Ray

“life has existed on Earth for about 3.9 billion years. The species Homo sapiens, of which you are a member, emerged a mere 300,000 years ago as far as we know, in pockets in east and north Africa. Writing began about 6,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia, somewhere in what we now call the Middle East.”
― Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes

“We talk of the traditional five senses, but in reality, there are many more than that. Proprioception is a significant one here – awareness of one’s own body in space; another is interoception – an awareness of one’s internal bodily state: try sitting perfectly still (like a toad) and counting your heartbeats by nothing other than feeling them in your body. These are also key expressions of a sense that you are a body in space, independent of the environment. Self-awareness is essential for recognising that you are a being which is separate from everything else. It is part of the conscious experience of being human, and the experience of being in some other animals.”
― Adam Rutherford, The Book of Humans: A Brief History of Culture, Sex, War and the Evolution of Us

“Your genome is the totality of your DNA, 3 billion letters of it, and due to the way it comes together – by the mysterious (from a biological point of view) business of sex – it is unique to you. Not only is this genetic fingerprint yours alone, it’s unlike any other of the 107 billion people who have ever lived. That applies even if you are an identical twin, whose genomes begin their existence indistinguishable, but inch away from each other moments after conception. In the”
― Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes

“quotidian”
― Janna Levin, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space