[ExI] Evolution - 'Nature versus Nurture', but random noise as well

[Ben Zaiboc]

I hate the phrase "Nature Versus Nurture". It's far too dumbed-down. In fact, it's totally misleading, imo.

"Everything not chalked up to genetic control tends to get attributed to diverse environmental factors"

Maybe by journalists, it does, but not by anyone who has any understanding of developmental biology. Development is as much a set of feedback loops as just about every other aspect of biology, so you can't separate out genetic and environmental factors, they influence each other constantly. There is no one vs. the other, that's just silly.

“The genome is not a blueprint"

So far so good, but this seems to be a missed opportunity to actually explain what really goes on, and to ditch the abominable phrase altogether.

Rant over.

-- 
Ben Zaiboc