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David Attenborough: It’s amazing, the discoveries made in my lifetime. Have you heard of��hox������Ա��?

Andrew Denton: No. (Then didn’t pursue the matter.) [From an interview a few years ago.]

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I’ve always rather liked Andrew Denton,

But I thought he missed a good chance then,

Given all the time I’ve spent on

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Reading up scientific gen.

Attenborough was, I think, intent on

Expanding on genetics again.

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But he never got the chance,

Imagine if he went on

To expound on the romance

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Of thrilling new knowledge,

The untold immense expanse

Of science now, and the homage

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Due to the science pioneers.

In many an institute and college

Through the last hundred years

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Sensational finds have been made

In a multitude of spheres,

In biology, astronomy, a cascade

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Of startling findings are now known:

The genetic code displayed,

It’s now been clearly shown

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That all life on earth is kin,

That the earth’s a speck alone

In the vast cosmic dark within

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Which a billion galaxies revolve.

Now, muons, gluons, quarks and their “spin”

Present more conundrums to solve,

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With which quantum mechanics copes,

A mind-boggling topic, which might absolve

Us from getting up our feeble hopes

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Ever to understand the subject.

But bear in mind this theory scopes

(In a way we couldn’t expect)

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Devices like computers, lasers,

Which might induce us to respect

Physics findings in all their phases.

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This torrent of discoveries

Which our whole cerebellum dazes

Might, too, indulge our reveries

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That science knowledge might be liked,

Accepted not only by devotees

But by all, not spitefully spiked

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By those whose vested interests clash.

Climate scientists have striven and hiked

A million miles to check and rehash

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Their results, only to be vilified,

Traduced, by corporate cash

And their paid politicians, who lied.

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But to Attenborough again!

He was clearly seeking to confide

Genetic secrets to us then,

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Part of the amazing global survey

Since Crick and Watson, two young men,

Discovered the structure of DNA.

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So much more is known now,

The genetic code, evolution’s way:

How a spider relates to a cow,

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Fossils, the dinosaurs’ extinctions,

Continental drift, and how

Science makes true predictions.

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The genetics Attenborough instructed

(Hox��genes) lay out the directions

On which the body is constructed:

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The head here, limbs there, as if planned,

In amazing detail conducted.

This evidence itself is grand,

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The process fascinating too.

From the science we understand

More now about the “genome view”

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Of which the��hox��genes form a part.

The genome is what makes you you,

What makes��all��creatures from the start.

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And these discoveries have all been made

While Attenborough’s noble heart

Strove decade after decade

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To illuminate nature’s broad domain.

Lately his temper’s been more frayed

By the deniers’ and doubters’ campaign.

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His warnings are much stronger now

As his time ebbs, trying to explain

To his public they must not allow

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Vested interests to dominate.

Too much is at stake, so disavow

The purblind before it is too late.

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The urgency is still no less,

Attenborough’s vision still will rate.

I share his excitement at the progress

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Of modern science, not to abate

His warnings on our present state.