Behavioral Genetics: An Introduction to How Genes and Environments Interact Through Development to Shape Differences in Mood, Personality, and Intelligence

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Behavioral Genetics: An Introduction to How Genes and Environments Interact Through Development to Shape Differences in Mood, Personality, and Intelligence
Catherine Baker
Manufacturer: AAAS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 087168697X

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To agree or not to agree

The Developmental Systems Perspective

Old Fashion Semantics?

Beyond the Gene Myth

The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of Nature vs. Nurture
David S. Moore
Manufacturer: W. H. Freeman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0716740249

Book Description

True or false?Eye color is determined solely by genesGenes limit our potentialSome traits are more genetic than othersSurprisingly, all of these statements are false. We continually hear about new studies that tell us genes are responsible for traits like obesity, depression, breast cancer, violent behavior, and others. But contrary to public opinion, genes don't determine the final form of any of our traits, even biological ones like hair and eye color.David S. Moore's The Dependent Gene is the first accessible book to show how all traits are caused by complex, dependent interactions, between genes and the environment. In clear, elegant language, Moore investigates how these interactions occur at every stage of biological and psychological development-from a single fertilized egg to a full-grown adult.Our beliefs about where traits come from affect how we think about parenting, education, crime, health care, reproduction, and other social issues. In addition, biotechnological advances like cloning and DNA "fingerprinting" have made more important than ever before to understand the role of genetic factors in trait development. An enlightening guide to this brave new world, The Dependent Gene empowers readers to take control of their own destiny.

Customer Reviews:

To agree or not to agree.......2006-07-13

While Mr. Moore presents his view with reasonable facts of science, it leaves one with the impression "what do we do now?" I never got a clear picture of his definition of the Nature vs. Nurture debate.

The Developmental Systems Perspective.......2005-12-15

The Dependent Gene is a deeply thoughtful and carefully articulated synthesis of contemporary genetics, developmental biology and evolutionary principles. Thus, it transcends the gene-centric propositions that directed much biological science in the 20th century, and that pervades today in such starkly different venues as repair shops and hospital chart rooms, where a repairman or a psychiatrist might explain human traits and behavior with "It's in the genes." (cf. D. Nelkin & M.S. Lindee, The DNA Mystique). Professor Moore's penetrating expose of the nature versus nurture fallacy is a sizeable accomplishment because as Stephen Jay Gould has written: "Thinking in dichotomies may be the most venerable (and ineluctable) of all human mental habits." (S.J. Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory).

The author, a professor of psychology at Pitzer College and the Claremont Graduate University, invites the reader's curiosity with such charming chapter headings as - From Aristotle's Wonder to a Fork in the Road: The Wrenching of Genetics from Development; Dependent Genes: Essential Biology and DNA; A Turtle in the Shade: The Development of Sexual Characteristics; Chicken Shoes and Monkey Foods: The Not-so-Subtle Effects of Some Very Subtle Postnatal Experiences; On Big Muscles and Facial Hair: Reconsidering "Inherited," "Acquired," and "Innate." Through aptly chosen vignettes we learn how to speed up the metamorphosis of a tadpole into a frog and how a tree can grow from its top to its roots rather than the usual way. In the process we acquire an understanding of "The Developmental Systems Perspective" that melts the arbitrary and artificial boundaries between genomic processes and human development.

The book is separated into five sections: Part I: Where We're Going, Where We've Been; Part II: Background Basics; Part III: Developmental Systems; Part IV: Development and Evolution (by itself, worth the price of the book); Part V: Implications (for the philosophically and policy minded). Taken as a whole, one gets a clear sense of what a fine teacher Professor Moore is. The concepts he presents are not easy ones (for example DNA machinery, immediate early genes, epigenetics, heritability, neoteny) yet, through a careful step-by-step propaedeutic, highly abstract concepts are made real and the hard work of synthesis is made accessible. This fine book will likely be enjoyed by lifetime learners as well as advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Old Fashion Semantics?.......2002-11-03

Moore's primary concern is that equal emphasis be paid to both genetic and non genetic factors in studying human traits. His hope is that if $3 billion is spent sequencing the human Genome's DNA that another $3 billion should be spent on understanding the development of genes. Put bluntly, Moore thinks that confining yourself to genetic determinism is lazy, dumb thinking. For example, scientists should now know better than to draw connections between skin color and IQ levels. However, I think his whole approach is old fashioned semantics. He thinks because an author traces a trait to a gene this means that author is ignoring the cell in which the gene develops and ignoring proteins, enzymes and hormones that trigger growth. The genetic-non-genetic dichotomy is out of date. Why waste time with it? Moore wants to wean the reader away from genetic determinism but isn't this just a corner he's painted himself into? He suggests that one shouldn't label genes and attribute them to traits. But who is still doing this beyond the media? Modern writers now take a biochemical, proteomic rather than a genetic approach. In many ways the book chops down an old tree that is nearly toppling from the weight of its dead wood.

