The Anxiety Gene

Fear is a very useful evolutionary trait. Species have survived for millions of years simply by running away at the slightest hint of a threat. Considering how useful fear can be, it comes as no surprise that mother nature occasionally deals out an overdose, which we humans recognize as anxiety, nervousness, or neurosis.

Animals can be neurotic, too. Just as humans bite their nails, some Dobermans have a nervous habit of chewing on their paws. A recent genomics study examined these paw-chewing Dobermans, and found that they tended to have a special version of one gene called CDH2. This appears to be a bona-fide behavior gene, a kind of holy grail in the field of behavioral genetics.

In humans as in dogs, inbreeding may permit neurosis genes to rise to the top and manifest themselves. For instance, I have been told that the Baba Nyonya, a group of Chinese-Malays who traditionally marry within the family, suffer from a high degree of mental illness among their females. Similarly, some researchers are studying whether certain neuroses are overrepresented among Ashkenazi Jews, thus explaining the ouvres of Woody Allen and Larry David.

Although fear might be useful from an evolutionary standpoint, too much of it can be crippling, and can even result in unnecessary violence. As Yoda put it, fear is the path to the dark side. Ultimately, neurosis/fear/anxiety are products of not only nature, but also nurture. We can't easily control our genes, but by diversifying our social interactions we can distinguish true enemies from those who exist only in our heads - a step towards a less anxious and less stressful life.

Curing color blindness, and color vision

My two color-blind brothers will be heartened to learn that scientists recently used gene therapy to cure color blindness in adult monkeys. After being injected with a corrected gene, the monkeys' brains rewired and learned to correctly distinguish red from green. If the research translates to apes like us, there's a good chance my brothers will see green and red before the end of their lifetimes.

Turning to color blindness of a different sort, I recently had an interesting facebook conversation about the hidden hand of race in our society. I was not alone amongst my friends (or the media/politicians) in detecting a hint of racism in the GOP of late. From the "fiery latina" bullshit that surrounded the Sotomayor hearings (white males are the victims of racism!) to Joe Wilson's shameful "You lie!", there's something more than a healthy fear of socialism going on around here.

Most agreed, but one friend felt I'd mistaken partisan politics for racism, and certainly it's difficult to prove. After all, no one wants to be a racist, and even fewer want to be labeled one. In this emotionally charged arena, science is really our best hope of understanding what is really going on. As another friend pointed out, there is a burgeoning field of research on implicit racism, which distinguishes between overt racism and less conscious racism and predicts that people with implicit biases act equally in cut and dry situations, but act very biasedly in ambiguous situations.

One set of recent experiments showed that people pause just a fraction of a second longer before identifying opposite-race faces as friendly. Other research has revealed that schoolchildren have a tendency to self-segregate, suggesting that racism is to some extent a natural tendency (the tribe instinct?). There's some great stuff about this in a recent Newsweek cover story, including this hilarious excerpt about an experiment observing classroom children:

It being December, the teachers had decided to read to their classes 'Twas the Night B'fore Christmas... As the teachers began reading, the kids were excited by the book's depiction of a family waiting for Santa to come. A few children, however, quietly fidgeted. They seemed puzzled that this storybook was different: in this one, it was a black family all snug in their beds.

Then there was the famed clatter on the roof. The children leaned in to get their first view of Santa and the sleigh as Johnson turned the page—

And they saw that Santa was black.

"He's black!" gasped a white little girl.

A white boy exclaimed, "I thought he was white!"

Immediately, the children began to chatter about the stunning development. At the ripe old ages of 6 and 7, the children had no doubt that there was a Real Santa. Of that they were absolutely sure. But suddenly there was this huge question mark. Could Santa be black? And if so, what did that mean?

Now replace the word "Santa" with "President," and you begin to get the idea!

It may yet prove easier to cure color blindness in our eyes than to unlearn "color vision" in our hearts. But if there's a cure to this societal disease, it lies in every next generation. We have to talk to our children, integrate them socially, and be honest about our own implicit biases - when in doubt, letting science be our guide.

