104 quotes
He (Thomas Ray) had discovered that the notion of a host-parasite arms race is one of the most basic and unavoidable consequences of evolution.
The Red Queen (1993)
Evolving is not a goal but a means to solving a problem.
The Red Queen (1993)
Power seeking is characteristic of all social mammals.
The Red Queen (1993)
Simply put, anything that increases reproductive success will spread at the expense of anything that does not—even if it threatens survival.
The Red Queen (1993)
I am trying to describe the nature of humans, not prescribe their morality. That something is natural does not make it right.
The Red Queen (1993)
Computer viruses have since become a worldwide problem. It begins to look as if parasites are inevitable in any system of life.
The Red Queen (1993)
And in the matter of seduction itself, once more it is the male who is expected to make the first move. Women may flirt, but men pounce.
The Red Queen (1993)
The sex that invests the least has time to spare to seek other mates. Therefore, broadly speaking, males invest less and seek quantity of mates, while females invest more and seek quality of mates.
The Red Queen (1993)
Almost everything in the body, from hair to hormones, is either made of proteins or made by them.
Genome (1999)
The main purpose of most genes in the human genome is regulating the expression of other genes in the genome.
Genome (1999)
That life is chemistry is true but boring, like saying that football is physics.
Genome (1999)
Life consists of the interplay of two kinds of chemicals: proteins and DNA.
Genome (1999)
Human beings accumulate about one hundred mutations per generation.
Genome (1999)
Life is a slippery thing to define, but it consists of two very different skills: the ability to replicate, and the ability to create order.
Genome (1999)
A true scientist is bored by knowledge; it is the assault on ignorance that motivates him—the mysteries that previous discoveries have revealed.
Genome (1999)
The things that kill animals or prevent them from reproducing are only rarely physical factors. Far more often other creatures are involved—parasites, predators, and competitors.
The Red Queen (1993)
Anthropology consists of studying the differences between peoples. But this has led anthropologists to exaggerate the motes of racial difference and to ignore the beams of similarity.
The Red Queen (1993)
Determinism looks backwards to the causes of the present state, not forward to the consequences.
Genome (1999)
No study of the causes of intelligence has failed to find a substantial heritability.
Genome (1999)
Sex is recombination plus outcrossing; their mixing of genes is its principal feature….So sex equals genetic mixing.
The Red Queen (1993)