But individual particles, of course, are what interest most of us in our individualistic culture. It is a debate that has often been tipped one way or another by shifts in public opinion. The Nazis took Galton's idea, which was called eugenics, to its notorious extreme, and in the horrific failure of their master race rendered the idea of tinkering with the human gene pool unfit for a generation. In the postwar era, bolstered by the ideas of anthropologist Franz Boas and psychologist B.F. Skinner, among others, nurture took over. Now the pendulum has swung again.
Nurture is out, nature is back.
And science is largely the reason why. Every week, it seems, comes a new revelation about who we are and why we are, all attributable to our genetic code. It's as if we are on the brink of being able to alter fate through genetic engineering, one person at a time. In truth, the discoveries have proved to be more complicated than they might appear at first glance, but they portend an ability to unlock in the laboratory some of the mysteries of life.