DNA Quotes

“There is perhaps no more heartening proof of the role of environment in human intelligence than the Flynn effect, the worldwide phenomenon of upwardly trending IQ, named for the New Zealand psychologist who first described it. Since the early years of the twentieth century, gains have ranged between nine and twenty points per generation in the United States, Britain, and other industrialized nations for which reliable data-sets are available. With our knowledge of evolutionary processes, we can be sure of one thing: we are not seeing wholesale genetic change in the global population. No, these changes must be recognized as largely the fruits of improvement in overall standards both of education and of health and nutrition. Other factors as yet not understood doubtless play a role, but the Flynn effect serves nicely to make the point that even a trait whose variation is largely determined by genetic differences is in the end significantly malleable. We are not mere puppets upon whose strings our genes alone tug.”
― James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life, Fully Revised and Updated

“Desde el momento en el que el primero de nuestros antepasados convirtió un palo en una lanza, las consecuencias de los conflictos a lo largo de la historia han sido impuestas por la tecnologia.”
― James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life

“Yo tengo la intuición de que los humanos somos sencillamente grandes simios con unos cuantos interruptores genéticos exclusivos -y especiales-.”
― James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life

“...en realidad lo que ha moldeado la historia de la humanidad, al menos a nivel genético, ha sido esa migración femenina realizada paso a paso, de pueblo en pueblo.”
― James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life

“En la actual polémica, mientras nuestra sociedad se detiene en una ignorancia mojigata, haríamos bien en recordar lo mucho que hay en juego: la salud de los hambrientos y la conservación de nuestro legado más precioso, el medio ambiente.”
― James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life