Skip to playerSkip to main content
TV Hub
  • 1 day ago

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00They said it sank in bad weather.
00:04They said it couldn't be found.
00:08The sinking of the Gaul begins a new season of dispatches.
00:12Thursday at 9, on 4.
00:16Nurture Debate with Equinox
00:30...
00:48...
00:54Intelligence distinguishes humans from all other species.
00:58...
01:08But why does one baby grow up brighter than another?
01:16Now, we're on the brink of finding out.
01:20...
01:30...
01:32...
01:34...
01:38All summer, Robert Plowman has been waiting for results, which will be the culmination of six years' hard work.
01:44He's aiming to find the first gene influencing human intelligence, and he thinks he's very close.
01:54I've always been fascinated with this topic.
01:56...
01:58...
02:00...
02:02...
02:04...
02:10...
02:12...
02:34...
02:40...
02:42...
03:04...
03:14...
03:16...
03:26...
03:28...
03:38...
03:40...
03:42...
03:52...
03:54...
03:56...
04:08...
04:10...
04:22...
04:24...
04:36...
04:38...
04:50...
04:52...
05:04...
05:06...
05:20...
05:22...
05:36...
05:48...
05:50...
06:04...
06:06...
06:08...
06:24...
06:26...
06:40...
06:42...
06:58...
07:00...
07:14...
07:16...
07:18...
07:36...
07:38...
07:40...
07:42...
07:44...
08:02...
08:04...
08:06...
08:08...
08:10...
08:12...
08:30...
08:32...
08:34and it's once you bring yourself to that standard that's where you stay and you
08:38know failure I think there's like one thing that a lot of us are really scared
08:42of what have you done to my hair how many chromosome ones you have to do Jay Staker
08:54is teaching these children the equivalent of a one-year undergraduate course in
08:58genetics in just three weeks the first week that I started teaching I started
09:11preparing six months ahead and I just had volumes of material I thought I've got
09:16this really under control because I knew the level and I thought I could prepare
09:20mentally at lunch the first day I was just in a heap and just stunned with the
09:26amount of work I had done that morning I'd taught what I would normally teach in
09:32weeks and weeks in my general classroom in four hours there's one two for each
09:40person they're using a saline wash to get DNA from their cheek cells DNA that could
09:55have an intriguing tale to tell it's hard to determine what your genes you know what
10:06they can code for what they make of you if it's just your physical appearance or if
10:10it also maybe has something to do with your intelligence and your behaviors I
10:14don't know that's something you know I'm sure they'll find out in the future I'm
10:19I think these kids are bright because of the cards they've been dealt the genetics
10:29that that they have give them a range of intelligence which is very high what has
10:38been done in the home academically other things can can help them reach the higher
10:44into the range but they all started out with a full deck and having a hand with
10:52four aces is just what Robert Plowman is looking for these children are way out on the right of
11:02the bell curve Plowman will compare their DNA with the DNA of average IQ children he has already had one
11:09promising result and is hoping to confirm his finding how would someone score extremely highly
11:19on a test like of cognitive ability say not just top 1% or 1% of 1% but really getting out there in
11:29one in a million it seemed to me that the only way that could happen is if you have most of the
11:34positive factors and very few of the negative factors you have to have everything going for
11:39you to score that highly so we thought by focusing on the extremely high functioning individuals we'd have
11:47a better chance of finding genes not just for genius but genes that account for genetic influence on
11:55intelligence throughout the whole range of cognitive functioning blood from the super bright children and
12:04from average IQ children is sent from all over the Midwest to laboratories in Cardiff and here to Hershey
12:11Pennsylvania where Karen Chawney begins working on one of the samples the team are looking for any
12:19one of the many genes influencing normal intelligence it's an ambitious undertaking
12:24how do you look Mike and Karen Chawney work on the project with Robert Plowman Mike recalls the
12:45skepticism surrounding the research when he first became involved the approach of looking for genes
12:52involved in this process seemed relatively remote to a lot of traditional geneticists who are who are
12:58approached and not something really worthy of of assailing so I think the ethical issue and the
13:06issue that probably one would come up empty for the amount of work that would be involved or two
13:11things that would scare a number of individuals off initially I think that was the underlying
13:15negativism that associated with the project the centrifuge separates the red and white blood cells from which
13:23Karen will extract DNA they expect that everyone will have some of the genes
