Human gene map: expectation and reality

The discovery of the Human Genome Map does not solve all of our health-related problems. In addition, people are too complicated and difficult to influence personality and intelligence by genetic modification.

The great development of molecular biology has put the gene (DNA) at the height of the biological world, giving the gene the characteristic power to create the humanity and homogeneity of the species. The sayings of many famous researchers emphasize the decisive role of genes: ' We have discovered the nature of life ' (Francis Crick), 'The gene itself is a nature of life '(Richard Dawkins),' Once you know the whole map of human genes, we will know what people are. '- The authors of the Human Genome Project (Human Genome Project) declare. Repeating such assessments, the media unintentionally create a distorted image of the living world and give the public hope that the recognition of the Human Genome Map will solve all problems; that we will know the causes of all illnesses and learn how to treat them, and genetically modified technology will lead to the creation of 'perfect people' and facilitate the construction of a new, truly wonderful world. .

Not anthropology, nor genetics

The study and observation of many aspects of the human genome map clearly indicate that human complexity is not only the result of more genes, as well as their fundamental differences compared to genes. other high level animals. Perhaps the most important achievement, which the Human Genome Project has achieved is the assertion that humans have significantly more genes than other animals (mice have about 30 thousand, humans - many more than a few thousand, depending on the standard set in Genome Map). There is a great similarity between the human and chimp gene maps, but two species are far apart.

People are bodies with extremely high complexity and organizational level, the result of the evolution of the animal world from low to high levels, the first difference being the cortex and the regions Other areas of the brain are particularly developed. These are physical and morphological differences. But people have basic and extraordinary qualities, unlike animals that have evolved closest to humans. They are self-consciousness, the use of speech, the ability to abstract thinking, altruism, the feeling of freedom, conscience and the whole richness of psychological life. Certainly there is a strong connection between human intelligence and the brain. Injury to the prefrontal brain wings leads to profound personality changes; Central injury is called Broc - eliminates the ability to speak . It is possible to model pharmaceuticals with different emotional states through the effect of signaling on synapses.

It is impossible to fully explain the concept of people with anthropological knowledge, as well as genetics. Human intelligence, human intelligence has no simple causal relationship with gene storage. If those relationships are simple and causal, then certainly in human Genome Map (in short, DNA), there will be a lack of room for genes to encode the abundance of their spiritual life. me. Genes (DNA inherited from parents) play a certain role in neuronal development, brain shaping, channel formation and neural connections, to a certain extent they are also responsible task of specialized areas of brain, functions of brain modules, signal transmission . However, certainly genes do not control penchant, habits, aptitudes, passion, action, ability also as not responsible for most diseases.

Humans, even during embryonic development, have a large number of neurons created, but thanks to 'gaps', between those nerve cells create a huge network of connections. New links (synapses). The giant neural network itself is not enough to explain, in terms of potential, unlimited possibilities of human intelligence. The brain is not merely a computer network, not only performs the function of receiving signals from the environment (for example, visual signals), but also regenerating them, analyzing, reacting to them, providing give them value and emotional content, which computers absolutely cannot do. Recognition leads to new ideas.

Same, but different

Six billion people on Earth are genetically similar. But each person is an independent individual, each with a different personality, consciousness, intelligence, different sense of value, different emotional responses. Each person has a different brain and another activity, all individually formed, from the beginning (and even earlier) to old age, depending on the interaction with the lips specific school. ' You are the maker of your brain, once you use it; moreover, you build your brain only when you use it , 'Dr. IR Cohen, an immunologist from the Weizman Research Institute in Israel, confirmed. Human cloning with a rich personality, extraordinary intelligence and all sorts of brilliant advantages is a vain effort, because not only DNA and genes determine individual psychological characteristics. Intelligence hidden not only in genes. Remember, we know too little about memory, the basic component of wisdom. There is no memory gene.

The doctrine of dependence: a gene, an enzyme, a function, eventually overthrown. At the same time it collapses the idea of ​​simple causal dependence between genes and final properties, which genes play a responsible role in. We now know that information contained in a gene can serve as a basis for the production of many different enzymes. And then the elements of many enzymes are capable of performing many different functions, depending on the environment, interacting with other living cell elements, other ions.

The world of living things is extremely complex, on each organizational level of our body, elements swim in the body cells, creating superorganisms and cell structures, constantly moving, all non-stop depends on all kinds of changes. Remanufactured methods of analyzing living objects, even of the organization at the lowest level are cells or tissues, which allow to identify subject factors and seek simple dependence between cause and system. fruit. In biology, for half a century now, a rather naive viewpoint has been made that genes are the only source of all the physiological, developmental, as well as hundreds of diseases. While the real problem is that living organisms are much more complex. Not DNA, not enzymes or other chemical elements, and even viruses are made of enzymes and DNA, and there are no characteristics of life. Going to complex objects like new cells has such characteristics. The search for the nature of our affairs is still largely of reproductive analysis: the effort to discover complex phenomena through identifying the components that constitute phenomena. And often do not achieve results. From the list of components, for example, of the jet, we will not know, why it can fly. Meanwhile, resurrection is much more complicated than an airplane.

The simplest living cells have many complex organizational systems that develop at a high level, but until the full assembly brings the magic of life. Every effort to separate it into individual components immediately led to that miraculous disappearance. In the past half-century biology, in genes and DNA, we often judge the causes of many different phenomena (eg, fertility, diseases, delinquency .). While, they are the result of many genes and not many non-genetic factors. In such a situation, ignoring, even if only one common link, to get the so-called gene therapy is just naive solution. Even in cases where the disease is caused by a single gene, gene therapy does not produce the desired results.

So in the gene there is no hidden intelligence or ignorance. No genes will be found, the culprit causes all kinds of diseases, because not all diseases are decided by genes. For the same reason, gene therapy can only treat a number of diseases and cannot complete human personality by genetic modification.