*MindCode References*


Boston University - Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Center
for Adaptive Systems http://cns.bu.edu/


Human Genome Project - Ethical Issues - Behavioural Genetics
http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/elsi/behavior.html

1. What indications are there that behavior has a biological basis?
[text provided by Joseph McInerney]

GENES AND BEHAVIOR A complex relationship by Joseph D. McInerney

"Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) was the first scientist to study
heredity and human behavior systematically. He focused on behavioral
correlations within families and developed a few research techniques
still in use today—twin studies, for example."

" Those who study genes and behavior, however, are confident about one
thing: The debate about nature vs. nurture is empty; the prevailing view
is one of how nature and nurture contribute to the individuality of
behavior." /[Howell - nature vs genesis vs nurture - we still cannot
measure nature, and drastically underestimate it (strong bias)!!]/

Joseph D. McInerney is director of the Foundation for Genetic Education
and Counseling. He is grateful to Barton Childs, M.D., Johns Hopkins
Hospital, for a helpful review of this article.

/[Howell (02Sep00) - McInerney is a poor quality thinker - many of his
statements and examples are easily demonstrated to be false. He follows
his "political" orientation, and has a tenuous link to new concepts, and
uses anecdotes and emotions as data and information - good perhaps for
communication, harmful if the ideas suck. He does not understand the
distinction between heredity, genetics, ontogeny (growth from non-exact
compressed data formats - eg. fractals etc), and environmental. He gets
totally lost with issues of modest complexity.]/


2. The IMPACT of BEHAVIORAL GENETICS on the LAW and the COURTS by Mark
A. Rothstein

Mark A. Rothstein is Cullen Distinguished Professor of Law and director
of the Health Law & Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law
Center. This article has been adapted and excerpted from Mark A.
Rothstein, Behavioral Genetic Determinism: Its Effect on Culture and
Law, in Behavioral Genetics: The Clash of Culture and Biology, 89-115.
Ronald A. Carson & Mark A. Rothstein, eds. (Johns Hopkins University
Press 1999). Reprinted by permission of the publisher. /[Howell - he
can't seem to face the new issues and offer a vision.]/


 3.

    BEHAVIORAL GENETICS '97: ASHG STATEMENT Recent Developments in Human
    Behavioral Genetics: Past Accomplishments and Future Directions

Stephanie L. Sherman,1 John C. DeFries,3 Irving I. Gottesman,4 John C.
Loehlin,5 Joanne M. Meyer,6 Mary Z. Pelias,7 John Rice,8 and Irwin
Waldman2 Am. J. Hum. Genet. 60:1265---1275, 1997



1. Encyclopedia Britannica Online (26Dec97) http://www.eb.com:195/ -
search for human genome

Human Genome Project,

also called HUMAN GENOME INITIATIVE, scientific research effort to
analyze the DNA of human beings and of several lower types of organisms.
The project began in the United States in 1990 under the sponsorship of
the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health and
was scheduled to be completed in 15 years. Related programs were begun
in several other countries in coordination with the American program.
The project's ultimate goal is to identify the chromosomal location of
every human gene and to determine each gene's precise chemical structure
in order to elucidate its function in health and disease.

Every cell of an organism has a set of chromosomes containing the
heritable genetic material that directs its development--i.e., its
genome. The genetic material of chromosomes is DNA. Each of the paired
strands of the DNA molecule is a linear array of subunits called
nucleotides, or bases, of which there are four types--adenine, cytosine,
thymine, and guanine. Genes are discrete stretches of nucleotides that
carry the information the cell uses to construct proteins. The human
genome is composed of about 3 billion base pairs and contains 50,000 to
100,000 genes. The genes take up only about 5 to 10 percent of the DNA;
some of the remaining DNA, which does not code for proteins, may
regulate whether or not proteins are made, but the function of most of
it is unknown.
 

The main goal of the Human Genome Project is to map the location of all
the genes on every chromosome and to determine the precise sequence of
nucleotides of the entire genome. Two types of maps are being
constructed: genetic linkage maps and physical maps. A genetic linkage
map provides the relative location of genes and other markers on the
basis of how frequently genes are inherited together; the closer genes
are to each other on a chromosome, the more likely they are to be
inherited together. Physical maps locate genes in relation to the
presence of known nucleotide sequences that act as landmarks along the
length of a chromosome. One such "marker" used to map the human genome
is a sequence-tagged site, a short sequence of nucleotides that occurs
only once throughout the genome. A relatively detailed physical map is
needed before sequencing can begin. Sequencing, in which the precise
order of the nucleotide sequence is determined, is the most technically
challenging part of the project. Making improvements in methods of
sequencing and in data collection and interpretation are other goals of
the project necessary for the 15-year deadline to be met.

/Reactions (Bill Howell)/

/Note the concentration of effort on genes, which are described in terms
of protein construction only. This will NOT reveal information useful to
MindCode if the sequencing is that restricted./