13:28they're looking for but that the brighter people will have more of them so they have selected samples of DNA from
13:34extremely high IQ subjects in the hope of finding one of these genes
13:47once you have the DNA then we genotype everybody's DNA for certain markers and what we're looking for our DNA
13:55markers that differ between children in the control group and children in the high group
14:01intelligence genes may sit on many chromosomes so the plomin team have picked one they know well
14:10chromosome six to start their inquiry they end up with an x-ray film which to a trained eye shows
14:21which forms of several genes each person has
14:23these uninspiring looking marks could tell us something new about the nature of our own intelligence
14:38back in London it is Cardiff's data which has come in first eagerly awaited by Robert Plowman and his
14:53assistant Talia Ely I'm going to should I just get straight into a high-square like a frequencies
15:03well maybe frequencies versus given the controversy his research creates success may be a mixed blessing
15:09it would be dishonest to say I'd be I don't care whether we get positive results or not I mean our
15:16teams have put in an amazing amount of work over the year these are incredible samples you know no one
15:21has ever had samples for anything that are as well as carefully selected and as extreme as these samples
15:29and it's an exciting and important topic so you know of course it would be great if we found the
15:35gene but I must say every time before when we've gotten excited about it and then we said no it's not
15:39good enough we don't really think that is something we're going to publish my overriding sensation was one
15:46of relief if Plowman doesn't get a result no one will be happier than David King editor of Genethics
15:53News a leading campaigner against Plowman's IQ research when I first heard about the possibility
16:01of Robert Plowman and his colleagues looking for genes that influence IQ and I think that they might
16:08actually find something I was really horrified because the first thing that struck me is is the
16:14huge eugenic implications of that people would start wanting to use those use those genes in in
16:21prenatal screening to see how intelligent their unborn children are likely to be and that's a prospect
16:27that I you know that I find horrendous I'd much rather do my research than get involved in those sorts of
16:34firestorms you know I don't think it's an exaggeration in this area just does get people going I come for I'm
16:42Jewish and I you know my my people has known the the implications of this kind of approach to human
16:52life really and that's my fundamental reason for being very very scared by by what Robert Plowman wants
17:00to do Plowman is used to attacks on his work but he believes investigating the role genes play in human
17:07behavior is too important to ignore exactly the same as we found before which isn't surprising it
17:12just means everything's okay yeah okay let me punch this button when you get there okay Plowman is
17:19particularly interested in a gene on the short arm of chromosome 6 in an earlier trial the bright
17:25kids had one form of this gene more often than the average kids Plowman has doubled the size of the
17:30average control group to see if this confirms his previous result 60 to 11.4 so combined combined very
17:39similar yes come down a little bit so that's not you know mind-boggling but results you know are very
17:51much more I'm much stronger you know for this original sample with a double control size so now the real
17:57big question is whether or not the new DNA from all of these new smpy samples are going to come out
18:06like the high group so now it's crunch time they want to know if the form of the promising gene occurs
18:14much more often in their new sample of very smart children they're looking for a wide margin between
18:20the average children and the extremely bright ones it's bad news the gap between the two groups is not
18:41big enough to get excited about these results won't make a top science journal surprise 18.8 right in
18:49between right in between sort of 18.8 percent right well so it is exactly in between Plowman is
18:58disappointed the promising gene did not deliver now they must wait for the data from the Hershey team
19:05who are working on another part of chromosome 6 and who are now their best hope
19:19the search for intelligence genes follows decades of scientific inquiry IQ tests were devised to try and
19:34measure a person's general intelligence now here's a group of men doing a general intelligence test this is
19:41our first means of sorting them out sergeant give me a matrix book please thank you now there's a set of
19:51problems in this book they're quite easy to start with but they get rather more difficult as you go on
19:55you see the idea there's a piece missing from each diagram and there are six alternatives that fit in
20:00take up your pencils start now many argue that these odd-looking tests are the triumph of a century of psychology
