Nature, nurture or neither? The view from the genes

Prof Steve Jones will talk about the most dangerous word in genetics: the idea of a gene “for” a particular attribute, from alcoholism to religious belief and how DNA and way of life nearly always work together to determine our health, our mood and – perhaps – even our willingness to take risks, go shopping or buy shares.

Genetics is a remarkable science in many ways, some obvious and some less so. As Prof Jones says to his students in their first lecture on the subject, "My job is to make sex boring" and, after thirty lectures on DNA structure and the like they tend to agree. To cheer them up, at the end of the course he tells them that two out of every three of them will die for reasons connected to the genes they carry – and, with so much mortality coming from cancer, heart disease, diabetes and the like (all of which have an inherited component) Steve is right again. To the public, genetics brings exaggerated fears about inborn fate and over-optimism about gene therapy and 'designer babies'. Prof Jones will talk about the most dangerous word in genetics: the idea of a gene “for” a particular attribute, from alcoholism to religious belief and how DNA and way of life nearly always work together to determine our health, our mood and – perhaps – even our willingness to take risks, go shopping or buy shares.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund