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A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, a mere heart of stone. —Charles Darwin
“Well, phenotypic basically means the code in our DNA that makes us. Plasticity applies to how it can have variability.
The trouble is we expect the emote part of emotion. Humans are social primates, and our experiences have to be externalized to be acknowledged by others.
When Dad was alive, the world was filled with color. Afterward, color only existed as a number on a list of hues. Everything felt muted.
A mistake we make too often in science is thinking that having a name for something is the same as understanding it. A skeleton in a museum or a drop of blood can only give you part of the picture. Juniper’s blood is just that—one pixel of the image.
It’s comforting to blame the misfortune of others on their own actions. It’s also wrong.
A scientist is someone trying to see order in chaos. Sometimes it simply can’t be done, as science tells us via quantum mechanics and chaos theory. A thing can be one way or the other without any means to predict why it is so.
The mtDNA of you and all of your maternal cousins is effectively the same.
Systems can go laterally through space. Others move linearly through time.
In my field, a graph can be just as illuminating as an actual animal or its DNA. Sometimes more so, because it can tell you how it lived and not just the color of its pelt or the arrangement of its genes. Sometimes less so, because a graph can be misleading. Too many unrelated data points leave you looking at chaos.
Sharks also have a specialized organ called the ampulla of Lorenzini that enables them to sense the electrical activity of hiding prey and see through the blood in the water during a feeding frenzy.
“This is killing. Murder is what you’re interested in.” “What’s the difference?” “Killing is a solution to a problem. Murder is something you do because you want to. You divorce your wife because you don’t love her. You murder her because you hate her.”
In my solitude I have pondered much on the incomprehensible subjects of space, eternity, life and death. —Alfred Russel Wallace
A moment ago I was despondent, ready to let Joe end me. Now . . . fuck that. I’m a GODDAMN LOCOMOTIVE READY TO TEAR THROUGH HIM. Some part of me is saying that this is the drugs talking. FUCK THAT NOISE. I’M GOING TO RIP HIM TO PIECES.
Then I remember that I’m a scientist. AND I JUST INJECTED MY BODY WITH A LOT OF POWERFUL SHIT THAT’S GOING TO KILL ME. BUT FOR ONE BRIEF MOMENT . . . I’M A DEMON-POWERED SOLDIER OF VENGEANCE.
