Craig Venter Quotes

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Craig Venter

Profession : Scientist

Birth : October 14, 1946

Each part of our genome is unique. We would not be alive if there was not a single mathematical solution for our chromosomes. We would just be scrambled goo.

Craig Venter

Carole Lartigue led the effort to actually transplant a bacterial chromosome from one bacteria to another.

Craig Venter

The gene 'klotho' was named after the Greek Fate purported to spin the thread of life, because it contributes to longevity.

Craig Venter

We have 200 trillion cells, and the outcome of each of them is almost 100 percent genetically determined. And that's what our experiment with the first synthetic genome proves, at least in the case of really simple bacteria. It's the interactions of all those separate genetic units that give us the physiology that we see.

Craig Venter

There's a lot of what I call 'bio-babble' and hype out there from a lot of bioenergy companies.

Craig Venter

We can do genetics. We can do experiments on fruit flies. We can do experiments on yeast. It's not so easy to do experiments on humans. So, in fact, it helps us, to interpret our own genetic code, to have the genetic code of the other species.

Craig Venter

If I had a weak ego, and doubts about this, the first genome would not yet have been completed with US and UK government funding.

Craig Venter

We need 10,000 genomes, not 100, to start to understand the link between genetics, disease and wellness.

Craig Venter

That's the nice thing about the field of science - the test of time sorts out the truth.

Craig Venter

Traditional ways of distinguishing populations are irrelevant in terms of genetic code.

Craig Venter

You'd need a very specialized electron microscope to get down to the level to actually see a single strand of DNA.

Craig Venter

Fred Sanger was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.

Craig Venter

If I could change the science system, my prescription for changing the whole thing would be organising it around big goals and building teams to do it.

Craig Venter

Most people don't realize it, because they're invisible, but microbes make up about a half of the Earth's biomass, whereas all animals only make up about one one-thousandth of all the biomass.

Craig Venter

Is my science of a level consistent with other people who have gotten the Nobel? Yes.

Craig Venter

People think that Celera's trying to patent the whole human genome because it's been used as - I guess people in Washington learn how to do political attacks, and so it gets used as a political weapon, not as a factual one.

Craig Venter

I suppose if there's a set of genes I have, it's detesting authority.

Craig Venter

The fact that I have a risk genetically for Alzheimer's and blindness is not great news. But the reality is that any one of us will have dozens of these risks, and what we have to learn is how to deal with them.

Craig Venter

People think they're making individual decisions for themselves and their family not to get vaccinated. It's not just an individual choice - you're a hazard to society.

Craig Venter

I was a surf bum wannabe. I left home at age 17 and moved to Southern California to try to take up surfing as a vocation, but this was in 1964, and there was this nasty little thing called the Vietnam War. As a result, I got drafted.

Craig Venter