20:11but they have vocal detractors and a controversial history
20:27a long tradition of research into intelligence continues at the University of Edinburgh
20:32professor Ian Deary is doing imaginative work exploring how the brain processes information and its relationship to IQ
20:41his work has its roots in the 19th century
20:48it's common to take intelligence test research back to Francis Galton in late Victorian England
20:56he came up with the idea that individuals differed in the amount of general mental ability they had
21:01he believed that it had a roughly normal distribution in the population so like height some people had a little
21:07some people had a lot but most people had a medium amount
21:10he set up a laboratory in South Kensington where in a reverse from today's practices he actually was paid
21:17by his subjects to test their mental ability so people would come into the South Kensington laboratory
21:22and pay threepence and eventually sixpence to have their mental abilities tested
21:26proper research intelligence though really begins with about Charles Spearman in 1904
21:32he gave tests to school children in fact largely he looked at their scores on their school exams
21:39and he found a surprising thing to him that all the school results were positively correlated
21:45that is the pupils who did well on one test also did well or tended to on all of the others
21:50and he came up with in 1904 the idea of G or general intelligence
21:55the same year the French psychologist Alfred Binet invented the first recognisably modern intelligence test
22:02Binet's aim was to identify children of low intelligence so they could be given appropriate extra help at school
22:09the recruitment demands of world war one provided a massive impetus to the growth of testing
22:24millions of new recruits were assessed on their IQ score before being dispatched to face the enemy
22:30in twenties America multicultural immigration exposed a serious flaw in the tests
22:37for someone from a poor Russian village spotting the missing element in these pictures was hardly a fair match
22:44critics were quick to point out cultural test bias
22:48but something even more pernicious would follow
22:52are you fit to marry an early propaganda film
22:57illustrates a new and infamous abuse of biology
23:01eugenics
23:03outside a Chicago hospital a father exhorts his son to marry someone fit to breed
23:09the moral soon follows
23:11for the salvation of our race and the health and happiness of every individual
23:15we must stop at its source the pollution of the bloodstream
23:18by passing sane eugenic laws that would prevent maritism among the unfit
23:23in the public mind IQ testing was associated with cruel eugenic programs such as enforced sterilization
23:31and this created hostility to intelligence research
23:35pay attention a moment everyone please
23:38you should all have finished part one by now
23:41i want you to turn straight over
23:43whether you finish part one or not
23:45start part two
23:47in britain
23:49the eleven plus exam was the only widely used standardized test
23:53it was phased out in the sixties
23:55in response to anxieties about the harmful effect of labeling children
23:59the anti-testing mood prevails to this day
24:03professor michael howell opposes testing
24:05he believes it prejudices children's opportunities
24:09it makes us put people into categories
24:15it attaches a label
24:17someone is intelligent someone is not intelligent
24:19and all too often these labels
24:21sort of act as self-fulfilling prophecy
24:23the sorting out of children
24:25at an early stage in their lives
24:27and their ranking
24:29and telling them that because you have a low IQ score
24:31you'll never achieve anything
24:33and you're only good to be a
24:35a dustman or something
24:37is a horrendous waste
24:39of people's potential
24:41and abilities
24:43but in america
24:45testing is an essential part of the education system
24:47it's believed by many
24:49to be the bedrock of a meritocracy
24:51the leading testing agency is dazzling in scale
24:55educational testing service
24:57ETS is the largest
24:59educational testing organization
25:01in the world
25:03we have approximately 2,500 employees
25:092,500 employees
25:11we have a research division
25:15composed of approximately 200 researchers
25:19a confirming copy does get sent to you at home
25:23it's not a bill it's just letting you know
25:25that his transcript has been sent
25:27and $18 has been sent to your credit card
25:29the tests are the gateway
25:31to american universities
25:33costing each student
25:35from twenty to a hundred dollars
25:37it's big money for the ETS
25:39who sell nine million tests a year
25:41the tests are marked
25:45by an optical scanner
25:47at a rate of 8,000 an hour
25:49but many people are unconvinced
25:51by the technology
25:53so that multiple choice questions are too crude
25:55to capture something as complex
25:57as someone's intelligence
