tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post7358188428373292944..comments2024-02-29T03:57:00.088-05:00Comments on The Mermaid's Tale: Genes vs environment: more on the misunderstood subtletiesAnne Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09212151396672651221noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-66682370014294036452014-06-10T08:00:31.982-04:002014-06-10T08:00:31.982-04:00Yes, and throw in niche construction, organismal s...Yes, and throw in niche construction, organismal selection (where organisms use that part of their environment that they 'like'--are genetically suited to do well in), developmental selection (where gene-gene-environment interactions don't work and an organism never appears), and a hefty dose of chance (probabilistic intersections between elements of genome and environment), and you've got a more realistic picture.<br /><br />I'd say that Keller's assertion is about the formality of the distinction, but that the idea of inherent worth vs circumstance can be found all over the place informally, if one wants to look for it. But Galton really formalized it in modern (Darwinian) terms, and that along with other early 20th century science drove the distinction farther. <br /><br />Of course, quantitative vs qualitative thinking may be even deeper, and genes vs environment another manifestation.Ken Weisshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02049713123559138421noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1812431336777691886.post-90133651679142235392014-06-10T06:33:49.344-04:002014-06-10T06:33:49.344-04:00Adaptive landscapes are depicted as hills with ...Adaptive landscapes are depicted as hills with 'up' meaning more adaptive. But maybe we should think of adaptation as an inverted cone, which while snug can trap the organism as if in a well. (Did I steal that metaphor from Larry Moran? Not sure.) There needs to be wiggle room. At the population level that's afforded by drift.<br /><br />At the individual level it's afforded is the offloading of specification of traits onto developmental processes rather than genes (actually offloading is misleading because some were never 'onloaded' onto tight genetic control in the first place). See Gerhart & Kirschner, Terrence Deacon, J. Scott Turner.<br /><br />---------------------------<br /><br />Evelyn Fox Keller<br />http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2010/3q-keller-1129<br /><br />"That form of the debate and the concept of putting nature and nurture in counterpoint is a very Anglo-Saxon idea, and it’s very recent. It really comes with Francis Galton, who introduced the notions of nature and nurture as alternative causes that could be separately weighed. ... To be sure, people talked about nature and nurture before, but they didn’t juxtapose them in that way; rather they tended to regard nature as seed, nurture as the cultivation of that seed."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com