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Quote by Jerry A. Coyne

“[...] if truth be told, evolution hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits. Yes, bacteria evolve drug resistance, and yes, we must take countermeasures, but beyond that there is not much to say. Evolution cannot help us predict what new vaccines to manufacture because microbes evolve unpredictably. But hasn’t evolution helped guide animal and plant breeding? Not very much. Most improvement in crop plants and animals occurred long before we knew anything about evolution, and came about by people following the genetic principle of ‘like begets like’. Even now, as its practitioners admit, the field of quantitative genetics has been of little value in helping improve varieties. Future advances will almost certainly come from transgenics, which is not based on evolution at all. [review of The Evolving World: Evolution in Everyday Life, Nature 442, 983-984 (31 August 2006)]”

Quote by Jerry A. Coyne

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Jerry A. Coyne
Jerry A. Coyne

Jerry A. Coyne is a renowned evolutionary biologist and writer, born on December 30, 1949. He is a professor at the University of Chicago, focusing on evolutionary biology and genetics. Coyne is known for his in-depth research on evolutionary theory and his contributions to science popularization. more

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