When finally interpreted, the genetic messages encoded within our DNA — DNA

"Theres no genetic basis for any kind of rigid ethnic or racial classification... Im always asked is there Greek DNA or an Italian gene, but, of course, there isnt... Were very closely related."

"The way DNA encodes information is analogous to how we arrange the letters of the alphabet into words and phrases with specific meanings. The word rat, for example, evokes a rodent; the words tarand art, which contain the same letters, mean very different things. We can think of nucleotides as a four-letter alphabet. Specific sequences of these four nucleotides encode the information in genes. Many genes provide the blueprints for making proteins, which are the major players in building and maintaining the cell and carrying out its activities."

"DNA studies do not indicate that separate classifiable subspecies exist within modern humans. While different genes for physical traits such as skin and hair color can be identified between individuals, no consistent patterns of genes across the human genome exist to distinguish one race from another. There also is no genetic basis for divisions of human ethnicity. People who have lived in the same geographic region for many generations may have some alleles in common, but no allele will be found in all members of one population and in no members of any other."

"It is so efficient that all the information . . . necessary to specify the design of all the species of organisms which have ever existed on the planet . . . could be held in a teaspoon and there would still be room left for all the information in every book ever written."

"Molecular biology has also shown that the basic design of the cell system is essentially the same in all living systems on earth from bacteria to mammals. In all organisms the roles of DNA, mRNA and protein are identical. The meaning of the genetic code is also virtually identical in all cells. The size, structure and component design of the protein synthetic machinery is practically the same in all cells. In terms of their basic biochemical design, therefore no living system can be thought of as being primitive or ancestral with respect to any other system, nor is there the slightest empirical hint of an evolutionary sequence among all the incredibly diverse cells on earth."

"Now we know that the intricate DNA genetic code makes it possible for the individual to inherit not only simple physical characteristics, such as size, shape and chemical makeup, but also a whole set of propensities for particular social behavior which goes with a given physiology."