Moore omits much of what doesn't fit into his pretty picture. For example no mention of knockout studies (The Misunderstood Gene by Michel Morange) where one missing fosB gene prevented the mother mouse from tending her litter of newborns. Also missing is a discussion of certain inherited conditions like sickle cell, Huntington's and hemophilia where the non genetic factors add little to the understanding of these mutations. Genes are only important because they can be modified. The trouble is that the field is moving so fast that anything published is outmoded before the ink is dry.

Beyond the Gene Myth.......2002-02-18

This book is one of the clearest and most convincing critiques of genetic determinism, availing itself of a new, or renewed, developmental perspective. The nature-nurture debate was always an exercise in futility, but here, armed with a new approach, the issues seem to resolve themselves almost transparently. The resurfacing of this developmental perspective in the last decade, even as evolutionary psychology and sociobiology move into the mainstream, is both timely and a source of essential information for those confused by the Darwin debate, with its high powered promotions of genetic reductionism, and the misleading promises of the Human Genome project. It was always hard to resist the rigid claims based on Mendelism, but now we can see there is no alternative, a lesson, after all these years, to remember, think before the experts tell you what constitutes science.
Demonstrating the many confusions here starting with those of Galton, and Weismann, and tracing the embryological perspective all the way back to von Baer in the early nineteenth century, the author shows how the emergence of population genetics derailed developmentalism, leading to the now dominant one-sidedness of the Neo-Mendelian Synthesis, which is not able to account for the relationships of genes in relation to environments. The sidelined corrective of Gerstang and de Beer is now seen to be the source of a newly consolidating research perspective, now envigorated by new knowledge of regulatory genetics. The confusion of genes and traits is reviewed in a very clear and convincing account, with a remarkable discussion of Lamarck's ideas, their direct relevance, and limitations.
The end result is a fascinating new approach to the idea of evolution based on traits at the level of phenotype, a view, by the way, pointed to by Ernst Mayr, long ago. I think here the author is too kind to Darwin and still with the reflex over Lamarck. For now we are given the variant of Darwin whereby his later Lamarckism makes him prefigure the new developmentalism, even as Lamarck is given but a brief pat on the back. That is surely not quite the right history in the middle of what must be an important new outlook very much on the right track.
This is a very useful and important book for those on the defensive in the current environment of genetic fundamentalism. However, although the new perspective is essential as a new foundation for any theory of evolution, I think that this new and inevitable paradigm will still fall short of a full theory of evolution. But that is another story, as one can only hope this new point of view will enable a swift exit from the current dominant confusion.

Gene Interactions in Development (Monographs on Theoretical and Applied Genetics)

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Gene Interactions in Development (Monographs on Theoretical and Applied Genetics)
Leonid Ivanovich Korochkin
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Interaction of Translational and Transcriptional Controls in the Regulation of Gene Expression (Developments in Biochemistry)

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Interaction of Translational and Transcriptional Controls in the Regulation of Gene Expression (Developments in Biochemistry)

Manufacturer: Elsevier
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0444007601

Pharmacogenomics in Drug Discovery and Development (Methods in Molecular Biology)

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Pharmacogenomics in Drug Discovery and Development (Methods in Molecular Biology)

Manufacturer: Humana Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Since each human is genetically distinctive, responding differently to disease-causing factors as well as drugs, the field pharmacogenomics arose to develop personalized medicine, or medicine that deals with the complexity of the human body. In Pharmacogenomics in Drug Discovery and Development, leading experts present methodical, state-of-the-art contributions covering topics from individual molecules to systemic diseases, examining both fundamental concepts and advanced technologies. Divided into three sections, the volume begins by exploring cutting-edge technologies used to pursue systems-based pharmacogenomics, followed by extensive chapters on gene-drug interactions and the use of pharmacogenomics in therapeutics of diseases.

