“If you're looking for your own idea of your own identity you know the human genome may not be the best place to look for it. You're just looking at a bunch of viruses.” IfsKnowsHumansLooksMayIdeasIdentityBunchBeing The BestVirusesBest PlaceGenome Author:Carl Zimmer
“Over millions of years the viruses in our genome mutate more and more so the look less and less and less recognizable as viruses and so if there was a virus that infected our pre mammal ancestors like 250 million years ago, which it probably did, we can't see it because it just looks totally random.” IfsYearsLooksMillionsYears AgoAncestorVirusesMammalsGenome Author:Carl Zimmer
“There is some research that suggests that viruses like the flu are really actually kind of at the razor's edge when it comes to mutation. They're mutating so fast that if they mutated much faster they would actually develop a lot of harmful mutations that could slow them down and cripple them and eventually literally drive them extinct.” IfsKindResearchDown AndEdgesFasterVirusesFluRazorsCripplesMutation Author:Carl Zimmer
“If the world goes crazy for a lovely fossil, that's fine with me. But if that fossil releases some kind of mysterious brain ray that makes people say crazy things and write lazy articles, a serious swarm of flies ends up in my ointment.” PeopleIfsWorldWritingKindEndsBrainCrazySeriousFineLovelyMysteriousReleaseLazyRaysArticlesFossilsSwarmsCrazy Things Author:Carl Zimmer
