— The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
Select Quotes
Prologue
And if we want to say we inherit genes from our ancestors—using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates—then we should consider the possibility that we inherit other things that matter greatly to our existence, from the microbes that swarm our bodies to the technology we use to make life more comfortable for ourselves. – Page 20
She would inherit a world as well, a human-shaped environment that would help determine the opportunities and limits of her life. – Page 21
I realized how consumed I had become with wondering what versions of DNA she might have inherited from me. I kept my arms folded tightly around her, wondering now what sort of world she was inheriting. – Page 21
Part I | A Stroke On The Cheek
2. Traveling Across The Face Of Time
He subscribed to what he hoped would someday become a religion of humanity, worshiping a God “as revealed to us gradually, step by step, by the demonstrable truths of our savior, science,” he said to his audience. Burbank didn’t see the point of wasting time pondering hypothetical eternities in heaven or hell. Heredity—the continuity of life through the generations—was vast enough for him. “All things—plants, animals, and men—are already in eternity, traveling across the face of time,” – Page 87
Part Ii | Wayward Dna
5. An Evening’S Revelry
If someone starts ripping dictionaries apart at random places and handing you the pieces, you can bet that the chunk that contains meiosis will be more likely to contain mitosis than chromosome. – Page 184
Its descendants are no longer doomed to inherit a particular combination of alleles on each chromosome. Meiois shuffles the alleles into new combinations. Some of the fly’s descendants may inherit the alleles for frail wings and a weak immune system. But meiosis also allows other descendants to end up with powerful wings and a strong immune system. These stronger flies can reproduce, and their offspring will sustain the population into future generations. The population of flies ends up with combinations of superior genetic variants, while many harmful mutations disappear into oblivion. – Page 185
6. The Sleeping Branches
He dedicated it “to the rapid, symmetrical and beautiful growth of the family tree; to the avoidance of all wind-storms likely to damage the orchard; to the eradication of the insects of ignorance and immorality certain to contaminate the fruit; to the transplantation of buds and scions in all agreeable soils; to the awakening of the sleeping branches to bright foliage and sweet blossoms; and to plenteous harvests of golden children grown in the sunshine of love, liberty and law.” Weston saw himself as a naturalist, in other words. He was describing an organism that extended itself seamlessly through the United States—a tree of heredity that sprouted from Roger Goodspeed, the Adam to all American Goodspeeds. – Page 199
Slaves did not leave wills; they were listed in them, alongside oxen and pewter. – Page 206
By one estimate, genealogy has now become the second-most-popular search topic on the Internet. It is outranked only by porn. – Page 210
7. Individual Z
If you go back far enough in the history of a human population, you reach a point in time when all the individuals who have any descendants among living people are ancestors of all living people. – Page 232