Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human (Hardcover)

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 behaviour. 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 populariser 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, Amazon.com

Review
'Nature via Nurture sets the modern terms for an ancient debate, and at the same time delivers a superb tutorial on contemporary genetics; the feedback loop that embraces genes and environment is generally not well understood. And yet this plasticity, this elegant mutuality, seems crucial if our new understanding of human nature is to inform public policy. These times need a book like this.' Ian McEwan 'Lucidly explains the most recent discoveries on what makes us what we are, and how we should think about these discoveries as we ponder who we want to be...A treat, written with insight, wisdom, and style.' Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate 'Bracingly intelligent, lucid, balanced - witty, too. Nature via Nurture is a scrupulous and charming look at our modern understanding of genes and experience.' Oliver Sacks 'A real page-turner. What a superb writer he is, and he seems to get better and better.' Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene

For many hundreds of years, thinkers have been divided on the subject of nature versus nurture. Which is more powerful? Are we merely pre-programmed automatons or free-thinking individuals, moulded by our environment, circumstances and experiences? For Matt Ridley, bestselling author of Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, the truth is far more complex. We are, he argues, the product of a subtle fusion of both genetics and our environment. Drawing on the work of philosophers, behaviourists, psychologists and geneticists, Ridley builds his argument with panache. Encompassing over a hundred years of scientific experimentation and discussion, including up-to-the-minute research, Ridley's case is a complex one. Darwin, Pavlov, Freud and Dawkins all had something to say on the topic. Yet, Ridley suggests that none of these eminent figures have been completely correct. Neither were they entirely wrong. Genes, Ridley argues, affect human behaviour, and behaviour influences our genetic heritage. Ridley is not the first to make such a claim. He does so with both the benefit of well-advised hindsight and insight into the latest genetic research. Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix, his book stands to radically re-write our pre-conceptions about how DNA works. Studies are only now beginning to allow us to understand how genes 'build' and shape our bodies before birth. What will surprise many is that it seems that they continue to respond to experience and environment throughout our lives - truly nature via nurture. This is an impressive, ambitious and thought-provoking volume which rewards careful reading. (Kirkus UK)

More on the ongoing debate of whether heredity or environment is in charge of who we are, from the assertive but knowledgeable English science writer Ridley. Rather than just another exercise in stating the mutual dependence/interaction of genetic and environmental factors, the author provides examples of new-found genes that may turn on or off, may be more or less active, may or may not trigger a cascade of other gene actions, depending on circumstances. Nor is "the gene" always well-defined, he states. It can often be spliced in multiple ways, using alternative forms of component parts (the exons) with variable effects in various tissues. So, on the gene side, much variety, and on the nurture side, contexts galore, creating circles of complexity and feedback that render cause-effect statements (a la determinism) moot. Ridley's examples and inferences include genes and their mutations in the course of evolution that influence brain size and neuronal connections, personality, sexuality, language, culture, aggression, and nurturance, but still operate as cogs in the wheel of experience. Ultimately, he declares in favor of free will. He avers that we must replace linear with circular causality, "in which an effect influences its own cause"-sounding just like a physicist talking about quantum mechanics. Before reaching that point, Ridley cites a dozen graybeards over the century who have kept the N/N debate alive, with some kind remarks for Boas and Durkheim, even Lorenz and Tinbergen, but excoriation for Freud, Skinner, and Watson. Trouble is, for all Ridley's celebration of mutuality, some of the evidence he cites, such as twin studies, comes down strongly in terms of genes determining personality; while other data suggest that prenatal and infant experience (albeit via environmental influences on genes) are irrevocable. Certainly not the last word, but a lot of interesting turns of phrase and provocative findings to enrich the all-absorbing study of genes and behavior. (Kirkus Reviews)

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