Assignment Three, Article Eight
“Of Mice, Men and Genes” proved to be an excellent read. Robert M. Sapolsky gave convincing portrayal of how “environmental influences don’t begin at birth” (45). In his article he uses the example of mice and how they are tested in laboratory environments to clue us in on the nature vs. nurture debate. Most interesting of the points used was the first example of the testing done by Darlene Francis at Emory University, though the use of Beatrix Potter images was lost on this reader.
At Emory, Francis was examining the effect of being cared for by a parent whose constitution was more relaxed or timid than that of the baby and found that the trait in question was not being passed on to baby when the parent was an adoptive parent. Now here is where it gets interesting, Francis was able to provide evidence that when timid mama mice were implanted with embryos of relaxed babies the baby would grow to be just as timid as mama! Now who would want to take the time and effort to do such a thing other than a dedicated scientist.
Sapolsky also has a second example of a study done in New Zealand on one thousand children and the potential for clinical depression. Though this example has some merit, it could also be argued that no matter a persons genetic-make up there are always going to be some things that may trigger depression. He did a much better job of substantiating his claim on nature vs. nurture by the first example.
“Of Mice, Men and Genes” proved to be an excellent read. Robert M. Sapolsky gave convincing portrayal of how “environmental influences don’t begin at birth” (45). In his article he uses the example of mice and how they are tested in laboratory environments to clue us in on the nature vs. nurture debate. Most interesting of the points used was the first example of the testing done by Darlene Francis at Emory University, though the use of Beatrix Potter images was lost on this reader.
At Emory, Francis was examining the effect of being cared for by a parent whose constitution was more relaxed or timid than that of the baby and found that the trait in question was not being passed on to baby when the parent was an adoptive parent. Now here is where it gets interesting, Francis was able to provide evidence that when timid mama mice were implanted with embryos of relaxed babies the baby would grow to be just as timid as mama! Now who would want to take the time and effort to do such a thing other than a dedicated scientist.
Sapolsky also has a second example of a study done in New Zealand on one thousand children and the potential for clinical depression. Though this example has some merit, it could also be argued that no matter a persons genetic-make up there are always going to be some things that may trigger depression. He did a much better job of substantiating his claim on nature vs. nurture by the first example.
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