Genetics of Original Sin

January 31, 2011
Nobel-prize winning Belgian biologist de Duve (Singularities) ascribes "humanity's inability to come to grips with threats that extend beyond the immediate future" as the product of natural selection and akin to the myth of original sin. Introducing his thesis with a brief overview of evolution and the mechanisms of life, he looks at the unique conjunction of genetics and environmental conditions that favored the development and supremacy of the human species. Our unprecedented brain-power has given human beings the power to domesticate the planet, providing us with the food, fuel, and raw materials that supported massive population growth (now 6 billion and growing). Fortunately, as neurobiology shows, "our most decisive traits are epigenetic, the product of culture and education; our brains rewire as we mature and give us the ability to supersede the genetic imperative to reproduce at all cost. The necessary cultural shift, however, prioritizing protecting the environment over our own immediate desires, will require the simultaneous education of parents and children and thus, will be extremely difficult to accomplish. A provocative book by an elder statesman of science.