Monkeyluv

by
Robert M. Sapolsky,

This collection of essays is designed to hammer home the
lesson that human behaviour is not dictated by our genes alone, but by the
interaction between genes and environment. As Sapolsky
admits, this is a cliché, so frequently is it chanted by biologists and , for that matter,
geneticists. Yet it  hasn’t  quite got through: the sterile
“nature versus nurture” debate drones on, with too many people,
according to Sapolsky, coming down in favour of
genetic determinism.

One reason, I imagine, that people get carried away by gene
gee-whizzery is that it makes  for snappier stories  than the infinitely more subtle and
complicated truth.  There is,  for example,
the story of the  single gene
mutation that appears to turn a monogamous vole into a promiscuous one; the
genes that cause a male fruit fly to secrete poison in his sperm; the
male/female genes that slog it out in a pregnant woman’s womb….

Sapolsky  gives us these
and many more intriguing gene factoids, but he also explains the elaborate
nature/nurture interactions in which they are embedded. The book is a witty
blend of  anecdote
and analysis – the perfect brickbat to  throw at the next person who tries to
tell you “it’s all in the genes”.