All Characters Are Heritable

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All human behavioral traits are heritable to the effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of the genes. A substantial proportion of the variation in complex human behavioral traits is not accounted for by the effects of genes or families so what would that be luck chance randomness? We're merely puppets of our DNA if you say all characters are heritable but all that really means is that you can there is variability because to have heritability it's got to be variable, he says.

Shermer and Cobb discuss: objections to genetic engineering (political, religious, cultural) • selective breeding • recombinant DNA • the ethics of genetics • patenting life • gene therapy • gene editing • CRISPR • literature and films on the dangers of genetic engineering • bioweapons • 3 Laws of Behavior Genetics and what people fear about it.

Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He is the author of six books: The Idea of the Brain: A History; Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code; Generation; The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis; Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris in 1944; and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.