When Scientists Murder

The evidence in the Annie Le murder case now points clearly at animal-care technician Raymond Clark. He met with Annie the day she died. He was in and out of the building 10 times that day, including after hours. He failed a lie-detector test. And he had defense wounds all over his body.

My reaction to all this is sadness. When I first heard about the murder, I was sure it was someone from outside the building. I was reluctant to believe that a researcher could kill a fellow scientist, sure enough to bet on it. I was wrong.

Science for me has a moral component, a character-building component. That's why I call this blog Samurai Scientist. But it also teaches us to avoid prejudice and to investigate carefully based on all the facts. In retrospect, there's no shortage of assholes and anti-socials in the scientific community. The guy who murdered a call girl off Craigslist was a doctor.

I don't know if this tragedy could have been prevented. Nobody thought Raymond was capable of murder. The bottom line is that people are not what they seem. You do not have all the data. What they show you is only what they want you to see. Tread carefully.

Freudian Strip?

Quote from today's WSJ article on legal prostitution of Asian women in Rhode Island (italics mine):

Medical student Philip Markoff was indicted... on charges of killing a woman at an upscale Boston hotel who had advertised on the "exotic services" section of Craigslist.

The section of Craiglist was actually called "erotic services."

... a giant keg for mankind?

Not long ago, I blogged about Obama's commitment to world peace. A lofty goal, but not one that most of us can impact directly. But before long, Obama himself became embroiled in a little war of words about a certain white police officer arresting a certain black professor in his kitchen - a conflict decidedly more down-to-Earth.

Obama's solution? "Let me buy you a beer." And in less than a week, they were all together, Obama, Crowley, Gates, and even Joe Biden, hanging out on the white house lawn with brewskies.

Some may dismiss this as a publicity stunt, but I think Obama is making a point about how to resolve our differences. It's human nature to be sucked into interpersonal drama, especially when someone offends our brain's delicate sense of 'identity'. But go out for beers, and something else kicks in: suddenly, you're buddies. Something deep within our psyches identifies friends emotionally, through shared social interactions, and such interactions are a shortcut to peace.

In other words, a beer's a hell of a lot cheaper than a lawsuit - and a lot more fun.

What stands between us is only words

I'm damn proud of you people.

Maybe I don't say it enough. Definitely I don't say it enough. But it's true.

We may have different opinions, you and I. We may see life from two different points of view. But that doesn't matter. What matters is, you're an amazing person.

It's easy to get bogged down in politics, religion, ideology, etc. There's something in our crocodile mind that identifies ourselves with "truth" and perceives everything else as a threat. And yet what separates us is only words, only ideas. We have much more in common than we ever could have apart.

The way to overcome these barriers is through human communication. Face-to-face if possible, over the telephone or the internet if necessary. Seeing each other, hearing each others' voice, has a way of easing our fears. Of reminding us that we are all just human beings, each of us with an intricate life, dealing with challenges as best we can.

When we talk to each other, when we see each other, when we touch each other, I do not need to understand you, and you do not need to understand me. We only need to be in each other's presence, to accept one another, to spend time together. Then our monkey minds, always racing with thoughts and fears, is quieted. For isn't rejection our greatest fear? And if we're sitting together, then we are not being rejected.

So when I think of my family and my friends, this is what I think: I'm proud of you. You are amazing people. I learn from each of you. We may not always agree, and that's natural. That's to be expected. But let's not let it stand in the way of appreciating each other, just as we are.

Roger Cohen on Iran's Jews

Roger Cohen, one of the New York Time's conservative op-ed columnists, had a nice piece about Iran's Jews in yesterday's paper. Iranian political and religious leaders make a lot of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic comments, which make a lot of American and Israeli Jews fearful and angry. Yet it seems that the Jews who actually live in Iran basically blow off the rhetoric, and blame Israel for the recent Gaza invasion.

I'm not sure these Iranian Jews are sophisticated, as Cohen suggests, or naive. But either way, I think this is an interesting example of how our geographic neighborhood influences our seemingly objective interpretation of reality.

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