Comprehensive and up-to-date, Pharmacogenomics in Drug Discovery and Development is an ideal volume for scientists striving to transform disease treatment into disease prevention.

Book Description

Knowledge of the presence of abnormally-high pressure zones (AHFP) prior to drilling into them can prevent considerable economic losses and, possibly, save human lives.

The various origins (undercompaction, tectonics, etc.) of AHFPs are discussed, followed by the description of predictive techniques in clastic, carbonate and salt-bearing formations. In addition to the well-logging predictive techniques, the authors discuss smectite-illite transformation and the chemistry of interstitial solutions. Other topics covered include (a) abnormally low formation pressures and subsidence, and (b) mathematical modelling. Loss of potential production may result if AHFPs are not properly identified and evaluated. Many hydrocarbon-bearing formations with AHFPs are erroneously "condemned".

This book is of interest to engineers and geologists involved in the (a) evaluation, (b) drilling in, (c) completing, and (d) producing from hydrocarbon reservoirs with AHFPs.

Book Description

This book comprises all of John Bell's published and unpublished papers in the field of quantum mechanics, including two papers that appeared after the first edition was published. It also contains a preface written for the first edition, and an introduction by Alain Aspect that puts into context Bell's great contribution to the quantum philosophy debate. One of the leading expositors and interpreters of modern quantum theory, John Bell played a major role in the development of our current understanding of the profound nature of quantum concepts. First edition Hb (1987): 0-521-33495-0 First edition Pb (1988): 0-521-36869-3

Customer Reviews:

The Original Papers; The Real Deal.......2006-12-15

After reading lots of commentaries on Bell's Theorem, this book
is where you finally get to read the actual paper. Worth it.

Excellent, and no caveat...........2006-07-14

You can see from the other reviews here that this is a fascinating book. Many of the essays discuss 'unorthodox' interpretations of QM like Bohmian mechanics and wave-collapse models. The introduction by Alain Aspect was very interesting as well, and discussed the experimental advances in what he calls the "second quantum revolution." If you are buying an older edition of this book you may not get this introduction.

The previous review "Small Caveat" is a little misleading. Bell does explain that if the spaceships are accelerating slowly enough, the tension in the string will cause the system to contract as a whole, and the string will not break. But if the spaceships maintain a constant distance apart in the frame of the observer, the string will most certainly break. If you don't accept Bell's main argument that the electric fields between the atoms contract, transform to the accelerated frame of one of the ships and you will find the other ship receding away.

But don't listen to me, read the essays yourself! Even if you don't agree with the arguments, you will not be sorry for the thought provoking experience.

Excellent but small caveat...........2006-02-08

I agree with the enthusiasm shown by other reviewers (see also the first edition) for this book's treatment of interpretive issues at the foundations of quantum theory. However, chapter 9 unfortunately titled "How to teach Relativity" shows that Bell's expertise in quantum theory did not extend to special relativity, which he seriously misunderstands. Drawing on an old mistaken paper by Dewan & Beran from 1959, he describes a thought experiment of two spaceships joined by a thread and accelerating identically. Like the earlier authors, Bell wrongly believed the thread would break, showing the Lorentz contraction (again wrongly) to be a "real" effect, rather than an apparent one manifested only in another relatively moving inertial frame.
Despite the fact that, as he mentions in the book, all his CERN colleagues contradicted him, he nevertheless included this old "chestnut" with a false interpretation that can only do harm to the general understanding of STR.

Clear and Thought-Provoking Gems from QM Master!.......2006-02-08

I am SO glad to see that this book has been given a second printing!!! Bravo, Cambridge University Press!

This book is not destined to become a classic-- because It IS a classic ALREADY!! It is just one that hasn't been widely recognized yet.

That's only a matter of time.

Nowadays everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Quantum Communication this and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen that-- and I guess with good reason, for we are now starting to see practical applications of this most esoteric of physics subfields.

However, it seems that the more non-intuitve and interesting a topic is, the more obfuscation (both intended and accidental) is written about it. (I'm not just talking about laymen and mystics, but physicists too!) Or, said another way, the more people talk, the less they really understand.

Forget all the rest of the junk out there. Cut to chase. Read about the ESSENTIALS of what QUANTUM MECAHNICS really MEANS from one of the Masters of the field in about 15 short, lucid, crystal-clear essays.

