Genetic Explanations : Sense and Nonsense / Sheldon Krimsky, Jeremy Gruber.
Krimsky, Sheldon, author.; BECKWITH, JONATHAN, contributor.; CRANOR, CARL F., contributor.; GRUBER, JEREMY, contributor.; Gruber, Jeremy, author.; HERBERT, MARTHA R., contributor.; HO, MAE - WAN, contributor.; HUBBARD, RUTH, contributor.; JABLONKA, EVA, contributor.; JONES, DAVID, contributor.; JOSEPH, JAY, contributor.; KELLER, EVELYN FOX, contributor.; KRIMSKY, SHELDON, contributor.; LINDEE, SUSAN, contributor.; Lewontin, Richard, contributor.; MOORE, DAVID S., contributor.; NEWMAN, STUART A., contributor.; RATNER, CARL, contributor.; SHALEV, SHIRLEY, contributor.; SONNENSCHEIN, CARLOS, contributor.; SOTO, ANA M., contributor.; TALBOTT, STEPHEN L., contributor.; THOMPSON, WILLIAM C., contributor.
2013
QH430
Available Online

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Title Genetic Explanations : Sense and Nonsense / Sheldon Krimsky, Jeremy Gruber.
Author Krimsky, Sheldon, author.
ISBN 9780674067769
DOI https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674067769
Published Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Copyright ©2012
Language English
Language Note In English.
Description 1 online resource (348 p.) : 2 graphs, 4 tables
Other Standard Identifiers 10.4159/harvard.9780674067769 doi
Call Number QH430
Dewey Decimal Classification 616.042
Summary Can genes determine which fifty-year-old will succumb to Alzheimer's, which citizen will turn out on voting day, and which child will be marked for a life of crime? Yes, according to the Internet, a few scientific studies, and some in the biotechnology industry who should know better. Sheldon Krimsky and Jeremy Gruber gather a team of genetic experts to argue that treating genes as the holy grail of our physical being is a patently unscientific endeavor. Genetic Explanations urges us to replace our faith in genetic determinism with scientific knowledge about how DNA actually contributes to human development. The concept of the gene has been steadily revised since Watson and Crick discovered the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953. No longer viewed by scientists as the cell's fixed set of master molecules, genes and DNA are seen as a dynamic script that is ad-libbed at each stage of development. Rather than an autonomous predictor of disease, the DNA we inherit interacts continuously with the environment and functions differently as we age. What our parents hand down to us is just the beginning. Emphasizing relatively new understandings of genetic plasticity and epigenetic inheritance, the authors put into a broad developmental context the role genes are known to play in disease, behavior, evolution, and cognition. Rather than dismissing genetic reductionism out of hand, Krimsky and Gruber ask why it persists despite opposing scientific evidence, how it influences attitudes about human behavior, and how it figures in the politics of research funding.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics text file PDF
Source of Description Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
Added Author BECKWITH, JONATHAN, contributor.
CRANOR, CARL F., contributor.
GRUBER, JEREMY, contributor.
Gruber, Jeremy, author.
HERBERT, MARTHA R., contributor.
HO, MAE - WAN, contributor.
HUBBARD, RUTH, contributor.
JABLONKA, EVA, contributor.
JONES, DAVID, contributor.
JOSEPH, JAY, contributor.
KELLER, EVELYN FOX, contributor.
KRIMSKY, SHELDON, contributor.
LINDEE, SUSAN, contributor.
Lewontin, Richard, contributor.
MOORE, DAVID S., contributor.
NEWMAN, STUART A., contributor.
RATNER, CARL, contributor.
SHALEV, SHIRLEY, contributor.
SONNENSCHEIN, CARLOS, contributor.
SOTO, ANA M., contributor.
TALBOTT, STEPHEN L., contributor.
THOMPSON, WILLIAM C., contributor.
In E-BOOK GESAMTPAKET / COMPLETE PACKAGE 2013
E-BOOK PACKAGE CHEMISTRY, MATERIALS SC., BIOL., GEOSC. 2013
E-BOOK PAKET CHEMIE, MATERIALWISS., BIOLOGIE, GEOWISS. 2013
HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Record Appears in Online Resources > Ebooks
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Frontmatter
Contents
Foreword
Introduction: Evolving Narratives of Genetic Explanation across Disciplines
PART ONE: New Understanding of Genetic Science
1 The Mismea sure of the Gene
2 Evolution Is Not Mainly a Matter of Genes
3 Genes as Difference Makers
4 Big B, Little b
5 The Myth of the Machine- Organism
PART TWO: Medical Genetics
6 Some Problems with Genetic Horoscopes
7 Cancer Genes
8 The Fruitless Search for Genes in Psychiatry and Psychology
9 Assessing Genes as Causes of Human Disease in a Multicausal World
10 Autism
11 The Prospects of Personalized Medicine
PART THREE: Genetics in Human Behavior and Culture
12 The Persistent Influence of Failed Scientific Ideas
13 Map Your Own Genes!
14 Creating a "Better Baby"
15 Forensic DNA Evidence
16 Nurturing Nature
Conclusion
Notes
Selected Readings
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index

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