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Researchers Try To Identify the Intelligence Gene
An anonymous reader writes "The world's largest brain study to date, with a team of more than 200 scientists from 100 institutions worldwide collaborated to map the human genes that boost or sabotage the brain's resistance to a variety of mental illnesses and Alzheimer's disease. The study also uncovered new genes that may explain individual differences in brain size and intelligence. From the article: 'Following a brain study on an unprecedented scale, an international collaboration has now managed to tease out a single gene that does have a measurable effect on intelligence. But the effect – although measurable – is small: the gene alters IQ by just 1.29 points. According to some researchers, that essentially proves that intelligence relies on the action of a multitude of genes after all.'"
My intelligence is about all I have going for me. I know it's selfish, but I shudder to think of living in a world where *everyone* is smart by default. I didn't get kicked around all those years by the jocks just to settle for being an average intellect.
Of course, I guess genetic engineering will probably turn everyone into super athletes too. But athletic prowess is a short-term thing anyway. Intellect is supposed to be for the long-term. But when/if the engineering starts, intellects (like athletes) will always be looking over their shoulders at their better engineered youngers gaining on them.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Oh, for crying out loud. IQ tests must have a bigger measurement error than plus or minus 2, which means that the 1.29-point alteration is smaller than the measurement error. I.e., no effect.
'According to some researchers, that essentially proves that intelligence relies on the action of a multitude of genes after all.'"
Apparently, those researchers don't have that gene.
But but but, I've been told by my superiors that intelligence is a social construct devised by the white man to keep down the proletariat, and has no biological basis whatsoever.
According to some researchers, that essentially proves
According to some other researchers, the verb "prove" has lost its meaning.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
I noticed that it gets even better, if you are a child of these lucky few:
On another note, I noticed the gene in question HMGA2 was previously linked to a person's height. I wonder if an extension of this study would consider any possible correlation between height and intelligence in regards to variations in this gene.
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MV
Imagine a pill you swallow in the morning with your breakfast, that stimulates a few genes and gives you a 10 - 20 Pt IQ-boost for the rest of the day, so you are extra sharp in your work, in meetings & presentations, in an examination, and so on... Or, if you were born IQ challenged (quite a number of people are in every society), a long-term medical treatment that, over the years, boosts your IQ to average level, or perhaps to even above-average level... A medical cure for being under-powered in the brain department, in other words. That could really change some people's changes in life. Being of below-average intelligence is a handicap that lasts a lifetime and often results in low personal-income, and being sidelined/rejected/excluded by the smart people.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
This is one of those studies that we're constantly going to hear about in ads for a couple of decades to come and then somebody tries to replicate it and doesn't get a statistically significant result. I bet this gene lets us use 10.1% of our brains or something, right? 1.29%. You have got to be kidding.
a) The "only use 10%" meme is a myth.
b) There's a difference between "big effect" and "statistically significant effect".
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I've been told, by a bio ethicist, that there at six genes that influence height. So the idea that's there's just one gene for IQ seems odd.
Free as in "the Truth shall set you..."
Flowers for Algernon"
Very interesting but sad story.
Total waste of money. They should have been studying cat genes if they're trying to detect intelligence. Cats have it figured out...
Charisma is the measure of someone's ability to lie with a straight face.
IQ is overrated. We'd all be better off with a anti-procrastination or anti-irrational-fear gene
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
You're hinging your life-success not on how smart you are, but how stupid people are around you. That isn't a good way to go through life. Success comes from enlightening everyone, including yourself and most especially others. Knowledge begets more knowledge. A truly intelligent person would realize that.
According to three separate tests I have an IQ of 160, and I've spent most of my career working in academia. And believe me, intelligence is overrated. "Average" people are often a great deal smarter than they're given credit for.
And us "smart" guys can be dumber than a bag of hammers more often than we'd like to admit. The smarter you are, the more likely you are to be a victim of Dunning-Krueger syndrome. In academia, "I have a Ph.D." often translates into "I know everything about everything", usually with comic or tragic outcomes.
What I have seen, both in my personal and professional lives, that would make far more impact for society is finding the genes for discipline, for rationality, for work ethic, for compassion to others. Solve those, and you'll improve our society far more than trying to create a planet of Einstein's.
Well, perhaps other techniques can be used to make sure we have enough people to do the tasks we insist other people do.
In case somebody misinterprets my perhaps-overly-snarky response, I'm not advocating deliberately inducing Fetal Alcohol Syndrome to ensure there are enough people who are OK with doing menial tasks, I'm questioning whether, if deliberately inducing FAS would be morally wrong (which I think it would be, just as I presume Huxley did), deliberately refusing to enhance people's intelligence because that wouldn't leave people to empty the trash cans would be morally OK.