Month: January 2020
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#T03 Beware the “either or” of binary thinking
Learning to understand the world From our earliest days, we try to make sense of the world by dividing it up into categories: me/not me, safe/not safe/, dog/mum and so on. These are called “binary” categories, because everything has to fit into one of the two choices. “Would you like tea or coffee?” forces you…
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#T02 Genes are generalists
The fascination of twins The 1980s were the golden age for twin studies. Identical twins share the same DNA, because they come from the same single fertilised egg. Some pairs of twins were (sadly) separated at birth to be adopted into different families. Many did not know they were twins until they were adults. Separated…
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#T01 Geneticists usually study differences between people
Vivre la différence! I remember my professor saying that the science of genetics would not exist if all humans had the same genetic information. These days, we measure genetic information in terms of the pairs of bases that make up the double stranded DNA molecules. What is DNA and why does it matter? DNA is…
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Tools for clear thinking
One of the thinkers that has had the biggest effect on me was Conrad H. Waddington. Waddington died in 1975, a few months after his “Evolution of an evolutionist” was published. I remember picking it up at school and starting to read the opening chapter and not understanding a word of it. But I was…