Quantum Forest

Last week, Australians were able to see plenty of information about genetics in the media. The excuse: the International Congress of Genetics in Melbourne. Something like the olympic games for Human Genetics; well, it is supposed to cover everything, but the main focus is Human Genetics (sorry plant, tree, animal—not human—breeders).

We had news about genes controlling this process, that disease and so on, and so forth. It seems to me that the media does not have the concept of heritability (“the proportion of observed variation that is under additive genetic control”, we will not worry about broad sense heritability until we have human cloning). The important element in the definition is proportion. There are a few traits that may have a very simple (Mendelian) inheritance mode, and if you have the gene you are stuffed. However, most traits (especially the adaptative ones) are quite complex, depending on multiple genes and with a heritability far from one. Therefore, most traits are not under total genetic control, our lives are not subject to this complete determinism coming from the media, and we are not slaves of our genes.

Sometimes it is incredible, but people will grab any excuse that may justify their behaviour as something outside their locus of control. Rather than “the voices made me do it” we have a “my genes made me do it”. Heritability, proportion of genetic control, not determinism, absolute genetic control.