I just spent two days in the UK, at the Premier League U18 Coches, Reserve Team, Development Squad Managers Meeting. It was an extremely interesting meeting which should lead to a much needed evolution (maybe I should even say revolution) in the English Football Academy system.

A few hours ago I left the UK and landed in Budapest, Hungary, to attend the ITU World Championship Series Grand Final, in which one of the athletes I coach, Ainhoa Murua, is racing. I am really looking forward to the men’s race on Saturday, with a showdown for the World Champion title between the Olympic Champion Jan Frodeno and the Spanish superstar Javier Gómez; but I am even more excited about the women’s race: Ainhoa has had an excellent season so far, she is well prepared, and we are both convinced that her best performance of the year could be around the corner.

But what does all of the above have to do with the title of this post, you may be wondering. The answer is “nothing at all”. On my way from Birmingham to Budapest via Munich, I came accross a splendid piece of scientific writing, and I just wanted to share it with the readers of this blog. It is from a book entitled “Science: A History”, and it is written by John Gribbin, astrophysicist and brilliant science writer.

“At the level of DNA and the mechanisms by which the cell operates, involving messenger RNA and the manufacture of proteins, as well as in reproduction itself, there is absolutely no difference between human beings and other forms of life on Earth. All creatures share the same genetic code, and we have all evolved in the same way from primordial forms (perhaps a single primordial form) of life on Earth. There is nothing special about the processes that have produced human beings, compared with the processes that have produced chimpanzees, sea urchins, cabbages or the humble wood louse. And our removal from center stage is just as profound when we look at the place of the Earth itself in the Universe at large.”

Reference
Gribbin J. Science: A History. Penguin Books Ltd., London, 2003, p. 571