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The first dimension of heredity and evolution is the genetic dimension. It is the fundamental system of information transfer in the biological world, and is central to the evolution of life on earth. For a century now, the genetic system has been studied intensely, and these studies have yielded rich dividends . Not only have they helped us to understand the natural world, they have also had significant practical effects in medicine and agriculture. In the mid-twentieth century it became clear that the molecular basis of genetics was to be found in DNA and its replication, and from the mid1970s , when genetic engineering got underway, knowledge about genetics began to expand at an unprecedented rate. With new technologies being invented almost daily, it was apparent by the early 1990s that the full DNA sequence of the human genome would soon be known. Molecular biologists were talking with prophetic certainty about the “book of life,” which they would soon be reading; about the newly discovered “philosopher’s stone”; about the Holy Grail they were uncovering. All of these metaphors referred to the sequencing of the human genome. Once the genome was sequenced, it was claimed, geneticists would be able to use the data to discover the hereditary weaknesses and strengths of an individual, and, where appropriate, benevolently intervene. Never before had biological knowledge seemed so powerful and so full of promise. And as the winter of 2001 drew to a close, the climax was at last reached—the draft sequence of the human genome was published. About 35,000 human genes (the number was later revised), scattered patchily on the twenty-three pairs of human chromosomes, had been identified, sequenced, and their locations made known. Newspapers were full of excited prophecies of a braver and healthier new world. But the geneticists themselves, now in possession of the draft of the coveted “book of life,” have shown a curious and almost schizophrenic response. On the one hand the excitement and sense of achievement are I The First Dimension 6 Part I so overwhelming that prophecies about the newly revealed promised land have been even more daring. On the other hand there is a new sense of humility. And ironically, it is the achievements of molecular biology that are causing the humility. The discoveries that are being made show how enormously complicated everything is. Just as in an earlier century, when the telescope opened up new horizons for astronomers and the microscope revealed new worlds to biologists, the revelations of molecular biology cannot be neatly slotted into the existing framework of thought. They do not make the old genetics more complete; rather, they highlight the simplifying assumptions that have been made and reveal vast areas of unanticipated complexity. Genes and genetics can no longer be looked at in quite the same way as in the past. One of the things that molecular studies have reinforced is something that had already been accepted by modern geneticists: the popular conception of the gene as a simple causal agent is not valid. The idea that there is a gene for adventurousness, heart disease, obesity, religiosity, homosexuality , shyness, stupidity, or any other aspect of mind or body has no place on the platform of genetic discourse. Although many psychiatrists, biochemists , and other scientists who are not geneticists (yet express themselves with remarkable facility on genetic issues) still use the language of genes as simple causal agents, and promise their audience rapid solutions to all sorts of problems, they are no more than propagandists whose knowledge or motives must be suspect. The geneticists themselves now think and talk (most of the time) in terms of genetic networks composed of tens or hundreds of genes and gene products, which interact with each other and together affect the development of a particular trait. They recognize that whether or not a trait (a sexual preference, for example) develops does not depend, in the majority of cases, on a difference in a single gene. It involves interactions among many genes, many proteins and other types of molecule, and the environment in which an individual develops. For the foreseeable future, predicting what a collection of interacting genes will produce in a certain set of circumstances is not going to be possible. But despite this awareness, the sense of power generated by the success of the genome project has often masked caution, sometimes creating great and unrealistic hopes, and great and unrealistic fears. The contagious reactions of excited scientists and business people are fascinating...

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