Niels Kaj Jerne Quotes
-
A cis-immunologist will sometimes speak to a trans-immunologist; but the latter rarely answers.
→ -
It seems a miracle that young children easily learn the language of any environment into which they were born. The generative approach to grammar, pioneered by Chomsky, argues that this is only explicable if certain deep, universal features of this competence are innate characteristics of the human brain. Biologically speaking, this hypothesis of an inheritable capability to learn any language means that it must somehow be encoded in the DNA of our chromosomes. Should this hypothesis one day be verified, then lingusitics would become a branch of biology.
→ -
An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate tissue culture fluid, and when we add an antigen, the lymphocytes will produce specific antibody molecules, in the absense of any nerve cells. I find it astonishing that the immune system embodies a degree of complexity which suggests some more or less superficial though striking analogies with human language, and that this cognitive system has evolved and functions without assistance of the brain.
→
Related Authors
-
-
Joseph Murray Surgeon -
Willard Van Orman Quine Philosopher -
Frank Macfarlane Burnet Virologist -
Jerry Fodor Philosopher -
Karl Landsteiner Physician -
Frederick Sanger Biochemist -
Joshua Lederberg Molecular Biologist -
Adolfo Perez Esquivel Writer -
Peter Medawar Writer -
Sune Bergstrom Biochemist -
Gustav Nossal Researcher -
Noam Chomsky Linguist -
Francisco Varela Biologist -
Luis Federico Leloir Researcher -
John Eccles Neurophysiologist -
Edward Said Professor -
Colin McGinn Philosopher -
Cesar Milstein Researcher -
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow Physicist