There is some math here, but not much. That is the beauty and the danger of Quantum Mechanics-- because calculations are not that difficult in this field, people are lulled into thinking they really understand what it is they are calculating.

Well, most don't.

If you really want to get a grasp as to what it all MEANS-- forgetting the calculations for a moment--- you must read this book.

Feynman said that nobody really understood Quantum Mechanics.

That may be so...

But John Stuart Bell came the closest.

You can't meet him at a conference anymore (he died in 1990,) but you CAN have him tutor you personally in this short, brilliant masterpiece.

Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics (Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy)

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fascinating
Recommended but with a minor caveat.
Still the subject of much debate
Clear and Thought-Provoking Gems from QM Master
If it isn't yet, it will become a classic.

Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics (Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy)
John S. Bell
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521368693

Book Description

This book includes the entire collection of published and unpublished papers on the conceptual and philosophical problems of quantum mechanics written by John Bell, the leading expositor and interpreter of the modern quantum theory.

Customer Reviews:

fascinating.......2007-07-10

This is some provocative work from a man who is not satisfied with the copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.

Recommended but with a minor caveat........2006-02-08

I agree with the enthusiasm shown by other reviewers (see also the 2nd. edition) for this book's treatment of interpretive issues at the foundations of quantum theory. However, chapter 9 unfortunately titled "How to teach Relativity" shows that Bell's expertise in quantum theory did not extend to special relativity, which he seriously misunderstood. Drawing on an old mistaken paper by Dewan & Beran from 1959, a thought experiment is described where two spaceships are joined by a thread and accelerate identically. Like the earlier authors, Bell wrongly believed the thread would break, showing the Lorentz contraction (again wrongly) to be a "real" effect, rather than an apparent one manifested only in another relatively moving inertial frame.
Despite the fact that, as is mentioned in the book, all his CERN colleagues contradicted him, he nevertheless included this old "chestnut" with a false interpretation that can only do harm to the general understanding of STR. It is precisely this misunderstanding that has caused so much confusion over the rotating disc problem (Ehrenfest paradox), which has generated many meaningless papers over the years - and still does !

Still the subject of much debate.......2003-02-13

It would be difficult to find a more controversial topic in the philosophy of physics than what is discussed in this book. But its implications go beyond philosophy, in that some of the ideas in the book have been used in the attempts to build a quantum computer. Since it was written at a time when quantum computation was not taken as seriously as it is now, if at all, it is not surprising that experimental backing for the content is not included in the book. That such experimental evidence is lacking in the book is also a sign that such experiments are not conclusive in the verification of what the author expounds in the book. I can only speak for myself here, but having undertaken a painstaking look at the literature on the experiments purporting to verify entanglement and the "Bell inequalities", I have yet to find one that does so in a convincing way. The mathematical formalism employed by the author in the book allows him to prove some interesting theoretical conclusions, and those who work in the field of quantum computation even more so, but real-world experiments are lagging considerably behind these purely theoretical constructions.

The reader will find good discussions of the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen and the de Broglie-Bohm delayed-choice "thought experiments" in the book, as well as a few other interesting discussions, such as the problem of hidden variables all from a pretty much philosophical viewpoint. The author however does not hesitate to use mathematical formalism where appropriate. Some of his conclusions will depend on what philosophical "school of thought" the reader is in. For example, in his discussion on hidden variables, he refers to the work of the mathematician Andrew Gleason on the impossibility of hidden variables. However, Gleason's proof would be unacceptable to a reader from the "intuitionist" school of mathematics, since the proof is nonconstructive. The author though does give an interesting analysis of why the von Neumann proof, and others after him (due to for example Jauch, Piron, and Gleason), are of limited relevance when analyzed in depth. Hence, for those who accept non-constructivism in mathematics, the Gleason proof would still not be a refutation of the existence of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. The author analyzes the arguments of von Neumann, Jauch, Piron, and Gleason, and rejects them mostly on the grounds of their demand that dispersion-free states must have the same properties as the usual quantum-mechanical states that allow all the successful predictions of quantum mechanics. The dispersion-free states could still reproduce the measurable peculiarities of quantum mechanics when they are averaged over, the author concludes.

