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Quote by E. O. Wilson

“No species ... possesses a purpose beyond the imperatives created by genetic history ... The human mind is a device for survival and reproduction, and reason is just one of its various techniques.”

Quote by E. O. Wilson

Author

E. O. Wilson is a renowned American biologist, born on June 10, 1929. He has made significant contributions to the fields of entomology, sociobiology, and anthropology. Best known for his research on ants, he is often referred to as the 'father of ants'. His book 'Sociobiology: The New Science' had a profound impact on both biology and the social sciences. more

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“The fundamental problem in the origin of species is not the origin of differences in appearance, since these arise at the level of the geographical race, but the origin of genetic segregation. The test of species-formation is whether, when two forms meet, they interbreed and merge, or whether they keep distinct.”

Two Problem Form Science Differences Levels Race Tests Fundamentals Species Appearance Arise Segregation Formation Genetics Origin Of Species

Book:Darwin's Finches

Source: Darwin's Finches

“The nucleus has to take care of the inheritance of the heritable characters, while the surrounding cytoplasm is concerned with accommodation or adaptation to the environment.”

Character Care Environment Concerned Take Care Adaptation Inheritance Genetics Nucleus Accommodations

Author:Ernst Haeckel

“The problem [with genetic research] is, we're just starting down this path, feeling our way in the dark. We have a small lantern in the form of a gene, but the lantern doesn't penetrate more than a couple of hundred feet. We don't know whether we're going to encounter chasms, rock walls or mountain ranges along the way. We don't even know how long the path is.”

“We are compelled to drive toward total knowledge, right down to the levels of the neuron and the gene. When we have progressed enough to explain ourselves in these mechanistic terms...the result might be hard to accept.”

Hard Enough Might Science Term Levels Results Accepting Knowledge Genes Compelled Genetics Neurons

Author:E. O. Wilson

“We may consequently state the fundamental theorem of Natural Selection in the form: The rate of increase in fitness of any organism at any time is equal to its genetic variance in fitness at that time.”

May States Form Natural Equal Increase Fundamentals Rate Organisms Selection Genetics Natural Selection Theorems Variance

Author:Ronald Fisher

“What politicians do not understand is that [Ian] Wilmut discovered not so much a technical trick as a new law of nature. We now know that an adult mammalian cell can fire up all the dormant genetic instructions that shut down as it divides and specializes and ages, and thus can become a source of new life. You can outlaw technique; you cannot repeal biology. Writing after Wilmut's successful cloning of the sheep, Dolly, that research on the cloning of human beings cannot be suppressed.”

“Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.”

Men God Crazy Dozen

Author:Michel de Montaigne

“On tue un homme, on est un assassin. On tue des millions d'hommes, on est un conquérant. On les tue tous, on est un dieu. Kill a man, and you are an assassin. Kill millions of men and you are a conqueror. Kill everyone, and you are a god.”

Men God Millions Conqueror Assassins Rant

Author:Jean Rostand

“A persistent and age-old instinct makes us want to wander Into regions yet untrod And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God.”

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Author:Willis R. Whitney

“A single swallow, it is said, devours ten millions of insects every year. The supplying of these insects I take to be a signal instance of the Creator's bounty in providing for the lives of His creatures.”

Years Said God Millions Ten Creatures Creator Instance Providing Signals Insects Bounty

Book:The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World