Can genes determine which fifty-year-old will succumb to Alzheimer’s, which citizen will turn out on voting day, and which child will be marked for a life of crime? Yes, according to the Internet, a few scientific studies, and some in the biotechnology industry who should know better. Sheldon Krimsky and Jeremy Gruber gather a team of genetic experts to argue that treating genes as the holy grail of our physical being is a patently unscientific endeavor. Genetic Explanations urges us to replace our faith in genetic determinism with scientific knowledge about how DNA actually contributes to human development. The concept of the gene has been steadily revised since Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. No longer viewed by scientists as the cell’s fixed set of master molecules, genes and DNA are seen as a dynamic script that is ad-libbed at each stage of development. Rather than an autonomous predictor of disease, the DNA we inherit interacts continuously with the environment and functions differently as we age. What our parents hand down to us is just the beginning. Emphasizing relatively new understandings of genetic plasticity and epigenetic inheritance, the authors put into a broad developmental context the role genes are known to play in disease, behavior, evolution, and cognition. Rather than dismissing genetic reductionism out of hand, Krimsky and Gruber ask why it persists despite opposing scientific evidence, how it influences attitudes about human behavior, and how it figures in the politics of research funding.
Author(s): Sheldon Krimsky, Jeremy Gruber
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: xiv+368
Genetic Explanations: Sense and Nonsense......Page 4
Contents......Page 8
Foreword by Richard Lewontin......Page 10
Introduction: Evolving Narratives of Genetic Explanation across Disciplines......Page 16
Part I: New Understanding of Genetic Science......Page 30
1. The Mismeasure of the Gene......Page 32
2. Evolution Is Not Mainly a Matter of Genes......Page 41
3. Genes as Difference Makers......Page 49
What Is a Disease?......Page 51
What Genes Do......Page 54
Does It Matter, and If So, Why?......Page 56
4. Big B, Little b: Myth #1 Is That Mendelian Genes Actually Exist......Page 58
5. The Myth of the Machine-Organism: From Genetic Mechanisms to Living Beings......Page 66
Demise of Lock-and-Key Proteins......Page 67
The Living Chromosome......Page 68
The Unmechanistic Organism......Page 70
The Living and the Dead......Page 73
The Whole Is Coordinated Movement......Page 75
Causes Are Not Laws......Page 78
The Organism Insists on Its Own Way of Being......Page 80
Part II: Medical Genetics......Page 84
The Charms and Perils of Genetic Astrology......Page 86
Genetic Networks......Page 89
Plasticity and Epigenetic Inheritance......Page 91
Back to the Future......Page 95
7. Cancer Genes: The Vestigial Remains of a Fallen Theory......Page 96
A Historical and Epistemological Primer......Page 97
Can Reductionism Explain Biological Complexity?......Page 99
Classification of Cancers According to Their Proximate Causes......Page 100
Causes and Explanations of Cancers......Page 102
A Brief Description of Cancer Theories......Page 103
Science, Society, and the Cancer Puzzle......Page 106
A Final Note......Page 107
8. The Fruitless Search for Genes in Psychiatry and Psychology: Time to Reexamine a Paradigm......Page 109
Twin Studies......Page 112
Adoption Studies......Page 117
Conclusions about the Genetic Paradigm and the Need for an Alternative......Page 119
9. Assessing Genes as Causes of Human Disease in a Multicausal World......Page 122
An Intuitive Causal Model......Page 123
The Causal Role of Genes......Page 127
The Temptation to Overemphasize the Causal Role of Genes......Page 130
Underestimating the Causal Role of Genes......Page 132
Autism Status Quo: Genes, Brain, Behavior, and Hopelessness......Page 137
Anomalies Undermining the Genes-Brain-Behavior Model......Page 139
Active Pathophysiology, Genes, and Environment......Page 147
Could Active Pathophysiology Be Impairing Connectivity?......Page 148
Does Active Pathophysiology Modulate Ge ne tic Substrate, or Could It Be a Primary Cause of Brain Dysfunction?......Page 149
From Genes and Neurons to Environment and Glial Cells......Page 151
Cause?......Page 152
