poetry and the unrestrained growth of plastic flowers.
The great secret of doctors, known only to their wives, but still hidden from the public, is that most things get better by themselves; most things, in fact, are better in the morning.