i didnt finish reading the article but thank god for posting. i agree completly. What this gene nonsense is doing is making people complacent. well i am schizoid because it is in my genes, or she got a heart attack because of her genes.

i believe we make choices and the choices we mmake including attitudinal are what make the genes. that is the real evolution of our minds over our body.

To me, beliefs in genetic determinism (esp. with regard to implications of identification of specific new genes) are just an incidental example of the wider problem of lack of science literacy and the quality of mainstream journalism's science coverage. Realistic portrayals of new discoveries lose out to hype hoped to draw eyeballs.

Perhaps the most important thing that is ignored is that the production of a phenotype is a dynamic process that extends throughout the life and genes and environment are in a feedback loop. Thus, genetic determinism and environmental determinism are both in some sense true, but in another sense totally miss the most important truths.

Studies show that identical twins become more, not less, similar as they age. Such a result is difficult to make sense out of from either a pure genetic or environmental approach. But with the insight that one effect of genes may be to bias us toawrds certain environments, it makes more sense.

A lot of nature/nurture debate seems to be like arguing whether it is the first or last event in a causal chain that is the "true" cause of the event. Pick whichever you like or whichever is most appropriate for the context of your problem, but remember that what is really happening is the full chain.

My favorite book on the topic is Rethinking Innateness: A Connectionist Approach to Development by Elman, Bates et al. They take a wonderfully nuanced look at the important concepts and examine whether and how they can continue to be useful.

Since this gene selection for eye color will have nothing to do with our own eyes but for our children is this to say that we will now manufacture a pallette of characteristics for our children? how do they make green hair?