Modulating Severity by Treating Intermediary Metabolism......Page 153
Obstructed Rather than Defective......Page 154
Environment: The Gift That Keeps On Giving......Page 155
From a Fixed Unitary Phenomenon to Modifiable Manifestations of Complex Interacting-Systems Problems......Page 156
Time to Get a Grip......Page 157
Addressing an Apparent Epidemic through a Praxis of Environmental Pathophysiology......Page 159
Beyond Autism......Page 160
11. The Prospects of Personalized Medicine......Page 162
A Primer on Pharmacogenomics......Page 163
Pharmacogenomic Discontents......Page 168
Cancer Therapeutics: The Poster Child of Pharmacogenomics?......Page 170
Warfarin: What Is the Value Added?......Page 173
Codeine: The Forgotten Exemplar......Page 176
BiDil: A Genetic Drug That Wasn’t......Page 178
The Promise and Perils of Pharmacogenomics......Page 182
Part III: Genetics in Human Behavior and Culture......Page 186
12. The Persistent Influence of Failed Scientific Ideas......Page 188
XYY and Crime......Page 189
MAOA and Crime......Page 192
Boys, Girls, and Mathematical Ability......Page 193
Smart Genes, Stupid Genes......Page 196
Where Do We Go from Here?......Page 198
13. Map Your Own Genes! The DNA Experience......Page 201
“DNA Genealogy Has Never Been So Easy to Understand!”......Page 206
The Unnatural Growth of the Natural......Page 212
14. Creating a “Better Baby”: The Role of Genetics in Contemporary Reproductive Practices......Page 216
The Power of Kinship and Genetic Ties......Page 217
On the Way to a “Better” Baby: The Elimination of Genetic Disorders and Traits......Page 220
Who Is Responsible for What? Understanding Our Phenotype through Our Genotype......Page 224
“Download Baby”: Creating “Better” Babies through the Global Commerce of Gametes......Page 228
The Commodification of Genetic Traits and the Establishment of Identity......Page 235
Final Note......Page 240
15. Forensic DNA Evidence: The Myth of Infallibility......Page 242
Erroneous Matches......Page 243
Types of Errors......Page 244
How Errors Are Detected......Page 248
Gross Negligence, Scientific Misconduct, and Fraud......Page 252
Coincidental Matches......Page 255
Misleading Statistics......Page 260
Fallacious Statistical Conclusions......Page 261
Statistical Accuracy: Independence Assumptions......Page 262
Intentional Planting of DNA......Page 265
Improving DNA Evidence......Page 268
Ruth Hubbard against Genetic Determinism......Page 271
A Decade of the Human Genome Yields Next to Nothing......Page 272
Demise of Genetic/Biological Determinism......Page 273
Perpetuation of the Myth of Genetic Determinism in Academia......Page 274
Neither Genetic nor Environmental Determinism Rules......Page 275
Epigenetics of Maternal Behavior......Page 277
Maternal Care and Sex Hormones......Page 278
Maternal Care Influences Brain Development and Many Gene Functions......Page 279
Epigenetic Effects of Enriched Environment......Page 280
Epigenetic Footprints of Childhood Trauma in Humans......Page 281
Implications for Health......Page 282
Nutrition, Environmental Enrichment, and Mental Health......Page 283
Conclusion: The Unfulfilled Promise of Genomics......Page 285
The Role of the Media and Public Understanding......Page 286
The State of the Science......Page 288
The Commercialization of Biotechnology......Page 290
Finding the Right Balance......Page 295
Introduction......Page 300
1. The Mismea sure of the Gene......Page 302
2. Evolution Is Not Mainly a Matter of Genes......Page 303
3. Genes as Difference Makers......Page 305
4. Big B, Little b......Page 306
5. The Myth of the Machine-Organism......Page 308
6. Some Problems with Genetic Horoscopes......Page 310
7. Cancer Genes......Page 312
8. The Fruitless Search for Genes in Psychiatry and Psychology......Page 315
9. Assessing Genes as Causes of Human Disease in a Multicausal World......Page 321
10. Autism......Page 323
11. The Prospects of Personalized Medicine......Page 329
12. The Persistent Influence of Failed Scientific Ideas......Page 337
13. Map Your Own Genes!......Page 339
14. Creating a “Better Baby”......Page 344
15. Forensic DNA Evidence......Page 355
16. Nurturing Nature......Page 362
Conclusion......Page 365
Selected Readings......Page 368
Acknowledgments......Page 370
Contributors......Page 372
Index......Page 376
