Genetics Follow

Kevin Devine and Susan Rosenthal make some valid points about the importance of social environment in the genesis of mental disorder, in their defence of Oliver James’s book Not In Your Genes (Feedback, September SR). But this doesn’t prevent their “blank slate” view of the mind being not just scientifically flawed, but also potentially reactionary...

I agree with John Parrington’s assertion that human characteristics and disorders are the product of an intricate interplay between society and biology. However, this academic generalisation should not be confused with a Marxist approach to human suffering. It is a mistake to fetishise science as a politically neutral force that can be wielded by either...

I was surprised to read such an uncritical review by Kevin Devine of Oliver James’s book Not in Your Genes (June SR). Discussing mental health, James argues that “what is crucial is how, as children, we are (or aren’t) nurtured by our parents”. It is true that family tensions can have a negative impact on...

This looks a lot like a self-help book. Each chapter ends with three “takeaways” — short summaries that help the reader learn from what they’ve just read and apply these lessons in their life. In many ways, this is to be expected. After all, the author is chartered psychologist and “relational psychoanalyst” Oliver James. But...

Epigenetics has become a high-profile contribution to understanding what makes us human. A relatively small body of research is portrayed as having discovered that some human conditions can be passed down through a process of interaction between genes and environment. There are serious dangers with the way in which this is being represented, and John...

Parrington’s article in my view suffers from two main weaknesses. One is his attack on what he calls “the standard view that the genome changes only very gradually”. Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel says that experience does have an effect on genes, but solely within the brain, and quite categorically rules out experience being carried...

John Parrington’s article ignores the racist use of genetic research and reduces the social problem of mental illness to the micro-level where it cannot be solved. The human brain is not a super-computer, as Parrington claims, but a super-connector that enables collective problem-solving. Blocking our ability to solve problems is a capitalist system that celebrates...

Is it the DNA we are born with or our environment that determines how we act? John Parrington, author of The Deeper Genome, looks beyond this false dichotomy to a dialectical approach.

Includes letters on Cuba-US relations, GM crops ban, defending abortion rights and more.

There is a revolution taking place in molecular biology. Scientist John Parrington spoke to Dave Sewell about his new book that explores the issues for a mass audience

New evidence that our environment shapes our genes should spur us on to change the world, argues John Parrington

New gene editing technology offers humanity new ways to better treat disease, explains John Parrington

John Parrington pays tribute to the visionary geneticist who transformed our understanding of the human body and took a principled stand against fascism

Analysing the human genome can give us ammunition against racist myths, argues John Parrington

The term “three parent baby” is misleading but the technology could combat disease, says John Parrington

US biotechnology company Auxogyn has been granted a patent for basic information about human cells. The data comes from research into IVF treatments.