đ Overview: Join Robert Plomin and me as we dive deep into the fascinating world of behavioural genetics, exploring how our DNA shapes who we are, the power of environment, and whether we can rewrite our genetic destiny.
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PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/samue⊠https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/a⊠đŁïž Highlights [Highlight 1]: How Does Genetics Shape Who We Are? [Highlight 2]: What Role Does the Environment Truly Play in Defining Us? [Highlight 3]: Are We Hardwired by Our DNA, or Can We Rewrite Our Destiny? đ Timestamps 0:00 â Introduction 1:57 â Robert Plomin, Philosophy and Psychology 4:12 â Why Behavioural Genetics? 8:21 â Publishing Blueprint 14:51 â Heritability 30:15 â The Basics of DNA 34:34 â Genetic Variances and Binary Myths 41:21 â Labels and Certificates 45:33 â Nonshared Environments and The Nature of Nurture 1:00:51 â Self-Selecting Within Environments 1:07:04 â Group Difference and Heritability 1:13:03 â Academic Success: DNA vs. Schooling 1:21:17 â Ethical Considerations 1:27:01 â Moral Responsibility and Accountability 1:31:23 â The Future of Genetics 1:42:38 â Genetic Trajectories and Random Events 1:45:17 â The DNA Revolution 1:48:21 â Closing Remarks đ Episode Resources (affiliate links where possible â thanks!) Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin: https://amzn.to/3T9htYp Kingâs College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/robert-p⊠Common Disorders are Quantitative Traits by Robert Plomin: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19859⊠Gattaca (1997): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ đ Connect Linktree: https://linktr.ee/samueldevis89 Substack: https://thesocraticsessions.substack⊠Twitter: / samueldevis89 Facebook Page:
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đŁïž Highlights.
[Highlight 1]: How Does Genetics Shape Who We Are?
[Highlight 2]: What Role Does the Environment Truly Play in Defining Us?
[Highlight 3]: Are We Hardwired by Our DNA, or Can We Rewrite Our Destiny?
đ Timestamps.
0:00 â Introduction.
1:57 â Robert Plomin, Philosophy and Psychology.
4:12 â Why Behavioural Genetics?
8:21 â Publishing Blueprint.
14:51 â Heritability.
30:15 â The Basics of DNA
34:34 â Genetic Variances and Binary Myths.
41:21 â Labels and Certificates.
45:33 â Nonshared Environments and The Nature of Nurture.
1:00:51 â Self-Selecting Within Environments.
1:07:04 â Group Difference and Heritability.
1:13:03 â Academic Success: DNA vs. Schooling.
1:21:17 â Ethical Considerations.
1:27:01 â Moral Responsibility and Accountability.
1:31:23 â The Future of Genetics.
1:42:38 â Genetic Trajectories and Random Events.
1:45:17 â The DNA Revolution.
1:48:21 â Closing Remarks.
đ Episode Resources (affiliate links where possible â thanks!)
Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are by Robert Plomin: https://amzn.to/3T9htYp.
Kingâs College London: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/robert-pâŠ
Common Disorders are Quantitative Traits by Robert Plomin: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19859âŠ
Gattaca (1997): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/
đ Connect.
A cancer therapy that uses genetically engineered immune cells, called CAR T-cells, has kept a person free of a potentially fatal nerve tumour for a record-breaking 18 years.â â âThis is, to my knowledge, the longest-lasting complete remission in a patient who received CAR T-cell therapy,â says Karin Straathof at University College London, who wasnât involved in the treatment. âThis patient is cured,â she says.â â Doctors use CAR T-cell therapy to treat some kinds of blood cancer, like leukaemia. To do this, they collect a sample of T-cells, which form part of the immune system, from a patientâs blood and genetically engineer them to target and kill cancer cells. They then infuse the modified cells back into the body. In 2022, a follow-up study found that this approach had put two people with leukaemia into remission for around 11 years, a record at the time.â â
New research on the inner ear morphology of Neanderthals and their ancestors challenges the widely accepted theory that Neanderthals originated after an evolutionary event that implied the loss of part of their genetic diversity. The findings, based on fossil samples from Atapuerca (Spain) and Krapina (Croatia), as well as from various European and Western Asian sites have been published in Nature Communications.
Neanderthals emerged about 250,000 years ago from European populationsâreferred to as âpre-Neanderthalsââthat inhabited the Eurasian continent between 500,000 and 250,000 years ago. It was long believed that no significant changes occurred throughout the evolution of Neanderthals, yet recent paleogenetic research based on DNA samples extracted from fossils revealed the existence of a drastic genetic diversity loss event between early Neanderthals (or ancient Neanderthals) and later ones (also referred to as âclassicâ Neanderthals).
Technically known as a âbottleneck,â this genetic loss is frequently the consequence of a reduction in the number of individuals in a population. Paleogenetic data indicate that the decline in genetic variation took place approximately 110,000 years ago.
A new study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology (MPI-EB) sheds fresh light on one of the most debated concepts in biology: evolvability. The work provides the first experimental evidence showing how natural selection can shape genetic systems to enhance future capacity for evolution, challenging traditional perspectives on evolutionary processes.
The research is published in the journal Science. A related Perspective article also appears in Science.
The ability of organisms to generate adaptive genetic variation is crucial for evolutionary success, particularly in changing environments. The MPI-EB study investigates whether natural selection operates not merely as a âblindâ process driven by random mutations but could actively favor mechanisms that channel mutations toward adaptive outcomes.
A recent study published in Science by a Belgian research team investigates how genetic switches that regulate gene activity define brain cell types across different species.
A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.
Imagine being able to speed up evolution â hypothetically â to learn which genes might have a harmful or beneficial effect on human health. Imagine, further, being able to rapidly generate new genetic sequences that could help cure disease or solve environmental challenges.
Now, scientists have developed a generative AI tool that can predict the form and function of proteins coded in the DNA of all domains of life, identify molecules that could be useful for bioengineering and medicine, and allow labs to run dozens of other standard experiments with a virtual query â in minutes or hours instead of years (or millennia).
Trained on a dataset that includes all known living species â and a few extinct ones â Evo 2 can predict the form and function of proteins in the DNA of all domains of life.
Humans have been selectively breeding cats and dogs for thousands of years to make more desirable pets. A new startup called the Los Angeles Project aims to speed up that process with genetic engineering to make glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and possibly, one day, actual unicorns.
The Los Angeles Project is the brainchild of biohacker Josie Zayner, who in 2017 publicly injected herself with the gene-editing tool Crispr during a conference in San Francisco and livestreamed it. âI want to help humans genetically modify themselves,â she said at the time. Sheâs also given herself a fecal transplant and a DIY Covid vaccine and is the founder and CEO of The Odin, a company that sells home genetic-engineering kits.
Now, Zayner wants to create the next generation of pets. âI think, as a human species, itâs kind of our moral prerogative to level up animals,â she says.
Based on a systematic analysis of environmental exposures associated with aging and mortality in the UK Biobank, the relative contributions of such exposures and genetic risk for mortality and a range of age-related diseases were compared, highlighting the potential beneficial effects of environment-focused interventions.