Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, And What Makes Us Human [Hardcover]

In the follow-up to his bestseller, Genome, Matt Ridley takes on a centuries-old question: is it nature or nurture that makes us who we are? Ridley asserts that the question itself is a "false dichotomy." Using copious examples from human and animal behavior, he presents the notion that our environment affects the way our genes express themselves.

Ridley writes that the switches controlling our 30,000 or so genes not only form the structures of our brains but do so in such a way as to cue off the outside environment in a tidy feedback loop of body and behavior. In fact, it seems clear that we have genetic "thermostats" that are turned up and down by environmental factors. He challenges both scientific and folk concepts, from assumptions of what's malleable in a person to sociobiological theories based solely on the "selfish gene."

Ridley's proof is in the pudding for such touchy subjects as monogamy, aggression, and parenting, which we now understand have some genetic controls. Nevertheless, "the more we understand both our genes and our instincts, the less inevitable they seem." A consummate popularizer of science, Ridley once again provides a perfect mix of history, genetics, and sociology for readers hungry to understand the implications of the human genome sequence. --Therese Littleton

"Nature versus nurture" sums up in a nutshell one of the most contentious debates in science: Are people's qualities determined by their genes (nature) or by their environment (nurture)? The debate has only grown louder since the human genome has been found to comprise only 30,000 genes. Some scientists claim that we don't have enough genes to account for all the existing human variations. Ridley, author of the bestseller Genome, says that not only are nature and nurture not mutually exclusive, but that "genes are designed to take their cue from nurture." Genes are not unchanging little bits of DNA: their expression varies throughout a person's life, often in response to environmental stimuli. Babies are born with genes hard-wired for sight, but if they are also born with cataracts, the genes turn themselves off and the child will never acquire the ability to see properly. On the other hand, stuttering used to be ascribed solely to environmental factors. Then stuttering was found to be clearly linked to the Y chromosome, and evidence for genetic miswiring of areas in the brain that manage language was uncovered. But environment still plays a role: not everyone with the genetic disposition will grow up to be a stutterer. Ridley's survey of what is known about nature-nurture interactions is encyclopedic and conveyed with insight and style. This is not an easy read, but fans of his earlier book and readers looking for a challenging read will find this an engrossing study of what makes us who we are.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ridley likes to pursue a book's argument according to a set pattern. In Genome (2000), a Booklist Top of the List winner for nonfiction, he revealed what is known and supposed about the human genome. For the sequel to his best-seller, Ridley imagines a group portrait photograph taken in 1903. The subjects are nine men, a little boy, a baby, and a ghost, constituting a gathering of the most influential contributors to the dispute in human psychology and biology over whether nature or nurture (genes or environment; endowment or experience) predominates in determining individual human personality. The text that follows takes one or more of those figures' ideas as a starting point for a discussion of the truths they--and just as important, their critics--discovered. That mode of discussion--really, a matter of on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand--allows Ridley to pose as a popular lecturer, vivifying the subject matter with plenty of humor and lots of intriguing illustrations (few males will be able to read the passages about prenatal environmental influences on sexuality without measuring their fingers), and to exemplify the complementary nature of the solution to the nature-versus-nurture dispute: nature via nurture, which denotes the realization that the two factors must interact constantly to promote development. Terrific popular science. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

“Terrific popular science.” -- Booklist (starred review)

February, 2001, it was announced that the human genome contains not 100,000 genes, as originally expected, but only 30,000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave; we must be made by nurture, not nature. Yet again biology was to be stretched on the Procrustean bed of the nature-nurture debate. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes, too, and genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.

Nature Via Nurture chronicles a revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture.

Read by Matt Ridley.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Matt Ridley's books have been shortlisted for six literary awards. He has been a scientist, a journalist, and a national newspaper columnist, and is currently chairman of the International Centre for Life, in Newcastle, England. He is also a visiting professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

In the tradition of a PBS documentary, the author of the bestseller Genome explores how genetic programming interacts with experience to create the behavioral patterns of humans and other species. Science has found that particular experiences at the right times "switch on" certain genes, so there is constant interaction between genetics and life events. Ridley discusses this phenomenon in many species and cultures around the world, and he presents this fascinating material with great respect. With satisfying auditory pacing and texture, the author weaves controversial content into a wonderful intellectual narrative. T.W. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.