I can say, if I like, that social insects behave like the working parts of an immense central nervous system: the termite colony is an enormous brain on millions of legs; the individual termite is a mobile neurone.
Lewis ThomasRead
We carry stores of DNA in our nuclei that may have come in, at one time or another, from the fusion of ancestral cells and the linking of ancestral organisms in symbiosis. Our genomes are catalogues of instructions from all kinds of sources in nature, filed for all kinds of contingencies.
Interpretation
Our DNA contains a history of biological connections and adaptations over time.
Lewis Thomas highlights the intricate history embedded in our DNA, suggesting that our genetic material is not solely our own but a record of evolutionary relationships and responses to various environmental challenges. He describes our genomes as a library of instructions that reflect the diverse interactions and symbiotic relationships of our ancestors, emphasizing the complexity of life and the interconnectedness of all living organisms.
In practice
In a biology lecture about genetics and evolution, this quote can illustrate the complexity of our genetic makeup.
I can say, if I like, that social insects behave like the working parts of an immense central nervous system: the termite colony is an enormous brain on millions of legs; the individual termite is a mobile neurone.
I suggest that the introductory courses in science, at all levels from grade school through college, be radically revised. Leave the fundamentals, the so-called basics, aside for a while, and concentrate the attention of all students on the things that are not known.
I maintain, despite the moment's evidence against the claim, that we are born and grow up with a fondness for each other, and we have genes for that. We can be talked out of it, for the genetic message is like a distant music, and some of us are hard-of-hearing. Societies are noisy affairs, drowning out the sound of ourselves and our connection.
Science is founded on uncertainty. Each time we learn something new and surprising, the astonishment comes with the realization that we were wrong before.
It is the very strangeness of nature that makes science engrossing. That ought to be at the center of science teaching. There are more than seven-times-seven types of ambiguity in science, awaiting analysis. The poetry of Wallace Stevens is crystal-clear alongside the genetic code.
In the fields I know best, among the life sciences, it is required that the most expert and sophisticated minds be capable of changing course - often with a great lurch - every few years.
We've been modifying the biological world at the level of DNA for thousands of years. Somehow there is this new fear of what we already have been doing and that fear has limited our ability to provide real solutions.
And now the announcement of Watson and Crick about DNA. This is for me the real proof of the existence of God.
Once you can reproduce a phenomenon, you are well on the way to understanding it.
Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.
Any important disease whose causality is murky, and for which treatment is ineffectual, tends to be awash in significance.
Any difficulties which the world faces today will be as nothing compared to the full effects which global warming will have on the world-wide economy.
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