Episode 11.
Nature vs. Nurture (Part 2)

Question:

Key Points:

• Review all the key points from the last episode Nature vs. Nurture (Part 1)
• The undersstanding now is that the genes that we have define how we will adapt to our environment
• Our environment, therefore, determines which genes get "triggered"
• Each gene causes a small variation, but then all together they create a big variation
• Listen next week to our episode on Can babies be born with pink hair
• The environment that the mother creates for the mother in eutero signals to the baby what the world the baby will be born into is like
• One specific study on sub-Saharan Africa found that there was a positive correlation between the temperature when a baby was concieved and the child's intelligence 10 years later
• Three separate studies, each with a 95% confidence threshold, which have the same result makes it ~99.99% likely to be accurate
• Food preference is based on both nature and nurture
• There is a single gene, TAS2R38, which has an effect on how we taste bitterness; people with at least one copy of the common form that tastes bitterness are more likely to prefer sweet foods than someone with two copies of the form of the gene that does not taste bitterness
• A study on how much of different food preferences come from genetics found that the amount was 54% for vegetables, 49% for fruit, 32% for starchy foods, 44% for protein or milk, and 43% for snack foods.
• How many times you taste something is the main environmental factor for taste
• It is wise for parents to make their kids try things up to 15 times; after 15 times, it's probably youre genes