Morteza Karami

“But in the years that followed, science journalists the world over began expressing their disappointment in the contribution that knowledge of our complete DNA sequence had made to medicine. Although decoding our own instruction book is an irrefutable achievement that has made a difference to treatments for several important illnesses, it has not revealed as much as we expected about the causes of many common diseases. Searching for genetic differences in common to people with a particular disease did not throw up straightforward links for as many conditions as had been expected. Often, conditions were weakly linked to tens or hundreds of gene variants, but rarely was it the case that possessing a given gene variant would lead directly to a given disease.”
― Alanna Collen, 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness

“Who cared about or enjoyed learning when our whole being was at stake every time she gave us a test or called on us in class?”
― Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success

“If the nature-over-nurture idea that your personality is not your own hard-earned creation but a product of your genes makes you feel uneasy, how about the concept of a personality composed by the bacteria living in your gut? Mice without gut microbes are antisocial, preferring to spend time alone rather than with other mice. Whereas a mouse with a normal microbiota will choose to meet and greet any new mice added to its cage, germ-free mice stick with mice they already know. Simply having gut microbes seems to make them more friendly. Beyond friendship, it’s possible that your microbiota may even affect who you are attracted to.”
― Alanna Collen, 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness

“If your microbes are working on your behalf to extract energy from your food, it is your particular community of microbes that determines how many calories you get from what you eat, not a standard conversion table.”
― Alanna Collen, 10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness