Carl Zimmer

So for height, I can give you a list of genes and say, I know that each of these genes plays a role in how tall you are.

Now, each one might only, you know, make you maybe an eighth of an inch taller on average.

So they're all tiny.

But together,

they are influencing your height in really profound ways.

And we're going to find other lists of genes for all sorts of things, for risks of diseases and so on and so forth.

So we're just at the beginning of really drilling into this side of heredity.

So it's an exciting time to be writing about this.

I think for individual cases at this point, it probably usually doesn't matter.

But it may be that in the future, there may be ways of learning how to better deal with those disorders by understanding those genes that put us at risk.

No, I don't.

In a sort of, you know, casual individual basis, no, I don't think that anybody can really know that.

There are definitely like some clear-cut cases, like let's say Huntington's disease, okay?

Like we know that's caused by one mutation at one gene.

And if your mother or father had Huntington's disease, you have a 50% chance of inheriting that one mutation.

If you did...

You're going to get Huntington's disease.

And so if you go on and develop Huntington's disease, people can say like, well, it's a shame that he got it from his mother.

And we know that.

That's clear cut.