Here is a Yahoo article which casts doubt on genetic determinism and
hence gene-centred sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.
Even mice which are genetically identical, in near-identical environments,
still behaved differently in response to different technicians.
How much more then is *human* behaviour not determined by genes?
Steve
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Yahoo! News Science Headlines
Thursday June 3 8:02 PM ET
Mice Study Shows Genes Are Not Always Destiny
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genes may not always equal destiny, at least
when it comes to behavior, researchers reported Thursday.
They found, to their surprise, that genetically identical mice that should
have reacted in the same way in nearly identical situations, actually behaved
very differently when handled by different technicians in separate
laboratories.
The study, reported in the journal Science, may shed doubt on the common
practice of breeding mice and other animals to test the effects of genes on
behavior.
"Of course, the underlying assumption has been that behavior measured by
one person will show the same genetic differences as behavior measured by
somebody else," John Crabbe of the Oregon Health Sciences University in
Portland, who led the study, said in a statement.
In fact, this may not be true, the study found.
Crabbe and colleagues set up three different laboratories that were as much
alike as possible. The mice being tested in the labs were given the same
food, were born on the same day, and were tested in identical ways for
their tendency to drink alcohol or react to cocaine.
Two strains of mice were genetically identical, while a third was a
"knockout" strain missing one particular gene.
"What we found is both good news and bad news," Crabbe said. "We saw
that some behaviors were more susceptible to differences in environment."
Some of the behaviors, such as the amount of alcohol the mice drank, were
very close. But some of the strains showed more sensitivity to cocaine.
"Clearly, if you drew conclusions from these tests in one lab, you might not
be able to replicate your results somewhere else," Crabbe said.
The finding strikes at a basic practice in scientific circles, where researchers
routinely attempt to duplicate results that others have reported. Only when
an experiment has been repeated several times are the results widely
accepted.
Crabbe said his experiment indicates this may be harder to do than
previously thought, especially when behavior is under scrutiny. Even subtle
differences, such as different technicians handling the animals, may lead to
major differences in their behavior, he said.
[...]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/sc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990603/sc/science_mice_1.html
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"It is as a religion of science that Darwinism chiefly held, and holds men's
minds. The derivation of life, of man, of man's deepest hopes and highest
achievements, from the external and indirect determination of small chance
errors, appears as the very keystone of the naturalistic universe. And the
defence of natural selection appears, therefore, as the defence of their
integrity, the independence, the dignity of science itself." (Grene M., "The
Faith of Darwinism," Encounter, Vol. 74, November 1959, p48)
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