---
title: "1 Caste system Quotes By Siddhartha Mukherjee"
description: "1 Caste system quotes by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Plus more from Siddhartha Mukherjee and more Caste system sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg"
---

> [“Ants have a powerful caste system. A colony typically contains ants that carry out radically different roles and have markedly different body structures and behaviors. These roles, Reinberg learned, are often determined not by genes but by signals from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colony-typically-contains-ants/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg)

## Other authors on Caste system

- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b017/author-michelle-alexander-67636.jpg) Michelle Alexander 28 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/michelle-alexander/)

## More by Siddhartha Mukherjee

> [Most days, I go home and I feel rejuvenated. I feel ebullient.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/most-days-i-go-home-and-i-feel-rejuvenated-i-feel-ebullient/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“A note of caution: epigenetics is also on the verge of transforming into a dangerous idea. Epigenetic modifications of genes can potentially superpose historical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/a-note-of-caution-epigenetics-is-also-on-the-verge-of-transforming/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [When you immerse yourself in medicine you realise that hope is not absolute. It's not that simple.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/when-you-immerse-yourself-in-medicine-you-realise-that-hope-is-not/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“I had a novice's hunger for history, but also a novice's inability to envision it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/i-had-a-novice-s-hunger-for-history-but-also-a-novice-s-inability-to/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“Any extrapolation of history into the future presupposes an environment of static discovery—an oxymoron.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/any-extrapolation-of-history-into-the-future-presupposes-an/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“Six decades and two years, no more than a passing glance of time, separate Mendel's initial experiments on peas and the court-mandated sterilization of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/six-decades-and-two-years-no-more-than-a-passing-glance-of-time/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“We now know that cells have ancient detectors that recognize viral genes and stamp them with chemical marks, like cancellation signs, to prevent their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/we-now-know-that-cells-have-ancient-detectors-that-recognize-viral/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“Familial schizophrenia (like normal human features such as intelligence and temperament) is thus highly heritable but only moderately inheritable. In other words, genes-hereditary determinants-are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/familial-schizophrenia-like-normal-human-features-such-as/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“If you prefer an “academic life” as a retreat from reality, do not go into biology. This field is for a man or woman…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/if-you-prefer-an-academic-life-as-a-retreat-from-reality-do-not-go/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“But the pigs--seventy pounds of porcine weight that did not take kindly to weekly endoscopies--did not sprout any ulcers. And testing the theory on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/but-the-pigs-seventy-pounds-of-porcine-weight-that-did-not-take/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“One of the four genes used by Yamanaka to reverse cellular fate is called c-myc. Myc, the rejuvenating factor, is no ordinary gene: it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/one-of-the-four-genes-used-by-yamanaka-to-reverse-cellular-fate-is/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [A breast cancer might turn out to have a close resemblance to a gastric cancer. And this kind of reorganization of cancer in terms…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/a-breast-cancer-might-turn-out-to-have-a-close-resemblance-to-a/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“But in 1960, oncology was not yet ready for this proposal. Not until several years later did it strike the board that had fired…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/but-in-1960-oncology-was-not-yet-ready-for-this-proposal-not-until/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“Mutants are necessary to maintain the essence of our selves. Our genomes has negotiated a fragile balance between counterpoised forces, pairing strand with opposite…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/mutants-are-necessary-to-maintain-the-essence-of-our-selves-our/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

> [“Even an ancient monster needs a name. To name an illness is to describe a certain condition of suffering—a literary act before it becomes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/even-an-ancient-monster-needs-a-name-to-name-an-illness-is-to/)

[Siddhartha Mukherjee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/siddhartha-mukherjee/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "ItemList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/#itemlist",
            "name": "1 Caste system Quotes By Siddhartha Mukherjee",
            "numberOfItems": 1,
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "item": {
                        "@type": "Quotation",
                        "text": "“Ants have a powerful caste system. A colony typically contains ants that carry out radically different roles and have markedly different body structures and behaviors. These roles, Reinberg learned, are often determined not by genes but by signals from the physical and social environment. 'Sibling ants, in their larval stage, become segregated into the different types based on environmental signals,' he said. 'Their genomes are nearly identical, but the way the genes are used—turned on or off, and kept on or off—must determine what an ant \"becomes.\" It seemed like a perfect system to study epigenetics. And so Shelley and I caught a flight to Arizona to see Jürgen Liebig, the ant biologist, in his lab.' The collaboration between Reinberg, Berger, and Liebig has been explosively successful—the sort of scientific story ('two epigeneticists walk into a bar and meet an entomologist') that works its way into a legend. Carpenter ants, one of the species studied by the team, have elaborate social structures, with queens (bullet-size, fertile, winged), majors (bean-size soldiers who guard the colony but rarely leave it), and minors (nimble, grain-size, perpetually moving foragers). In a recent, revelatory study, researchers in Berger’s lab injected a single dose of a histone-altering chemical into the brains of major ants. Remarkably, their identities changed; caste was recast. The major ants wandered away from the colony and began to forage for food. The guards turned into scouts. Yet the caste switch could occur only if the chemical was injected during a vulnerable period in the ants’ development. [...] The impact of the histone-altering experiment sank in as I left Reinberg’s lab and dodged into the subway. [...] All of an ant’s possible selves are inscribed in its genome. Epigenetic signals conceal some of these selves and reveal others, coiling some, uncoiling others. The ant chooses a life between its genes and its epigenes—inhabiting one self among its incipient selves.”",
                        "creator": {
                            "@type": "Person",
                            "name": "Siddhartha Mukherjee"
                        },
                        "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/siddhartha-mukherjee/ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colony-typically-contains-ants/",
                        "image": {
                            "@type": "ImageObject",
                            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg",
                            "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg",
                            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg",
                            "width": 1080,
                            "height": 1080,
                            "caption": "“Ants have a powerful caste system. A colony typically contains ants that carry out radically different roles…” — Siddhartha Mukherjee",
                            "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                            "creator": {
                                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "CollectionPage",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/#webpage",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/",
            "name": "Caste system Quotes by Siddhartha Mukherjee",
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "mainEntity": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/#itemlist"
            },
            "primaryImageOfPage": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6d6/siddhartha-mukherjee-1619_ants_ants-have-a-powerful-caste-system-a-colo_2929765.jpg"
            },
            "description": "1 Caste system quotes by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Plus more from Siddhartha Mukherjee and more Caste system sayings from other authors.",
            "breadcrumb": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/#breadcrumb"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/#breadcrumb",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Topics",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "Caste System",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 5,
                    "name": "Siddhartha Mukherjee",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/caste-system/siddhartha-mukherjee/"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```