Along these same lines, the author also gives an interesting discussion of the argument of Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen on the incompleteness of quantum mechanics. He formulates their requirement that quantum mechanics contain additional variables mathematically and then proceeds to show that it is incompatible with the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics. These extra variables or parameters must have a probability distribution, and it is then shown, for a pair of spin-1/2 particles in a singlet spin state, and moving in opposite directions, that these extra variable do not give the quantum mechanical expectation value for the singlet state. The author concludes that in a theory in which parameters are added to quantum mechanics to determine the results of individual measurements without changing the statistical predictions, there must be a mechanism in which the setting of one measuring device influences the reading of another instrument, no matter how remote. He concludes that instantaneous propagation would exist in such a theory, which violates Lorentz invariance. His proof is straightforward to follow, but he does use a classical (Kolmogorovian) expression for the expectation value of the two spin components. This has provoked some debate, and has brought about a notion of "contextual probability", which is a probability theory that follows more on the lines of the frequency approach of von Mises. Also, the notion of locality that the author employs has been seriously challenged by some researchers, who assert that the real notions of space and time have not been used by Bell in the proof.

Therefore it could be said without a doubt that this book will introduce the reader to the raging debate on locality and other issues in the "foundations" of quantum physics. Papers supporting Bell and those against his conclusions appear frequently on the preprint servers. Since this book is widely quoted in these papers, it should perhaps then be on the shelf of all those readers who really have a desire to understand the mysteries of quantum mechanics.

Clear and Thought-Provoking Gems from QM Master.......2002-11-22

It is a travesty that this book is out of print. Almost unbelievable, in fact. What is Cambridge University Press thinking?

This book is not destined to become a classic-- because It IS a classic ALREADY!! It is just one that hasn't been widely recognized yet.

That's only a matter of time.

Nowadays everyone and their uncle seems to be talking about Quantum Communication this and Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen that-- and I guess with good reason, for we are now starting to see practical applications of this most esoteric of physics subfields.

However, it seems that the more non-intuitve and interesting a topic is, the more obfuscation (both intended and accidental) is written about it. (I'm not just talking about laymen and mystics, but physicists too!) Or, said another way, the more people talk, the less they really understand.

Forget all the rest of the [stuff] out there. Cut to chase. Read about the ESSENTIALS of what QUANTUM MECAHNICS really MEANS from one of the Masters of the field in about 15 short, lucid, crystal-clear essays.

There is some math here, but not much. That is the beauty and the danger of Quantum Mechanics-- because calculations are not that difficult in this field, people are lulled into thinking they really understand what it is they are calculating.

Well, most don't.

If you really want to get a grasp as to what it all MEANS-- forgetting the calculations for a moment--- you must read this book.

Feynman said that nobody really understood Quantum Mechanics. That may be so...

But John Stuart Bell came the closest.

You can't meet him at a conference anymore (he died in 1990,) but you CAN have him tutor you personally in this short, brilliant masterpiece.

If it isn't yet, it will become a classic........2002-08-08

In the early days of quantum mechanics, Einstein (who was
actually at the origin of the basic ideas of the theory)
and Bohr (one of the founders of the formalism of quantum
mechanics) had a lot of discussions: Einstein just couldn't
accept the (to "common sense") weird predictions of
quantum theory. Einstein's criticism on quantum theory
reached a top in a few papers that describe what is called
"the Einstein-Podolski-Rosen paradox". It describes long
distance correlations between measurements that seem to depend
on arbitrary decisions made by the two distant observers and
that can have no causal relationship.
Einstein's favorite view of the statistical nature of quantum
mechanical predictions was some hidden "gears and wheels"
that wasn't found out yet.
John Bell examined the question in detail and wrote a few
historical papers in which he showed that it is mathematically
impossible that the predictions of quantum mechanics follow
from hidden local "gears and wheels" in the situation
described by the EPR paradox; as such the strangeness
of the EPR paradox is underlined and can be settled by
experiment: if the "gears and wheels" exist, then the
predictions of quantum mechanics cannot be right (that is the
content of the Bell papers). Today, very sophisticated experiments indicate
that quantum mechanics is right and that the weirdness is
with us for good.
In this volume, those historical papers by Bell are reprinted
with added comments by the author. The merit is that they
have raised the issue from a conceptual debate to a scientific
question, amenable to experimental inquiery.

Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Mechanics

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Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics: Collected Papers on Quantum Mechanics
J. S. Bell
Manufacturer: Cambridge Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KYNMXI

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