For me, arguably the story of telomeres and telomerase began thousands of years ago, in the cornfields of the Maya highlands of Central America.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the deep historical and cultural roots of scientific discovery, illustrating how the story of telomeres ties back to ancient civilizations.
Elizabeth Blackburn reflects on the origins of scientific inquiry related to telomeres and telomerase, suggesting that the understanding of these biological structures is not only modern science but also has historical significance that connects to ancient cultures, specifically the Maya civilization. By referencing the cornfields of the Maya highlands, she highlights the continuity of knowledge through time and its relevance to contemporary scientific achievements.
In practice
In a lecture on genetics, to introduce the historical perspective of telomere research.
Cancer cells have had so many other things go wrong with them, genetic, non-genetic changes, that those cells, one of the things they then get selected for is that they have lots of telomerase because now the telomeres in those cells get maintained.
We and other groups are seeing clear statistical links between telomere shortness and risk for a variety of diseases that are becoming very common, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and certain cancers.
Checking your telomere length is a bit like weighing yourself: you get this single number which depends on a lot of factors. Telomere length gives a sense of your underlying health.
We think there are lifestyle factors that boost telomerase naturally.
If we think of our chromosomes - they carry our genetic material - as being like shoelaces, I work on the plastic tips at the end that protect them.
Being senior enough in the field, having enough solidity, I don't feel afraid of being marginalized.
The recent developments in cosmology strongly suggest that the universe may be the ultimate free lunch.
There may have been many big bangs, one of which created our universe. The other bangs created other universes.
Every mode of transport that we use - whether it's planes, trains, automobiles, bikes, horses - is reusable, but not rockets. So we must solve this problem in order to become a space-faring civilization.
You will never find scientists leading armies into battle. You just wonβt. Especially not astrophysicists -we see the biggest picture there is. We understand how small we are in the cosmos. We understand how fragile and temporary our existence is here on Earth. We understand there are bigger problems we need to solve as a species than what God you pray to.
My laboratory uses evolution to design new enzymes. No one really knows how to design them - they are tremendously complicated. But we are learning how to use evolution to make new ones, just as nature does.
Enormous numbers of people are taken in, or at least beguiled and fascinated, by what seems to me to be unbelievable hocum, and relatively few are concerned with or thrilled by the astounding-yet true-facts of science, as put forth in the pages of, say, Scientific American.
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