25:59Stephen Sisi
26:03is an expert on intelligence
26:05and he has some sympathy with these reservations
26:07many individuals
26:13many individuals
26:15reflexively reject the idea
26:17that IQ is important in any sense
26:19in tapping an individual's intelligence
26:21and the reason for their skepticism
26:23isn't hard to understand
26:25because they're surrounded
26:27with anomalies
26:29with counter examples
26:31people who may have
26:33quite average or below average IQs
26:35and yet who think
26:37in very complex ways
26:39in their everyday work and social lives
26:41so the impulse is to say
26:43well that IQ stuff is just book learning
26:45that measures school smarts
26:47these people
26:49are really good carpenters
26:51or scientists
26:53or partners or whatever
26:55and there's an intelligence to that
26:57and it deserves to be recognized
26:59as an intelligence
27:01and by the way
27:02parenthetically
27:03I can say the other side of that
27:05is there are many high IQ people
27:07who don't appear able to find their way
27:09out of a wet paper bag
27:11and one wonders
27:12if intelligence really
27:13is measured by an IQ test
27:15why they don't seem to be more generally intelligent
27:18in their everyday lives
27:20and yet
27:21while acknowledging those anomalies
27:23the notion of general intelligence
27:25has been shown over and over again
27:27to be more predictive
27:28even though
27:29it is not a perfect predictor
27:31because IQ is the most reliable predictor of performance
27:35better than socio-economic status
27:38the British Army rejected selection by interview
27:41in favor of state-of-the-art psychometrics
27:44or IQ testing
27:46practice doesn't make perfect for this kind of test
28:02everyone who enters the army undertakes objective intelligence tests
28:06some of the tests are different depending on which part of the army they are going into
28:18nevertheless they are the basis for all the selection that goes on
28:22taking people from civilian life into the army
28:25we are trying to recruit for potential ability rather than acquired qualifications
28:34because nobody undertakes military training during their school time or college
28:39and so we have to train everybody from scratch
28:42the implications of a more technical and sophisticated army
28:47are that we must make sure that we get the right people in the right jobs
28:52because when we go to war we are in a very hard and fast situation
28:57if we haven't got it right then basically we pay for it
29:00testing cognitive abilities rather than school learning gave corporal Gavin Munro a chance
29:06we are responsible for about 60 tanks and the harnesses
29:09the work is quite technical until we know what you are doing
29:13I would say it would take me five years to be really confident with the radios
29:18and that and I do know basically what I am doing now
29:25I didn't actually have any school qualifications
29:28so if it had come down to it and there was
29:31you needed qualifications to get into the army
29:33then yeah I would have had a problem
29:35I didn't do any exams at school or anything like that
29:39but I've been promoted in the last three months
29:41and I'm basically doing quite well
29:44I had a couple of friends that left school with me and joined the army
29:47and a couple of them left with exams
29:49and they're troopers still, funnily enough
29:53When people talk about intelligence tests just being some academic thing
29:58that has no reality in the real world
30:02I think of myself as an example, a counter example of that
30:08I grew up in Chicago, inner city Chicago
30:10and I had 32 cousins
30:11none of them ever went to college
30:13It was sort of an Irish-Polish family and everyone went to work
30:19It was a big deal to finish high school basically
30:21and it was only because of standardized testing that people said
30:25well did you consider going to this more academically oriented high school
30:32Plowman credits objective tests rather than family background for his career in academia
30:38Others think that parental support is the key to children's mental abilities
30:43Michael Howe is a leading proponent of the environmentalist position
30:54His new book on IQ outlines his belief that innate ability is the wrong way to think about mental ability
31:02Howe's current research explores the relationship between musically gifted children
31:11and the parental support that they've received
31:14Okay, Gwilom, one thing that's fairly clear is that not only do you do a lot of musical activities
31:19but you're pretty good at them compared with a lot of people
31:22Have you any idea about particular reasons why that could be the case?
31:26When I used to go to bed I'd be playing and composing at the piano and I used to hear that
31:31and that maybe had a subconscious influence on me
31:34but I don't really know, it's always been the love of my own music
31:38and it's just sort of developed as I've grown up really
31:41So you've always had it around you as it were?
