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Monkeyluv by Robert M Sapolski Jonathan Cape Reviewed by RITA CARTER This review first appeared in The Daily Mail THIS COLLECTION OF ESSAYS is designed to hammer home the lesson that human behaviour is not dictated by our genes alone, but by the interaction between genes and environment. As Sapolsky admits, this is a cliché, so frequently is it chanted by biologists and, for that matter, geneticists. Yet it hasn’t quite got through: the sterile “nature versus nurture” debate drones on, with too many people, according to Sapolsky, coming down in favour of genetic determinism. One reason, I imagine, that people get carried away by gene gee-whizzery is that it makes for snappier stories than the infinitely more subtle and complicated truth. There is, for example, the story of the single gene mutation that appears to turn a monogamous vole into a promiscuous one; the genes that cause a male fruit fly to secrete poison in his sperm; the male/female genes that slog it out in a pregnant woman’s womb…. Sapolsky gives us these and many more intriguing gene factoids, but he also explains the elaborate nature/nurture interactions in which they are embedded. The book is a witty blend of anecdote and analysis – the perfect brickbat to throw at the next person who tries to tell you “it’s all in the genes”. © Rita Carter 2007 - www.ritacarter.co.uk |
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