Denis Noble Quotes

In higher animals, the bits of DNA code that we lump together and call... a 'gene' are... broken up into segments... called 's'... separated by non-coding stretches of DNA, called 's'. The exon codes can be combined in various orders to produce a full protein code.

A living cell is a continuous action-packed drama. ...Complex chains of molecular interaction happen again and again. We call them 'pathways'... And proteins form the backbone of all these biochemical pathways.

[T]here is no privileged level of causation, which is the central statement of the theory of Biological Relativity.

[L]iving organisms are open systems. ...All the molecules, organs and systems dance to the tune of the organism and its social context. Those molecules include the sequences of DNA we now call s.

[T]here are no genes 'for' anything. ...Genes are used. They are not active causes.

The Principle of Biological Relativity... simply states that there is no privileged level of causation in biological systems.

[T]he book of life is life itself. It cannot be reduced to just one of its databases. ...[T]he genome is only one of its databases. Function... depends also on... properties... not specified by genes.

[I]f a gene consists of three exons, a, b, and c, it could be read as a, b, c, ab, bc, ac, abc, and perhaps... as cba, ca, ba, each... code for a different protein. At present we do not know the rules...

[T]he book begins with the fundamentals of physics and cosmology, yet ends with the fundamentals of biology and the limits to our knowledge. ...[T]here are many links between these various threads.

DNA does nothing outside the context of a cell containing these protein systems, just as a CD can do nothing without a CD reader. So we have the paradox that proteins are required for the machinery to read the code to produce the proteins.

[W]e are far from certain what a gene is... many of the confusions and misrepresentations of biology arise from mixing up different definitions of genes and genetics.

[I]f genes dance, they have been doing so for... most of the period of the Earth's existence... about 4.5 billion years.

[S]ome very influential twentieth-century biologists presented a simplistic gene-centered view...

[T]he music of life has no conductor.

[T]here is no complete programme in our DNA. Programmes... are distributed across scales in the organism.