The Neanderthals survived the harsh conditions in Europe for at least 300,000 years. Then, around 40,000 years ago, a different species arrives on the scene: our species, Homo sapiens. They migrated from Africa. Nova: Decoding Neanderthals, PBS 2013
How did Neanderthals communicate these complex ideas? ibid.
This is the result of all their work: the Neanderthal Genome. ibid.
Neanderthals were genetically closer to Europeans and Asians than they were to Africans. ibid.
Neanderthals had dominated Europe for nearly half a million years. But from the moment our ancestors entered the continent their days were numbered ... The last known refuge of the Neanderthals was here in Gibraltar. They lived their final years in these caves. Archaeologists believe the last Neanderthals died out 24,000 years ago. ibid.
There are some seven hundred regions of the human genome where genes have been reshaped by natural selection within the past five thousand to fifteen thousand years. Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great p95
I see worries in the fact that we have the power to manipulate genes in ways that would be improbable or impossible through conventional evolution. We shouldn’t be complacent in thinking that we can predict the results. Colin Blakemore
There are fifty trillion cells that make up your body. Each one with a DNA blueprint that encodes for the making of you. Graham Downing, DNA Codes Under Attack: The Vaccine Agenda, Alternative View 6 conference
DNA extracted from the bones of an extinct bison shows that the environment influenced the way the animal’s genes worked without altering the genetic code. It is the best evidence yet that such epigenetic changes can be fossilised. ibid.
Something here is making giant waves in the gene pool … Corruptions in form. Duplicates in form. Echoes. Annihilation 2018 starring Natalie Portman & Jennifer Jason Leigh & Gina Rodriguez & Tessa Thompson & Tuva Novotny & Oscar Isac & Benedict Wong & Sonoya Mizuno & David Gyasi et al, director Alex Garland, Lena
Scientists have had some limited success editing genes in mice … Gene editing has huge potential. Eugenics: Science’s Greatest Scandal II, BBC 2019
This false narrative of perfection. ibid.
The dramatic advances of the past few decades have led to the discovery of DNA, and to the decipherment of the universal hereditary code, the age-old language of the living cell. And with this understanding will come the control of processes that have known only the mindless discipline of natural selection for two billion years … We will surely come to the time when man will have the power to alter specifically and consciously his very genes. This will be a new event in the universe. The prospect is to me awesome in its potential for deliverance or equally for disaster. Storyville: The Gene Revolution: Changing Human Nature, Robert Sincheimer, California Institute of Technology 1966, BBC 2020
Conventional gene therapy is essentially a random process. ibid. Fyodor Urnov, Innovative Genomics Institute
It fundamentally allows us to change our relationship with Nature. It actually allows us to change human evolution if we want. ibid. scientist
A fourteen year old boy in Pakistan who felt no pain … He has a mutation in one gene. ibid.
In our view, genome editing in human embryos using current technologies could have unpredictable effects on future generations. ibid. Nature: Don’t Edit the Human Germ Line, Lanphier, Fyodor Urnov et al
Editing Humanity: The prospect of genetic enhancement. ibid. The Economist front cover August 2015
Star Trek: It is a vision of progress and the potential of science to make life better. ibid. Alta Charo, Bioethicist, Wisconsin-Madison University
But advances in DNA technology called Investigative Genetic Genealogy offer hope for investigators in solving the 27-year old case. Very Scary People: Norcal Rapist: Phantom Predator II, CICI 2020
Roy Charles Waller: he is 58 years old, he is a white male … and has worked at UC Berkeley for the last 25 years. ibid.
Genghis Khan rapes so many women that as many as one in two hundred people alive today carry his genes. Mankind: The Story of All of Us V, History Channel 2012