Quote of the Week
(May 6, 2024)

It is hard to understand how a single genomic “blueprint” — or any other way of construing a fixed genetic sequence — could by itself provide the definitive causal basis for the hundreds of radically distinct ways of living exemplied by the many and varied cell types in our bodies? If the supposed blueprint in our genome is compatible with cell types as different from each other as remotely related species, do we have compelling grounds for thinking that this genome single-handedly determines any one type of cell, or organ, let alone all of them together?

(from Chapter 6, “Context: Dare We Call It Holism?”, in Organisms and Their Evolution — Agency and Meaning in the Drama of Life)

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