On page 129 Schenk describes how mice of the same genes acted differently depending on there location. "In Edmonton, the genetically altered mice tended to be just as active as the wild mice, whereas they were more active than wild mice in Portland and less active than wild mice in Albany" He also talked about the different locations bringing out totally different characteristics in the mice. And all of these mice were "perfect genetic copies being raised in painstakingly identical environment."
Does this, then, also apply to us? Does being raised in Illinois versus the UK change how our development could have occurred? What could possibly be the cause of these differences based solely on location? And would it then, in turn, be beneficial for our children to move to certain areas in order to raise them to be the best they can be?
I'd like to say yes, that unconditionally, this also always applies to us. However, we must also take into account globalization and a blending of cultural boundaries. This is important because it seems that all of the mice's physical environments were "painstakingly similar," thus it might have been the people tending them and something to do with emotional/social climate that affected these mice. It could also have something to do with interactions, unless the mice were completely in solitary, not even hearing other mice around them.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it might not have been social interactions that distinguished the mice but other, indiscernible environmental interaction with chemicals, hormones, or something else. Is it possible that the same exact genes could be packaged differently, so that while most genes on the outside were the same, there were slight differences? How can the scientists account for this, or is there no way? They might have been ahead of themselves by saying that the environments and genes were entirely the same while the actual personalities of the mice were the only things out of order. Perhaps they failed to take into account that mice are not like people. They have different senses and brains than us. What seems similar to us may be radically difference to a mouse with a certain heightened sense that we don't have.
Thus I don't think that we should get ahead of ourselves and start moving to places that we think would benefit our children slightly more than where we currently are. There is a very large possibility that there actually were differences in environment or gene packaging which affected the results. Until there is another study that shows that it's better to like in one place than another, I'm not moving anywhere.
Emily Reinherz...ereinherz@aol.com
As previously mentioned, the environment cannot be fully controlled because each caretaker and scientists interacted with the mice differently. Considering that this experiment counts on data from different parts of the world what if mice respond differently to each language with which they were raised to hearing? Without knowing the exact details the emotional and social environments must have been different for the mice taking in to the account their location.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be hard to compare humans to mice because of how we learn from the family, community, and society. What must be taken into consideration is the values, ideals and the environments a family provides for each child in Illinois and the UK. Two is different lifestyle a child would have in Illinois versus the UK. What would a child in the Illinois do during his or her free time which is different in the UK. Maybe in Illinois the child was growing up in the suburbs and during the summer he would stay home and play video games. What if the child in the UK was growing up in London and during his summer he would go to the zoo and learn about bears.
Not only should the social environment be taken into account but the real natural environment be taken into account. If a child is growing up in the country in the UK, the air that the child breathes has less pollutants to stress the cells of the lungs. But then a child growing up in Chicago will inhale pollutants, hear loud noises from the street, and be accustomed to a faster lifestyle. This ties in with the theme of interdependence in nature where the child will grow up to be a unique person because of the influences received from the culture and world around him or her. Different interactions will bring out different characteristics in people.
Like mentioned above, I do not think people need to go to extremes like moving to a certain location to raise a child. Children learn the most from the people they spend the time most with. In Campbell on page 1129, cross-fostering studies were done to show that the parents strongly influence the behaviors of mice that were growing up. Even though genetically a certain mice species usually left their chidlren early in life, when these children were placed within another species that takes care of their young, the children had learned this new behavior. And once they themselves had a litter, they followed the knowledge obtained from the other species that they should take care of their young for a longer time. Going back to the idea of humans, families strongly influence the growing child. I do not think it would be necessary to move unless the family lives in an unsafe environment. To raise a child to become an successful adult good behaviors must be taught to the children from the family and the community they interact with.
Ayana Dambaeva (adambaeva@gmail.com)
I definitely think that where we grow up affects our intelligence level. Like Shenk said in the book, our society influences our intellect. If we grow up in an isolated society, like the biological theme, we are not able to engage in the interdependence of nature and suffer from the lack of contact and stimulation. Thus isolated groups would be less intelligent than societies that had more outside contact. Besides this, the importance of education would vary and thus be either less or more stressed in some areas which would obviously, respectably, decrease or increase our intelligence. I’m not sure Illinois versus UK would be a huge difference because of our commonalities.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you could say growing up in the UK would make one more independent because Americans are known to coddle their children so that they tend to be more dependent on others. Like both Ayana and Emily clarified, moving elsewhere is a bit extreme if solely for those purposes. I also agree with Emily that it could be other factors that led to the differences in mouse activity. Like the example Shenk gives, a mouse raised in a darker environment will change to a darker color of fur than a mouse in a lighter environment. There are many factors at play other than just location although these factors could be specific to that location like the dark or light environment.
Also, it would not make sense to move a kid to an environment for a specific trait since the “differences were not consistent, but zigged and zagged across different genetic traits and different locations” (Shenk 129). Genes are not something you can accurately predict all the time since we know so little about them (relatively).
Gabriella Veytsel (geminizire@hotmail.com)