We are on the verge of being able to genetically engineer our own future. ibid.
My name is Robert Clarke Graham. And I had a dream. To single-handedly save the human race one child at a time. In the 1970s I secretly set up the world’s first genius sperm bank. Dr Robert Clarke Graham, Horizon: The Genius Sperm Bank, BBC 2006
We were trying to have outstanding genes, and Nobel Prize winners possessed them. ibid.
We are favouring the possibility of making geniuses. ibid.
This is germinal choice. ibid.
What we are doing is exploring the possibility of genetics. ibid.
We are on the brink of uncovering a hidden world. A world that connects past and future generations in ways we never imagined possible ... The science of inheritance is being turned on its head. Horizon: The Ghost in Your Genes, BBC 2005
Marcus Pembrey is one of a select band of scientists. A band of scientists who are daring to challenge orthodoxy. They believe the lives of our parents, grandparents and even our great-grandparents can directly affect our well-being. Despite never experiencing any of these things ourselves. To many these ideas are regarded as scientific heresy. ibid.
Thirty thousand genes didn’t appear enough to explain human complexity. There had to be something they’d missed. The first hints of what was missing lay in the curious paradox of the Pradavillae and Angelman’s syndromes: two quite different diseases caused by exactly the same genetic fault. ibid.
Something other than just the DNA was capable of moving between the generations. It was a tantalising glimpse into this unknown and unexpected world. A hidden layer acting on and directly able to control how our genes function. ibid.
If they find the same stress effect in the children’s children on 9/11, then it will be clear that a general memory of a stressful event can travel through the generations. ibid.
Environmental information was being imprinted on the egg and the sperm at the time of their formation. ibid.
The work of these scientists is at last throwing a spotlight on to the mysterious hidden world of epigenetics. They appear to show that the lives of our ancestors have a capacity to affect us directly. ibid.
Picture a world where cancer is cured with a packet of pills. Where a single injection treats heart disease, Alzheimer’s or Diabetes. This was the future that was imagined ten years ago when it was announced that a draft of the Human Genome had been sequenced. Scientists had cracked our genetic code. And had mapped the billions of letters in our DNA. They hoped that this breakthrough would usher in a new age of medicine. Horizon: Miracle Cure? A Decade of the Human Genome, BBC 2010
Taken together this is our genome: it’s made of just 4 chemicals, or letters – 3.2 billion of them. Mistakes in the order of these letters can lead to illness. ibid.
Ten years ago scientists were surprised by how few genes they discovered in our DNA. But it quickly became clear that fewer did not mean less complicated. It was the activity level of genes and how they worked together that scientists had to understand. ibid.
Scientists have learnt from studies of identical twins and of adoption cases that around half of what makes people alcoholic is genetic, and around half is their environment. ibid.
Lungs are particularly resistant to gene therapy. These have a large surface area to be targeted, and have also evolved to keep out unknown particles. ibid.
After a decade of intensive research a new order of medicine is entering the final stage of trails. That of genetically targeted medicine. So-called personalised medicine. For cancer patients targeted drugs hold the promise of being more effective. ibid.
We like to believe we are in control of everything we think and everything we do. But scientists are discovering that at every moment of our lives an unseen presence is guiding us all. Now, they are exploring the world of your unconscious mind. Horizon: Out of Control? BBC 2012
There’s more going on than you can consciously take in. ibid.
Your unconscious is often in control. ibid.
A rose-tinted and inaccurate view of the world. ibid.
Your unconscious mind will re-wire itself to share the load. ibid.
The sophisticated centre of everything we ever do. ibid.
No specific genes for intelligence have yet been identified. What Makes Us Clever? A Horizon Guide to Intelligence, BBC 2011
Today Professor Phil Beales is mining a new human data set: the three billion bits of genetic information that make up the human genome. Horizon - The Age of Big Data, BBC 2013
Believe it or not, they are identical twins: ‘We share the same genes, but we also share the same disease (Neurofibromatosis 1 – Nf1) but it affects us in very different ways.’ Horizon: My Amazing Twin, BBC 2016
‘I have a facial disfigurement; Neil has short-term memory loss.’ ibid.
Genetic diseases can affect us very differently depending on where we live. ibid.
Gene therapy will transform medicine. Horizon: Ten Things You Need to Know About the Future, BBC 2017
The switches then turn on or off the genes that do make the beak. Armand Marie Leroi, What Darwin Never Knew, BBC 2009
Just a 1% difference in the DNA between humans and chimps ... Some thirty million of DNA’s chemical letters: As Ts Cs and Gs. ibid.
Many of the differences were not in genes but in switches. ibid.
We now know that DNA works in many different ways: through genes that make the stuff of our bodies, through switches that turn those genes on and off, and through sequences of DNA’s chemicals that throw those switches. ibid.
One of the main tenets of ancient astronaut theory suggests that a long time ago extraterrestrials changed our genetic make-up through a targeted mutation of our genes essentially in the lab. Giorgio A Tsoukalos
A long long time ago extraterrestrials came here and through a targeted mutation of our genes we became human. Giorgio Tsoukalos
He’s got that putrid, rotten, fucking Soprano gene. The Sopranos s3e13: Army of One starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, Tony, HBO 2001
You have the gene. The crazy gene. Star Trek: Voyager s5e19: The Fight, Doctor to Chakotay
Beings have invaded planet Earth many many times. All over the United States ancient oral traditions of sky-gods or aliens persist. At conferences organised by American shamans legends of aliens who gave mankind knowledge of genetics are spoken about openly ... Shaman elders speak of beings from the stars called the Bak’Ti who invaded planet Earth before dinosaurs existed. Chris Everard, Secret Space II
The Ohio Serpent Mound is a symbolic representation of sperm fertilising an egg in the womb ... Who gave shamans knowledge of genetics centuries ago? ibid.
According to Shaman legends the ancient Bak’Ti genetically manipulated animals and created mankind. The Bak’Ti aliens told early man that they were here to control the development of civilisation and that there were many other aliens who wanted to invade planet Earth. According to American shamans the Bak’Ti aliens have been known both as gods and devils throughout the evolution of man. ibid.
Shamans teach that the Bak’Ti were gods of the stars who have often destroyed evidence of man’s real history in order to keep mankind ignorant and controllable. The oral traditions of the North American Indians teach us that the Bak’Ti star-gods eventually lost control of planet Earth to another race of aliens who were vicious reptiles with faces of dragons. ibid
Addiction is a psychological problem, first of all ... There is no gene for alcoholism. Dr Lance Dodes, Harvard Medical School, author The Heart of Addiction
How to pass on their genes to the next generation ... the solutions are amazingly varied. David Attenborough, The Trials of Life XII: Continuing The Line, BBC 1990
A whole new branch of science – molecular genetics. 60 Years in the Wild II: Understanding The Natural World, BBC 2012