The interaction of the variation in our genes is what's responsible for lots of our attributes and vigor.

I have the same sense of the power and virtue of knowledge that some people get from a religious background.

We know specific genes are turned on in specific cells, but we don't know to what extent this happens.

Science doesn't in the slightest depend on trust. It depends completely on the belief that you can demonstrate something for yourself.

Biology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being.

Three billion bases of DNA sequence can be put on a single compact disc and one will be able to pull a CD out of one's pocket and say, 'Here is a human being; it's me!'

In 15 years we'll have all the sequence, a list of the genes everyone has in common and those that differ among people. We know only something like a tenth of 1 percent of the sequence at the moment.