Skip to content
Surprising Science —

Nature v. Nuture, No More

“Talking about nature and nurture as separate, clear-cut forces is far adrift from the complexities of developmental science.” The New Scientist on an aging view of development.
Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.

“The factors involved in development are many: nucleic acids (DNA/RNA), metabolites and proteins; nuclear and cytoplasmic factors; genetics and environment. Recognition that their influence cannot be disentangled goes back a long way. In 1932, in Nature and Nurture, geneticist Lancelot Hogben wrote: ‘Genetical science has outgrown the false antithesis between heredity and environment productive of so much futile controversy in the past.’ And everything we have learned since has only underscored the fact that the entanglement of developmental processes is from the start immensely intricate.”

Sign up for Big Think on Substack
The most surprising and impactful new stories delivered to your inbox every week, for free.
Related
A bearded man wearing glasses and a plaid shirt speaks with a microphone clipped to his collar in front of a purple background with white dots.
The Well
How Rainn Wilson discovered sacredness
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it. During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
▸
13 min
—
with
Rainn Wilson
Up Next