Nature, Nurture or Neither? The View from the Genes

Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London, obviously not the bodybuilder, gives an informative and entertaining talk in the Gresham College lecture series touching on a topic always lurking in the background for the thinking family historian.

"Many people see gene and environment as separate entities and believe that height, weight, or personality type can be sliced, rather like a cake, in a section controlled by inherited factors or nature, while others are due to differences in the environment, or nurture.
In fact "heritability" (a measure much misunderstood by politicians and educationists) is more subtle than this and always involves an intimate interaction between the two, whether we are interested in height, weight, sport, or intelligence."

Along the way we learn about what happens when you keep Siamese cats in the cold, trends in obesity in the US and Europe and their economic determinant, and more.

Recommended. It runs just under an hour so set aside the time to view  at http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/nature-nurture-or-neither-the-view-from-the-genes