Philosophy of Genetics
What you want is who you can become. We are free to choose what we want, but we are not free in our wants themselves (desires and motivations), which are innate and vary across the population.
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- Genes and time travel
If time travel were possible, how much energy would be required to transport something back in time? In my opinion, the amount of energy would be related to the amount of knowledge manifest in the matter being transported. For example,... - Personalized medicine
According to a recent article in Time, the number of people who must take a drug to avoid a single adverse event (e.g. a heart attack) is called the number needed to treat (NNT). For statins, the NNT is around... - What is the meaning of life (at a molecular level)?
What is the meaning of life at the level of individual molecules? At what point does an individual molecule attain a purpose that allows it to contribute to living beings? My favorite example of a “purposeful molecule” is a catalyst.... - Brain genes
The brain is a three-dimensional form, weighing about 3 pounds in adults (less than a pound in newborns). Each of the 100 billion cells (called neurons) in our brain connects with thousands of other neurons. [There are also another 900... - Diabetes and genetics
An article in Nature finds that variations in 4 specific genes (TCF7L2, SLC30A8, IDE–KIF11–HHEX and EXT2–ALX4) can explain 70% of who gets diabetes. It makes you wonder why people have those gene variants to begin with. What purpose do they... - The Education of Bill Gates
Bill Gates recently told Time Magazine that Learning is mostly about creating a context for motivation. The Gates Foundation often provides funding for educational programs, and it's interesting to see his driving principles. I agree that motivation is the key,... - Drugs I'd like to see
The difference in motivational levels among people is innate. Clearly, you spend more time doing what interests (motivates) you, and your interests differ from other people around you. What you spend time doing (“time on task”) leads to greater ability... - Reductionism
A recent article in the journal Science announced a stunning and exciting new finding:individuals with one or two copies of the short allele of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) promoter polymorphism, which has been associated with reduced 5-HTT expression and function... - Success of Asian students: culture or genes?
Some commentators are bemoaning the fact that 46% of students at the University of California, Berkeley, are now Asian. But I think it's great. It proves that Americans are so certain in our principles, that we allow meritocracy to flourish,... - Genes and donut holes
When studying genes, we must not forget what they really are: embodied experience from the distant past, manifest in the present as physical form. An axe, as an analogy, is a physical form defined by its history. Many humans, over...
