Engineering Quote by Neil Shubin

““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 to understand the wiring and plumbing in my building, you have to understand its history, how it was renovated for each new generation of scientists. My head has a long history also, and that history explains complicated nerves like the trigeminal and the facial.””

Neil Shubin

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Engineering History Science

More by Neil Shubin

“... two little patches of tissue essentially control the development of the pattern of bones inside limbs. A strip of tissue at the extreme…

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“In areas close to the ZPA, where there is a high concentration of this molecule, cells would respond by making a pinky. In the…

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“All the genetic switches that make fingers, arm bones, and toes do their thing during the third to eighth week after conception.”

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“So here is the trick to designing a new fossil expedition: find rocks that are of the right age, of the right type (sedimentary),…

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“Our hundreds of useless olfactory genes are left over from mammal ancestors who relied more heavily on the sense of smell to survive ...…

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“The retina absorbs the light via sensitive light-gathering cells ... In humans these cells make up about 70 percent of all the sensory cells…

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“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.…

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“The key to tooth development is that an interaction between these two layers of tissue, an outer sheet of cells and an inner loose…

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“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

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“In a perfectly designed world —one with no history— we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer.”

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“Whole batteries of genes are turned on and off during fly development, and this pattern of gene activity serves to demarcate the different regions…

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“The first hard hydroxyapatite-containing body parts were teeth. Hard bones arose not to protect animals, but to eat them.”

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