story I'm telling you based on the data I have is true and a very large percentage of our political ideology is heritable then the most important choice you make in your children in determining your children's uh political ideology isyour choice of mate so that brings us back to how mating actually contributes to the development and polarization of
snakes or animals with big teeth and if somebody puts their hand up and says but I'm not afraid of snakes these are heritable all we can say is is that our ancestors there is a general fear ofsnakes and that our ancestors uh are the ones who were afraid of snakes and they're the ones who survived we have
Now, it might matter. School achievement is 60% heritable , so we've got a long way to go.
But when you ask people, how heritable is eye color-- that is how much is it due to inherited DNA differences-- I've done these surveys and people, on average, would say it's about 90% heritable . That means it's almost entirely due to inherited DNA differences.
And finally, there is a broad range of factors that affect both your face and your psychological traits, genes. We know that many psychological traits are heritable , and we know that our faces are also heritable . We know that there are genetic disorders that affect both faces and behavior.
So when I talk about fitness, I'm talking about the relative contribution that an individual makes to future populations. So if you have some heritable trait, whether it's anatomical or physiological or behavioral, marginally increasing the representation of its bearers and future generations, the population is going to evolve towards that trait.
Helen Glover had only been rowing for four years when she won this gold medal. We know that height is about 70% heritable .
I was interested in studying things that hadn't been studied much before, like language development in the early child years or behavior problems which developed very early on and are highly heritable in early childhood, like attention deficit problems. But when they got to school because I was interested in cognitive development, I really wanted to study kind of the business
And so of course they're looking at a lot of other heritable genetic disorders that they want to cure-- cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, hemophilia. These are diseases, heritable genetic disorders that have only one or two genetic coding problems that could be fixed by CRISPR. And this is what interested me so much from a fictional point of view, because I couldn't think of anything more important than the ability to edit ourselves.
So the aging question we explored and talked-- helped you think through this phenomenon of zombie cells to an embryo, and it's heritable .
So just to make sure we're on the same page, you know, genetics, heritability-- these are difficult concepts for people to grasp. But when you ask people, how heritable is eye color-- that is how much is it due to inherited DNA differences-- I've done these surveys and people, on average, would say it's about 90% heritable .
They think there might be some genetic influence, but it's mostly environmental. But in fact, it's 70% heritable across a wide range of studies, including DNA studies. And that's really important because it means that the differences between people in this room-- you all seem to be skinny, except for me--
Now, it might matter. Now, it's maybe 50% heritable , so it's a long way to go, but this is all just in the last few years
Now, this embryo was not brought to term, but it would have cured this would-be child. And so of course they're looking at a lot of other heritable genetic disorders that they want to cure-- cystic fibrosis, Huntington's disease, hemophilia. These are diseases, heritable genetic disorders that have only one or two genetic coding problems that could be fixed by CRISPR.
That means it's almost entirely due to inherited DNA differences. But when you turn to complex traits like weight, how heritable do you think weight is? And if you do population surveys, probably not of groups as smart as this one, but people would say about 20%, 30%.
So if genetic editing seems like it's far away, it's not. Just last month, Chinese researchers were able to correct a genetic-- a heritable genetic disorder in a viable human embryo. Now, this embryo was not brought to term, but it would have cured this would-be child.
offers us tremendous capabilities. Again, think about the ability to cure all of these heritable genetic disorders. But more than that, set us aside for a moment.
Black. Pink. Orange. Red. The other one would be retinitis pigmentosa, which is actually a heritable condition where people also progressively lose their photoreceptors.
As opposed to ability, which people say, oh, that's genetic. But in fact, school achievement-- tested school achievement-- in English in schools in England is about 60% heritable , meaning 60% of the differences between kids in their tested school achievement is due to inherited DNA differences.
Well, if you look at research on the nature nurture question, the ballpark is that at least half, if not even up to about two-thirds of the variation in human attributes, psychological attributes, is not due to heritable factors. In other words, roughly a third to a half of the variation on average has to do with heritable factors, kind of woven early into DNA.
of the variation in human attributes, psychological attributes, is not due to heritable factors. In other words, roughly a third to a half of the variation on average has to do with heritable factors, kind of woven early into DNA. The other opportunity, though, is what we can acquire over time.
So we're talking about Canada rather than the other 13 colonies, but so what happened was that Charles I was selling essentially titles. He was selling peerages, and in my case, baronetcies, heritable titles that you would contribute so much money to the Nova Scotia scheme, and the you would get given this stupid thing which
This lady, Jane Wardle, at the University of London has done some incredibly good work with twins, identical and non-identical. And the thing about identical and non-identical twins is they have a mathematical model which allows you to work out what part of the trait is heritable . In the case of obesity, BMI, or Body Mass Index, or waist circumference, three quarters, roughly speaking, is accountable for it by genetic variation.