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The Human Genome Project has blazed new
trails in medical science and genetic research. We know
that within hours of their birth, babies can recognize faces,
connect what they hear with what they see and tell the difference
between Dutch and Japanese. Our genes prepare us to observe
the world; they shape the finest details of the human brain.
But as far as psychology is concerned, writes award-winning
cognitive scientist Gary Marcus, "it's almost as if
Watson and Crick never met DNA."
With The Birth of the Mind, Marcus
enters the nature vs. nurture debate and changes it forever.
Genetics isn't destiny, but the only way to know what nature
brings to the table, he argues, is to take a look at what
genes actually do.
Startling findings have recently revealed
that the genome is much smaller than we once thought, containing
no more than 30,000-40,000 genes. Since this discovery,
scientists have struggled to understand how such a tiny
number of genes could contain the instructions for building
the human brain, arguably the most complex device in the
known universe. Synthesizing up-to-the-minute research with
his own original findings on child development, Marcus is
the first to resolve this apparent contradiction as he chronicles
exactly how genes create the infinite complexities of the
human mind. Along the way, he reveals the common misconceptions
people harbor about genes and explores the stunning implications
of this research for the future of genetic engineering.
Gary Marcus is Associate Professor of
Psychology at New York University. Author of The Algebraic
Mind, Marcus received his Ph.D. from MIT at the age of
twenty-three. In 2002-2003, he was a Fellow of the Stanford
Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences. He lives
in New York City.
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