31:43Oh yes, it's always been around me, listening to music
31:46The finding that came out most strongly was that they had enormously supportive parents on the whole
32:01These parents, they were prepared to do a great deal for their children
32:04to sort of make the experience fun, to make it enjoyable, to be generally helpful
32:09This research has convinced Michael Howe that practice is more important than genes for both music and mental abilities
32:20Well I have had a lot of encouragement from my parents
32:23and they were always interested in what I was doing
32:26and teachers as well have always been very encouraging and I've sort of got on well with them
32:31Catherine's mother is a music teacher herself
32:34I think we looked upon the music as a valuable occupation
32:38the fact that we encouraged it, supported it
32:41and I think therefore that Catherine saw that it was a worthy thing to spend her time and energies on
32:47I do think it's vital that there's parental support and encouragement
32:51whatever it is, whether it's music or athletics or chess or anything else
32:55I really do believe that no child will develop without encouragement
33:00But Robert Plowman says that this kind of research fails to recognize that parents provide genes as well as support to their children
33:11The problem with environmental research up to now is it's ignored genetics
33:17and that when you study family members, parents and offspring who are genetically related
33:23and you don't take that into account and you say well parents do this to the children, they read to the children
33:29and their children then grow up to do better at school
33:33it's plausible to say yeah that might be environmental
33:37but when we really take seriously the importance of genetics
33:40we stop and say well, wait a minute now
33:42those parents are related to the children genetically
33:45that could be genetic, genetically mediated
33:48and in fact research in the last decade suggests that that's the best hypothesis now
33:54I don't think so
33:56Plowman needs some direct evidence if he's to persuade his opponents that genes count
34:01while he waits for new data from Hershey
34:04he's supported by some extraordinary indirect evidence
34:07in Hawaii
34:09Oahu, Hawaii
34:21The Kamehameha school was founded by the descendant of the island's last king
34:26Remember Hawaiian volcanoes erupt very slowly
34:34With funding most educators can only dream of
34:37teachers can offer a well organized and beautiful learning environment
34:41that reads like a holiday brochure
34:43They're not like the other volcanoes
34:46Visiting the school is Professor Sandra Skar
34:49one of the world's leading authorities on the influence of upbringing and education on IQ
34:54We're going to chill everything all around
34:56Move all the plants, move the children
34:58Yay, good morning everybody
35:00Once more, we're going to do it once more
35:02Sandra's very impressed by this school
35:05But does an environment like this boost a child's IQ?
35:10Does the quality of that environment
35:13which in the United States varies from excellent
35:17we have wonderful daycare centers
35:19to dreadful, absolutely awful, impoverished, terrible places
35:24Does the quality of those environments have an effect on children's intelligence
35:29or other kinds of functioning, personality and the like?
35:34No
35:35I've done four studies of this here and in Bermuda
35:41and shown no effects of differences in childcare environments
35:44big family effects
35:46what kind of parents children have
35:49have profound effects on their intelligence
35:51and emotional well-being
35:54but not what kind of daycare environment they're in
35:57even though they're there for 40 to 50 hours a week
36:01it's surprising it has no effects
36:03To find out whether family effects are mostly genetic or environmental
36:18Sandra did a remarkable study
36:20She found children who had been adopted in the 50s
36:23when they were only two months old
36:25she wanted to explore what happens when children are raised in genetically unrelated families
36:32When the long waiting period is over
36:35when the new parents take home the one baby they have lovingly chosen from among all those submitted
36:40they can be reasonably sure they have made no mistake
36:44Sandra measured their IQ when they were 18 years old
36:51and compared it to that of their adoptive parents and siblings
36:54to see if 18 years of living together influenced their IQ scores
36:59Did she find the children's IQ resembled their families?
37:05We were quite, quite surprised
37:08To the contrary, at the end of adolescence
37:11family differences had no effect on individual differences among those adolescents
37:17They could just as well have been randomly assorted into those families
37:22at the average age of 18
37:25They showed no resemblance to each other
37:28or to their adoptive parents
37:31It was quite amazing
37:38Sandra's many studies have persuaded her that children's genes
37:42predispose them to have different interests and abilities
37:45which tilt them towards choosing different occupations and environments
37:51As we watch these children playing
37:54you can see that some of them will learn more than others
37:59from the same kinds of exposures
38:02Others will focus on more enduring intellectual interests
38:07In fact, we have a boy who's a real expert on dinosaurs
38:11and uses multi-syllabic terms to describe them
38:16Pachycephalosaurus?
38:18Yeah
38:19And the micropachycephalosaurus
38:22And the real small ones
38:24tinier than a chicken
38:26You know how small it was?
38:28No
38:29How small?
38:30It was this small
38:32Others will be much more tuned in to social interactions
38:36and spend more time playing and understanding other humans
38:41than some children who are busy with blocks
38:49But here's where genetic differences come to play the role they do
38:53in that they direct children's experiences
38:57how much they learn, how much they can acquire from a given opportunity
39:03You can't program what it is children learn
39:06They're going to learn what it is they're capable of learning
39:10What we must do, however, is provide them with these rich learning opportunities
39:15so that everyone can become the best he or she can be
39:19If genetics are so important
39:24Why are brothers and sisters in one family often very different?
