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L.L. Larison Cudmore
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American cytologist who with a Ph.D. in biology from Yale, has taught at Boston University and the University of Massachusetts.
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Science Quotes by L.L. Larison Cudmore (11 quotes)
Ah, the architecture of this world. Amoebas may not have backbones, brains, automobiles, plastic, television, Valium or any other of the blessings of a technologically advanced civilization; but their architecture is two billion years ahead of its time.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977), 15-16.
All cell biologists are condemned to suffer an incurable secret sorrow: the size of the objects of their passion. … But those of us enamored of the cell must resign ourselves to the perverse, lonely fascination of a human being for things invisible to the naked human eye.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
Opening sentence from The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 5.
All living things need their instruction manual (even nonliving things like viruses) and that is all they need, carried in one very small suitcase.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 8.
An amoeba never is torn apart through indecision, though, for even if two parts of the amoeba are inclined to go in different directions, a choice is always made. We could interpret this as schizophrenia or just confusion, but it could also be a judicious simultaneous sampling of conditions, in order to make a wise choice of future direction.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 73.
Every living thing is made of cells, and everything a living thing does is done by the cells that make it up.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 6.
Evolution is a hard, inescapable mistress. There is just no room for compassion or good sportsmanship. Too many organisms are born, so, quite simply, a lot of them are going to have to die because there isn't enough food and space to go around. You can be beautiful, fast and strong, but it might not matter. The only thing that does matter is, whether you leave more children carrying your genes than the next person leaves. It’s true whether you’re a prince, a frog, or an American elm.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
From The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 37.
If they needed to, twenty-five furtive cells could hide under this period.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 8.
Like the furtive collectors of stolen art, we [cell biologists] are forced to be lonely admirers of spectacular architecture, exquisite symmetry, dramas of violence and death, mobility, self-sacrifice and, yes, rococo sex.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
…...
The amoeba had the architectural ideas of R. Buckminster Fuller before there was anyone around capable of having an idea.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977), 16.
The blueprints for the construction of one human being requires only a meter of DNA and one tiny cell. … even Mozart started out this way.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
In The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 8.
We are made of cells. And of stars. The Universe outside of us has made the universe inside us.
— L.L. Larison Cudmore
Opening sentence from The Center of Life: A Natural History of the Cell (1977, 1978), 5.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
