Biology Quote by Robert M. Sapolsky

“In other words, the more genomically complex the organism, the larger the percentage of the genome devoted to gene regulation by the environment.” quote by Robert M. Sapolsky — Download Open image

““In other words, the more genomically complex the organism, the larger the percentage of the genome devoted to gene regulation by the environment.””

Robert M. Sapolsky

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 4.5 out of 5 (8 ratings)

Biology Environment

More by Robert M. Sapolsky

“Secure-attachment 7Rs show more generosity than average. Thus 7R has something to do with generosity—but its effect is entirely context dependent.”

Robert M. Sapolsky

Image

But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves…

Robert M. Sapolsky

Image

“Finally, for the same criminal conviction, the more stereotypically Af-rican a black individual’s facial features, the longer the sentence.15 In contrast, juries view black (but not white) male defendants more favorably if they’re wearing big, clunky glasses; some defense attorneys even exploit this “nerd defense” by accessorizing their clients with fake glasses, and prosecuting attorneys ask whether those dorky glasses…

Robert M. Sapolsky

“So testosterone does subtle things to behavior. Nonetheless, this doesn’t tell us much because everything can be interpreted every which way. Testosterone increases anxiety—you feel threatened and become more reactively aggressive. Testosterone decreases anxiety—you feel cocky and overconfident, become more preemptively aggressive. Testosterone increases risk taking—“Hey, let’s gamble and invade.” Testosterone increases risk taking—“Hey, let’s gamble and make a peace…

Robert M. Sapolsky

“pain makes aggressive people more aggressive, while doing the opposite to unaggressive individuals.”

Robert M. Sapolsky

Image

“Thus, for our purposes, genes aren’t about inevitability. Instead they’re about context-dependent tendencies, propensities, potentials, and vulnerabilities. All embedded in the fabric of the…

Robert M. Sapolsky

Image

“If we accept that there will always be sides, it’s a nontrivial to-do list item to always be on the side of angels. Distrust essentialism. Keep in mind that what seems like rationality is often just rationalization, playing catch-up with subterranean forces that we never suspect. Focus on the larger, shared goals. Practice perspective taking. Individuate, individuate, individuate. Recall the…

Robert M. Sapolsky

“The subject of one experiment is a rat that receives mild electric shocks (roughly equivalent to the static shock you might get from scuffing your foot on a carpet). Over a series of these, the rat develops a prolonged stress-response: its heart rate and glucocorticoid secretion rate go up, for example. For convenience, we can express the long-term consequences by…

Robert M. Sapolsky

“No brain region is an island, and the formation of circuits connecting far-flung brain regions is crucial—how else can the frontal cortex use its…

Robert M. Sapolsky

Image

“We process emotionally salient information more rapidly and automatically, but with less accuracy. Frontal function—working memory, impulse control, executive decision making, risk assessment, and task shifting—is impaired, and the frontal cortex has less control over the amygdala. And we become less empathic and prosocial. Reducing sustained stress is a win-win for us and those stuck around us.”

Robert M. Sapolsky

“Most broadly, the PFC chooses between conflicting options—Coke or Pepsi; blurting out what you really think or restraining yourself; pulling the trigger or not. And often the conflict being resolved is between a decision heavily driven by cognition and one driven by emotions. Once it has decided, the PFC sends orders via projections to the rest of the frontal cortex,…

Robert M. Sapolsky

“One stretch of the gene is repeated a variable number of times, and the version with seven repeats (the “7R” form) produces a receptor protein that is sparse in the cortex and relatively unresponsive to dopamine. This is the variant associated with a host of related traits—sensation and novelty seeking, extroversion, alcoholism, promiscuity, less sensitive parenting, financial risk taking, impulsivity,…

Robert M. Sapolsky

Explore all 280 Robert M. Sapolsky quotes

More Biology quotes

In the fight between biology and morality, biology has commonly won in the end.

Semir Zeki

Image

“Genetics is a science full of gods, Mr. Sanchez.”

Valeria Luiselli

Image

We became Homo sapiens not that long ago, from the scientific perspective, and we've retained a lot of our beast nature. We've done all these amazing things in terms of our knowledge base and technology, and now we're flying around and using the internet. But we're still very animalistic. So, I think about hierarchies. I think about evolution. I think…

Wangechi Mutu

Evolution happens in jumps, very rapidly.

Marilyn Ferguson

Image

“Toshiaki learned that all living organisms were governed by their DNA. He was impressed by perfection of this system.Why did existence have the ability…

Hideaki Sena

Image

I'm all about evolution. I'm the first person to judge myself.

The Weeknd

Image

We are somehow the children of the planet, we are somehow its finest hour; we bind time, we bind the past, we anticipate the future - we are going hyper-spatial; we are claiming a whole new dimension for biology that it never claimed before. We are actually becoming a fourth-dimensional kind of creature. Our future is somehow with us, as…

Terence McKenna

I think the ethics and morals of genetic engineering are very complicated. It intrigues me.

Roger Spottiswoode

Image

Biochemists and biologists who adhere blindly to the Darwinism theory search for results that will be in agreement with their theories and consequently orient their research in a given direction, whether it be in the field of ecology, ethology, sociology, demography (dynamics of populations), genetics (so-called evolutionary genetics), or paleontology. This intrusion of theories has unfortunate results: it deprives observations…

Pierre-Paul Grasse

“A note of caution: epigenetics is also on the verge of transforming into a dangerous idea. Epigenetic modifications of genes can potentially superpose historical and environmental information on cells and genomes—but this capacity is speculative, limited, idiosyncratic, and unpredictable: a parent with an experience of starvation produces children with obesity and overnourishment, while a father with the experience of tuberculosis,…

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Natural history is not taught in seminary. This is curious, as most people in pastoral ministry are about 567 times more likely to be asked about cosmology or sub-nuclear physics or human biology or evolution than they are to be asked about irregular Greek verbs or the danger of the patripassionist heresy. If we monotheists are going to go around…

Sara Maitland