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We have 200 trillion cells, and the outcome of each of them is almost 100 percent genetically determined. And that's what our experiment with the first synthetic genome proves, at least in the case of really simple bacteria. It's the interactions of all those separate genetic units that give us the physiology that we see.

We know virtually all of the genes known to mammals. We do not know all of the combinations.

We know specific genes are turned on in specific cells, but we don't know to what extent this happens.

Once the principle is there, that cells have the same genes, my own personal belief is that we will, in the end, understand everything about how cells actually work.

All human beings are, in fact, born with dozens of mutations their parents lacked, and a few of those mutations could well be lethal if we didn't have two copies of every gene, so one can pick up the slack if the other malfunctions.

Before the Human Genome Project, most scientists assumed, based on our complex brains and behaviors, that humans must have around 100,000 genes; some estimates went as high as 150,000.

Genes can't possibly explain all of what makes us what we are.

We need 10,000 genomes, not 100, to start to understand the link between genetics, disease and wellness.

We have to accept that we are just machines. That's certainly what modern molecular biology says about us.