39:28A shared interest in exploring this question
39:40brought together Robert Plowman and his wife Judy Dunn
39:43a developmental psychologist
39:45Judy recalls how her own children stimulated her work
39:50It was having the babies that made me curious about psychology
39:54and especially curious about the part that individual differences in children play
39:59in the way they develop
40:01If we think about what matters as being the mother's education
40:09the father's professional occupation
40:12the neighbourhood they grow up in
40:14the quality of the marriage between the parents
40:17all the old standbys for explaining differences in children's abilities
40:22and personality and adjustment
40:24those factors can't explain individual differences between children
40:28and what we've learnt from the work of the behaviour geneticists in part
40:33is that the differences between children
40:37even those growing up in the same family are huge
40:43Big differences between siblings are common
40:46even though they share half their genes
40:48The reason is simple
40:50It's a bit like being dealt a hand of cards
40:53Within one family genes from both parents are shuffled together at conception
40:57Each brother or sister is dealt a unique combination
41:02From the same two packs, children who are dealt cards can have quite distinct hands
41:08One of the most compelling clues to the importance of genetic influence
41:11One of the most compelling clues to the importance of genetic influence
41:28comes from identical twins who share the same genes
41:31Twins like Caroline and Margaret Shand
41:34who were raised apart from one another
41:37reveal something striking
41:39They were separated at birth
41:41and first met age 68
41:43Even so, like other identical twins who've been studied
41:47their IQ scores look as similar as the same person tested twice
41:52All the evidence from twin and adoption studies suggests a powerful role for genes
42:10But Plowman is looking for direct evidence that genes matter for intelligence
42:14Those first two sets
42:17In late July, the long-awaited data from the long arm of chromosome 6 came in from Hershey
42:23Robert Plowman and his assistant, Talia Ely, worked into the night
42:27Oh, it looks...well, they're definitely significantly different from each other
42:31They are?
42:32Yeah
42:33Fantastic
42:34So what is the frequency?
42:35Let me just go back and rerun this
42:38Plowman hoped to confirm that there was a significant genetic difference between the average control groups and his super-smart samples
42:47Right
42:48Um...
42:49We pushed the button, we got the results saying it was significant
42:53So that was terrific
42:54But then we looked at it more carefully and it appeared to be in the opposite direction
42:58from the original results
43:00Hold on, I'll just...
43:01Results in the opposite direction is science-speak for a complete calamity
43:06If true, Plowman's whole project was dead in the water
43:17We ran them through and it looked great at first
43:20And then we suddenly realised it was completely exactly the reverse of what we'd expected to find
43:25Which is obviously a total nightmare
43:27Because, I mean, the chances of that happening by chance are tiny weenies
43:31So that would have been just very bizarre
43:34Okay
43:35Uh-oh
43:36Still there?
43:37Amazing
43:38Still there?
43:39Um...
43:40What else could it be?
43:41You know, I think maybe we should... it's just been too long a day
43:42I think maybe we should just, um...
43:43Well the most...
43:44Come back tomorrow?
43:45This is a dark night for Plowman
43:46He's facing failure after six years' hard work
43:47At home, the scientific paper, which is already sketched out ready for the new results, emphasises his disappointment
43:53I like to write an article before we get the results so that I know in my head which way I think it should come out, what we're expecting
44:00And it also sharpens the hypothesis for me and then lets me know when things didn't turn out the way I thought they would
44:07So far these results have signally failed to turn out the way Plowman thought they would
44:14It looked as if earlier scepticism surrounding the project was well founded
44:21Early the next morning, the next morning, the school of the school of the summer, the new age is leaving the school of the summer
44:29And it also sharpens the hypothesis for me and then lets me know when things didn't turn out the way I thought they would
44:32So far these results have significantly failed to turn out the way Plowman thought they would
44:35It looked as if earlier scepticism surrounding the project was well founded
44:40Early the next morning, Talia started from scratch.
44:54She decided to go back to basics and check on the labels for all sample groups.
44:59She searched for any possible mistakes.
45:02I had, in fact, mislabeled the group, so I'd called in the mids and called them the highs
45:14and called in the highs and called them the mids.
45:18Well, how's it looking?
45:22Better.
45:23Better?
45:24Yeah.
45:25What is it?
45:26Well, I think it's sorted.
45:28Okay.
45:29Talia checked through the data to see if they came up the way she expected.
