Thinking of Biology Our genes , ourselves ?

"N"ow we know, in large measure, our fate is in our genes" (Watson quoted in jarotf'l989, p, 67). So said James Watson, Nohel laureate, codiscoverer of the structure of DNA, and first leader of the Human Genome Project. Is he right? We in the United States seem to be of two minds. Most of us have an intuition that, although our genes provide advantages and constraints, we retain great control over our lives. But we are developing a second, competing intuition that, like it or not, our genes determine our abilities, our preferences, and our emotions. Perhaps this second intuition is what induced Rutgers University president Francis Lawrence, a man who has spent years trying to increase opportunities for miimorDties, to say that blacks do not have "the genetic, hereditary background"" (Lawrence quoted in Olen 19951 to do as well as whites on college admissions tests, a statement that caused an uproar across the country (Olen 1995), We would like to think we are much more than the sum of our genes, but according to news reports, scientists appear to have demonstrated that our genes determine some of our most complex behavioral and cognitive characteristics.