Behold the Power of Two

When science revealed over two decades ago that we each had 3 billion base pairs of DNA which to date, scientists have looked at to make up about 20,000 pairs of genes, it was a big deal. It was a big deal because we all knew that genes were the most innate of instruments that will play the biological score of our lives. It was, if any, the most solid proof, that we were not dropped on this planet from another strange world or dimension. Each of us carries the random combination of the genes that our parents passed on to us, a process they too fell under. Thus, as Carl Sagan had once clearly articulated, when we are born, we come FROM the world and not unto it.

But does that mean that we are all just riding destiny? If genes are givens, how much chance do we have of living and becoming the persons different from the ones dictated by our genes? In other words, how much of our lives can destiny claim and how much of it could we be captains of?

While philosophers debate whether it is nature or nature that will determine the persons we will become, scientists study the evidence. And the evidence – gathered from 50 years worth of studies on about 14.5 million pairs of twins – says that all in all, it is a tie!

The “tie” means that on the average, genetics and environment yield a 49% and 51% “power” over us. But the insight is far from being simple. The data that the study looked at was immense and the way they organized the data in order to study it and yield meaning was very impressive.

There, you can find a Sierra Madre of “traits” – 17,800 traits that range from a cleft lip to eating disorders, to weight maintenance to education to Type 1 and 2 diabetes, to bipolar disorder, mood disorders, to even the structure of hair and so many others. Each of those traits reveals different proportions of the nature-nurture influence on it. And the variations are supremely fascinating!

For example, we find that the genetic power of genes to be: over the trait of a “cleft lip” is 98%, “specific developmental disorder of motor functions” 74%, “weight maintenance 63%”, “mood affective disorders” 63%, “Type 1 diabetes” 50%,  “religion and spirituality” 31% and “societal attitudes” 30%. The balance in each of those traits is the extent for nurture to shape. This for instance tells us that having Type 1 diabetic genes does not necessarily doom you to have it since 50% could still be shaped by choice and circumstance. And if you have similar ‘religion and spirituality” traits as your parents, most likely, you had a better hand (69%) in choosing to be the same as your parents’ religious and spiritual slant than they imposing it on you through genetics.

Twins are the ones that scientists hunt down and study when they want to find answers to the nature-nurture question. They are powerful subjects in terms of yielding insights as to how much we can stir the ship we live in and live with which is our biology named “destiny”. This is because identical twins are born with identical genes so seeing how their lives turn out, given that they will not have exactly identical choices and circumstances in life, can give us important answers this question.

In the press releases, the scientists who did the study say that if there is one definitive insight from their study, it is that the lives we have are produced by both nature AND nurture.  In all traits, neither nature nor nurture scored zero.  Both nature and nurture always had a say, albeit to varying extent.  Thus, from the power of twins, we behold the power of two: nature AND nurture, to yield the wonder that is you. – Rappler.com