The discipline of biology will not only survive but prosper if it turns out that genetic information really is the product of pre-existing intelligence. Biologists will have to give up their dogmatic materialism and discard unproductive hypotheses like the prebiotic soup, but to abandon bad ideas is a gain, not a loss. Freed of the metaphysical chains that tie it to nineteenth-century materialism, biology can turn to the fascinating task of discovering how the intelligence embodied in the genetic information works through matter to make the organism function. In that case chemical evolution will go the way of alchemy – abandoned because a better understanding of the problem revealed its futility – and science will have reached a new plateau. Phillip E Johnson, Reason in the Balance
The new technology of gene mapping gave technologists a feeling of power and confidence. They became convinced that they would find the cause of cancer. They would open up the cells and isolate the cancer genes. Adam Curtis, The Way of All Flesh, BBC 1997
Bill Hamilton: Genes were not like people; they were like machines, tiny calculating engines, that could work out the mathematical best outcome. And that explained altruism. Adam Curtis, All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace III: The Monkey in the Machine and the Machine in the Monkey, BBC 2011
Our planet is bursting with life ... Every single thing that has ever existed on earth has one thing in common: and it’s this: DNA ... This stuff is the most ingenious code in the universe ... And what an amazing story we’ve uncovered. Dr Adam Rutherford, The Gene Code: The Book of Life, BBC 2011
Complex cells like the ones we’re made of suddenly appeared. ibid.
For the first billion years or so life on Earth consisted entirely of simple single cells like bacteria and archaea. Then about two billion years ago more complex cells appeared. ibid.
Mitochondria: the host now had the power to become bigger. ibid.
We can see about two hundred genes scattered around my chromosomes that ... originally came from archaea ... We found short stretches of DNA that are uncannily similar to bacteria. ibid.
Back to our wormy friends: in June 2008 the entire Amphioxus genome sequence was finished; it revealed that our genome is essentially a Ampioxus genome quadrupled. ibid.
The genes that build these bones are essentially the same in all species. ibid.
We have finally read the Book of Life. Dr Adam Rutherford, The Gene Code: Unlocking the Code
How does the genetic code work? ibid. Gamov letter to Crick
Scientists already knew that chemicals called proteins made living tissue ... Proteins themselves are made of smaller building blocks: amino acids. ibid.
What no-one knew was how DNA made each of us different. ibid.
A gene is a unit of inheritance. ibid.
Professor Davies’ discovery of the gene variety linked to DMD ... is a genuine landmark. ibid.
Fred Sanger ... His lifelong love for unpicking the molecules of life ... Winning two Nobel prizes: well that’s just showing off. ibid.
A T C G. ibid.
Reading the code is one thing, but understanding all of it is something else. ibid.
They could only find around 24,000 genes in the human genome; by far the majority of code in our DNA seemed to be useless ... Junk DNA ... 98% of our genome is not genes, and doesn’t code for proteins. ibid.
Everyone’s DNA is almost identical. ibid.
Diabetes is 70% genetic, and 30% environmental. ibid.
Many traits were more inheritable than the previous studies had revealed ... The Missing Inheritability. ibid.
This wasteland is far more important than we had previously imagined. ibid.
That is how science works: it’s a journey, a continuous exploration of how things work and who we are. ibid.
How do cells know what to do? What goes on inside cells? How do these tiny structures make living organisms? Dr Adam Rutherford, The Chemistry of Life: The Cell, BBC 2009
Every organ and tissue is made of different types of cells working together. And that all cells come from other cells ... Somehow cells must contain the secret of life itself. ibid.
DNA was confirmation that there were something special inside the nucleus of cells. ibid.
Somehow when cells divide they pass on the essence of life from cell to cell. ibid.
[Theodor] Boveri was predicting the existence of genes. ibid.
Scientists had peered into the cell nucleus: they had found chromosomes. And they had shown that these chromosomes carry information we inherit: genes. But they still had no idea how. ibid.
Avery got a result: stripped of their DNA the power of the lethal bacteria to transform other cells simply vanished. ibid.
DNA was controlling cells. ibid.
How DNA was built: and this turned out to be the most famous story in Biology ... Crick and Watson had worked out the structure of DNA. ibid.
DNA’s structure had revealed the secret of how genes are reproduced every time a cell divides. ibid.
To make a living organism takes a staggering amount of DNA. ibid.
Each of these genetic switches controlled one major chunk of the fly’s body. ibid.
The story of the cell is the story of the evolution of life itself. ibid.
DNA is a chain of chemicals organised into genes. Each gene holds the instructions to build a specific protein. Secret Universe: The Hidden Life of the Cell, BBC 2012
Stem-cell research is the key to developing cures for degenerative conditions like Parkinson’s and motor-neurone disease from which I and many others suffer. The fact that the cells may come from embryos is not an objection, because the embryos are going to die anyway. Stephen Hawking
Science is on the brink of changing your life. Right now men and women around the world are making amazing breakthroughs. Brave New World with Stephen Hawking, Channel 4 2011
We will show you how science is a force for good. ibid.
Using opto-genetics on humans is still a long way off. ibid.
Epigenetics and the study of the way genes function will be one of the most significant advances in health care in the next decade. Brave New World with Stephen Hawking: Biology
Many of us are concerned about who has access to all this personal information. And how corporations and governments might use and abuse it. Brave New World with Stephen Hawking II: Technology, Kathy Sykes
By collecting and analysing data from mobile phone users Sandy and his team are about to predict certain elements of an individual’s behaviour with up to 95% accuracy. ibid.
Reality mining is technology getting personal. ibid.
Technology is the engine that drives society. ibid.
Designers and engineers are constantly looking for better ways to manufacture the objects that surround us’ ibid. Max Lamb, product designer
With this process you simply create a design and press print. ibid.
Abu Dhabi ... One of the hottest places on Earth. It is a city tha has harnessed the power technology to defy the laws of Nature.’ ibid. Tara Shine, environmental scientist
I believe the real cities of the future need to use technology in a radically different way. ibid.
Masdar, an experimental city rising out of the desert ... A sustainable metropolis for forty thousand people. ibid.
For me I think the greatest achievement of science is to allow humanity to realise that our world is comprehensible. ibid. Professor Jim Al Khalili
Our sanity to some degree depends on our understanding what goes on around us. ibid. Professor David Attenborough
Reason is science. ibid.
How does our universe work and how did it begin? ibid. Hawking
Neutrinos … are believed to be fundamental to the way our universe works. ibid. Professor Kathy Sykes
Neutrinos have been dubbed the ghost particle. ibid.
A neutrino detector ... We can show you it from the inside ... This giant acrylic globe ... Usually there is a thousand tons of [heavy] water in here. ibid.