nit pickiness

Many many people in science go through a phase in which they fall in love with Richard Dawkins. They just think that he's the bees knees. I have yet to actually read one of his books and don't really have an opinion on him. He was on Charlie Rose today and he said that if you transcribed your entire genomic sequence and stored it in a book, sometime in the future someone could pull out that book and through future technology recreate you. And this individual would be your identical twin.

In making this statement he is not taking into account the Maternal Effect in development - after sperm and egg fuse there is a period of time in which all proteins that are made are provided by the Egg. The egg is full of yolk which provides nutrition it also carries mRNAs from the mother which lead to the expression of the mother's genes until the first cell division. And in development subtle early differences can have significant effects later on.

He is also not taking into account Epigenetic Effects. Having a gene doesn't always mean that you express it. And in the case of some genes there is a random process by which you either express the copy of a gene that you inherit from your father or the copy you inherit from your mother.

There is also the possibility that the things that happen to you in the womb could also affect who you are.

I don't know how major these factors are in making you who you are. Mothers who are playing Mozart to their bellies must think it matters.

But we shall let science and history decide in this face off between Dr. Dawkins and me.

En garde!