DNA Excerpt: Reading in Our Genes

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted January 18, 2008 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

From Twilight of the Books by Caleb Crain in The New Yorker:

Taking the long view, it’s not the neglect of reading that has to be explained but the fact that we read at all. “The act of reading is not natural,” Maryanne Wolf writes in “Proust and the Squid” (Harper; $25.95), an account of the history and biology of reading. Humans started reading far too recently for any of our genes to code for it specifically. We can do it only because the brain’s plasticity enables the repurposing of circuitry that originally evolved for other tasks—distinguishing at a glance a garter snake from a haricot vert, say.

Tags: reading, genetics, genes, dna, books

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DNA Quote: Gwyneth Paltrow on “Evil Genes”

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted January 11, 2008 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

Gwyneth Paltrow at a cancer conference in 2007:

I am challenging these evil genes by natural means. I am convinced that by eating biological foods it is possible to avoid tumours.

Rebuttal from Ursula Areans of the British Dietetic Association:

Diet cannot prevent cancer. It is reasonable that the risks of some of them can be reduced with certain diets, but some cancers, alas, show no link to dietary factors.

via The Guardian

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, gwyneth paltrow, cancer

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DNA Quote: Stewart Brand on Genetically Modified Food

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted January 4, 2008 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts, Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms

Good old stuff sucks. Sticking with the fine old whatevers is like wearing 100% cotton in the mountains; it’s just stupid.

Give me 100% not-cotton clothing, genetically modified food (from a farmers’ market, preferably), this-year’s laptop, cutting-edge dentistry and drugs.

~Stewart Brand in response to the Edge 2008 Question - What have you changed your mind about?

Tags: genetics, genes, gm food, genetically modified food, stewart brand, dna

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DNA Quote: May Contain Nuts by John O’Farrell

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted December 14, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

It was the first really hot weekend of the summer, when millions of Londoners are spontaneously drawn by some genetic migration instinct that sees us all jump into the Land Rover and seek out the lush greenery of the natural world that lies beside the garden centre car park.

~May Contain Nuts by John O’Farrell

I can attest to this observation. At the first tiny jump in the thermometer each Spring, Londoners put on their spaghetti strap dresses, tube tops, shorts, flip flops, or even worse, go TOPLESS and swarm the city sidewalks. Letting it all hangout on parade at 20 degrees C.

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, quotes, excerpts, books, john o’farrell, london, summer

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DNA Quote: Keri Russell on Postpartum Weight Loss

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted December 7, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

Actress Keri Russell on getting back to shape after giving birth five months ago:

I would love to say I worked out every day. But it’s truly genetics. You have what you have, and then you work hard or you don’t. And I… It was genetics. And I have to say, breast-feeding, you burn so many calories, and I’m still doing it.

via Celebrity Baby Blog

Tags: keri russell, pregnancy, post partum, genetics, genes, dna

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DNA Quote: Digging to America by Anne Tyler

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted November 30, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

She said, “When I was a girl, how I hated it all! At any of the family parties, I’d be sitting where you are this minute.”

She wondered if there was a gene for that - for holding oneself back, resisting the communal merriment. It had never before occurred to her that she had passed this trait on to Sami.

~From Digging to America by Anne Tyler

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DNA Quote: BF Skinner

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted November 23, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

A person is not an originating agent; he is a locus, a point at which many genetic and environmental conditions come together in a joint effect.

~ BF Skinner, About Behaviorism, New York: Knopf, 1974

Tags: behaviorism, bf skinner, genetics, genes, dna, quote

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Turkey DNA

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted November 22, 2007 in DNA Fun, DNA Quotes and Excerpts, DNA and the Law

No Thanksgiving for us here in London but that doesn’t meant there isn’t turkey. Some people have a few more turkeys than they’re allowed, though. People like Justin Michael Jones who was convicted of wild turkey poaching in the first ever case of its kind using DNA evidence. DNA from five wild turkeys in Jones’s freezer was compared to a wild turkey DNA database established by wildlife geneticist Karen Mock at Utah State University.

And I leave you with an excerpt of an interview with Dr. Jonathan Wells who talks about turkey DNA and dinosaur bones. The interview is from Lee Strobel’s book - The Case for a Creator.

“So these people said they found turkey DNA in a dinosaur bone–and it actually got published in Science magazine! This is just incredible to me! The headline in the magazine said with a straight face: ‘Dinos and Turkeys: Connected by DNA?’”

The last story begged the next question: “How in the world do you explain how turkey DNA got in there?”

Shaking his head, Wells said, “Maybe someone dropped a turkey sandwich in the dig or there was lab contamination.”

NB: Yes, I’m aware that Lee Strobel’s book argues for intelligent design but how can I pass up a story about turkey DNA? We can talk about who’s the turkey here another day.

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, turkey, turkeys, wild turkey

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DNA Quote: Philosopher Olivier Abel

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted November 16, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

Genetics do not tell us everything about an individual. No matter what means are applied, we will never have a complete and definitive idea of who we are. There will always be an element of mystery. Seeking to evacuate this incertitude is running the risk of sliding towards eugenics.

~Olivier Abel, professor of ethical philosophy at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Paris, in an interview with Laurent Grzybowki

Tags: olivier abel, ethical philosophy, genetics, genes, dna, ethics, eugenics

(2 comments)

DNA Quote: The Innocent by Harlan Coben

by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei
Posted November 9, 2007 in DNA Quotes and Excerpts

Who knew why? Sometimes it was, as in Hunter’s case, just a question of bad luck, but then again it’s all about luck, isn’t it? Your upbringing, your genes, your life experience, conditions, whatever - they’re all a crapshoot.

~p. 303, The Innocent by Harlan Coben

Tags: genetics, genes, dna, quotes, harlan coben

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