Take the entire 4.5-billion-year history of the earth and scale it down to a single year, with January 1 being the origin of the earth and midnight on December 31 being the present. Until June, the only organisms were single-celled… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
When the finely tuned balance among the different parts of bodies breaks down, the individual creature can die. A cancerous tumor, for example, is born when one batch of cells no longer cooperates with others. By dividing endlessly, or by… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“... two little patches of tissue essentially control the development of the pattern of bones inside limbs. A strip of tissue at the extreme… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“In areas close to the ZPA, where there is a high concentration of this molecule, cells would respond by making a pinky. In the… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“All the genetic switches that make fingers, arm bones, and toes do their thing during the third to eighth week after conception.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“My building was constructed in 1896, and the utilities reflect an odd design that has been jerry-rigged further with each renovation. If you want… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“So here is the trick to designing a new fossil expedition: find rocks that are of the right age, of the right type (sedimentary),… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Our hundreds of useless olfactory genes are left over from mammal ancestors who relied more heavily on the sense of smell to survive ...… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The retina absorbs the light via sensitive light-gathering cells ... In humans these cells make up about 70 percent of all the sensory cells… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Some fish, for example the lungfish, have the one bone at the base. Other fish, for example Eusthenopteron, have the one bone–two bones arrangement.… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The key to tooth development is that an interaction between these two layers of tissue, an outer sheet of cells and an inner loose… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“The molecules that allow microbes to catch their prey and hold on to them are likely candidates for the molecules that form the rivet… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“In a perfectly designed world —one with no history— we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.” — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
“Whole batteries of genes are turned on and off during fly development, and this pattern of gene activity serves to demarcate the different regions… — Neil Shubin Copy Share Image