45:32With the promising gene more frequently in the super high group.
45:35And they are 16.9.
45:40So this looks like it is in the right direction.
45:44It does.
45:46And the super high group.
45:50And this is the super highs.
45:5334.
45:54Oh, gee, so it is in the right direction.
45:57It is, yeah.
45:59Not only were they significant and significant in the right direction, the results were even
46:03better than the original study.
46:06So we've started from the ground up there.
46:07Yeah.
46:08So clearly these are right.
46:09I just re-read them in this morning and re-labeled everything.
46:12And they just came through in the right way.
46:14Well, fantastic.
46:15It was amazingly exciting for me and for the others who've been on this project for six
46:19years or something.
46:20It must be mind-blowing.
46:21I mean, somebody, you know, said something about, you know, you found the needle in the
46:26haystack.
46:27And that is a bit what it feels like.
46:28After six strenuous years, and in the face of skepticism and criticism, Plowman's team
46:35have done it.
46:36They've discovered not a gene for genius, but the first of many genes which contribute
46:41to normal intelligence.
46:43It's called rather prosaically IGF-2R.
46:47Finishing the paper, authored by a dozen international collaborators, is Plowman's first priority.
46:53They are the first to make an association between a gene and normal human intelligence.
46:59I really think this is a breakthrough.
47:01In the past, we've talked about indirect ways of estimating genetic influence.
47:05Now we have a very direct way of estimating a little piece of G that involves DNA itself.
47:14And this is important because it will affect neuroscience, that is, people who study the
47:19brain to begin to understand how this gene works to affect general functioning of the brain.
47:26But it also has an important impact, I think, that it completely puts aside arguments about
47:31whether genes can affect intelligence.
47:35Some people will dismiss twin and adoption studies, I think, very inappropriately.
47:40But it's harder to argue with a piece of DNA.
47:49A piece of DNA may be as innocent as a baby, but the implications of knowing about it are profound.
47:57Anyone can ignore a new piece of science for a certain amount of time.
48:02But then the problems start to catch up with us.
48:05I think it's important that we do start to think it through, because it has huge social and educational implications.
48:12The way we think of our priorities, should we invest in people who have more potential,
48:18or should we compensate those who have possibly less genetic potential?
48:22These are huge and important social issues, which in a democracy we ought to be discussing now.
48:27Plowman's insights are incendiary. What value could they have for us?
48:42This work can help us understand that people differ in propensities and potentialities,
48:49and if it can lead to figuring out how we can better respond to these differences,
48:54and to a more nurturing environment for them, I think it could be a very positive.
49:00We should never be scared of knowledge.
49:07But once out of the bottle, this genie could be terrifying.
49:11Some intellectuals seem fearful of what new information about genes and intelligence will bring
49:21when the public in general is aware of this information.
49:26Therefore, they seem to propose that we should not do this research or suppress the results.
49:32I think this is patronizing and condescending toward the public.
49:38I think it is terribly unwise scientific policy, and I think ultimately will do great harm.
49:45It's always better to have the information. Ignorance is not bliss.
49:51Robert Plowman's team has found the first gene for intelligence,
49:56a discovery that's especially significant for parents.
50:01I think finding genetic evidence actually is helpful to parents,
50:08especially young, yuppie parents so worried about every little thing that might happen to their children.
50:14It makes them relax and perhaps enjoy their children more,
50:17and who knows, that may be more facilitative of their child's cognitive development
50:22than by flashing cards at them at nine months of age
50:25and making them wonder what this strange world is they're growing up in.
50:31For him, when he versus the population that weigh his children,
50:35he's getting very small, hearte, resilient, and might be trying to acquire a darker animal.
50:38What were the humans doing now?
50:39Although he doesn't diyor to the ambitions of their children as well,
50:40while realizing he's missing the children's children of're contemplating
50:42and she meets Jesus's children of exile since this year.
50:44He teaches children of genetic school as possible in particular,
50:46Perhaps he wakes up to the Wooji.
50:47He made three wounds among people to remember them,
50:49what he does likewise for them,
50:51and will his parents to be estrguarding at it.
50:56A Channel 4 booklet will give you more information about research into the genetic origins of intelligence and the issues it raises.
51:13For a copy, please send a check or postal order for $3.50, payable to Channel 4 Television, to Natural Born Genius, P.O. Box 4000, London W12 8UF.
51:26.
Be the first to comment
Add your comment