It Ain't Necessarily So The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions

by Lewontin, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780940322950
• ISBN10: 0940322951
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-30
• Publisher: New York Review Books

Summary

Is our natureas individuals, as a speciesdetermined by our evolution and encoded in our genes? If we unravel the protein sequences of our DNA, will we gain the power to cure all of our physiological and psychological afflictions and even to solve the problems of our society? Today biologistsespecially geneticistsare proposing answers to questions that have long been asked by philosophy or faith or the social sciences. Their work carries the weight of scientific authority and attracts widespread public attention, but it is often based on what the renowned evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin identifies as a highly reductive misconception: "the pervasive error that confuses the genetic state of an organism with its total physical and psychic nature as a human being." In these nine essays covering the history of modern biology from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, all of which were originally published in The New York Review of Books, Lewontin combines sharp criticisms of overreaching scientific claims with lucid expositions of the exact state of current scientific knowledgenot only what we do know, but what we don't and maybe won't anytime soon. Among the subjects he discusses are heredity and natural selection, evolutionary psychology and altruism, nineteenth-century naturalist novels, sex surveys, cloning, and the Human Genome Project. In each case he casts an ever-vigilant and deflationary eye on the temptation to look to biology for explanations of everything we want to know about our physical, mental, and social lives. These essaysseveral of them updated with epilogues that take account of scientific developments since they were first writtenare an indispensable guide to the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. The second edition of this collection includes new essays on genetically modified food and the completion of the Human Genome Project. It is an indispensable guide to the most controversial issues in the life sciences today.

Author Biography

Richard Lewontin is Alexander Agassiz Research Professor at Harvard University

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
Chapter 1
The Inferiority Complex	1	(20)
An Exchange	21	(13)
Epilogue	34	(7)
Chapter 2
Darwin's Revolution	41	(28)
Epilogue	69	(6)
Chapter 3
Darwin, Mendel, and the Mind	75	(29)
Epilogue	104	(5)
Chapter 4
The Science of Metamorphoses	109	(22)
Epilogue	131	(2)
Chapter 5
The Dream of the Human Genome	133	(44)
Epilogue	177	(10)
Second Epilogue	187	(10)
Chapter 6
Women Versus the Biologists	197	(31)
An Exchange	228	(9)
Chapter 7
Sex, Lies, and Social Science	237	(28)
An Exchange	265	(16)
Chapter 8
The Confusion over Cloning	281	(21)
An Exchange	302	(8)
Epilogue	310	(3)
Chapter 9
Survival of the Nicest?	313	(28)
Chapter 10
Genes in the Food!	341