Postgenomics: Perspectives on Biology after the Genome
Sarah S. Richardson is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, jointly appointed in the Department of the History of Science and the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is the author of Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome.
Hallam Stevens is Assistant Professor of History in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He is the author of Life Out of Sequence: A Data-Driven History of Bioinformatics.
Sarah S. Richardson is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, jointly appointed in the Department of the History of Science and the Committee on Degrees in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. She is the author of Sex Itself: The Search for Male and Female in the Human Genome.
Hallam Stevens is Assistant Professor of History in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He is the author of Life Out of Sequence: A Data-Driven History of Bioinformatics.
Taking the case of behavior genetics, this essay traces efforts to cope with scientific disappointments and the conflicts among scientists spurred by postgenomics. Behavior genetics has long anticipated the advent of molecular genetics and postgenomics as deliverance from its endemic affliction with controversy. Molecularization, it was hoped, would introduce objectivity, rigor, and expertise, answering challenges from those skeptical of behavior geneticists’ representations of intelligence, personality, and race among other issues. While molecularization has drawn resources, researchers, and attention to behavior genetics, it has also generated disappointments and reinvigorated controversy. Rather than leading behavior geneticists to abandon old methods and embrace genetic determinism, postgenomics has led them toward a greater emphasis on environmental factors and increased investment in pre-molecular methods.
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