| DOMINIC W. MASSARO, editor
University of California, Santa Cruz
Its Not All in Your Genes: Life From a
Developmental System Perspective
The Dependent
Gene: The Fallacy of "Nature vs. Nurture" By David S. Moore. New York:
W. H. Freeman, 2001. 312 pp. Cloth, $26.
By Mary Jane West-Eberhard. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. xx + 794 pp. Paper, $49.95.
In February 2001, with great hoopla, two competing research teams simultaneously
published initial drafts of the human genome (International Human Genome
Sequencing Consortium, 2001; Venter et al., 2001), an event that signaled
the coming of age of genomics, nearly 50 years after its conception (Watson
& Crick, 1953). The promise of a description of the human genome was touted
as enormous. After all, genes are the basis of life, and knowing what
genes do will be the first step in truly understanding biology and developing
ways to intervene when the genetic messages with which one is conceived
code for imperfect structures or functions. This is no less true for behaviors,
including pathological behaviors such as schizophrenia but also variations
in the everyday types of psychological functioning so critical to human
existence, such as intelligence and personality. Research pinpointing
genes for human psychological traits (particularly those associated with
abnormalities) exploded in the 1990s and continues unabated today; it
is not much of an exaggeration to say that a new gene-behavior connection
is discovered every month. Researchers, medical professionals, policy
makers, journalists, and the public at large have all shared in this "genomicophilia,"
expressing the belief that the path to perfect knowledge will be through
the genes.
|
|
