Mental Retardation and Genetics
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the role genetics plays in many forms of mental retardation. In the case of PKU, a type of retardation that's caused by an enzyme deficiency...
Violent Behavior and Gender
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about the disparity in the number of violent acts committed by men as compared to women. While he recognizes that there may well be social phenome...
Codes of Life: Genes-Our Biological Blueprint
Genes are DNA segments that provide the code for assembling protein molecules, the building blocks of human development. All of our abilities and behaviors have some genetic component. Whether or not the genes get turned on or off may depend the...
Causes of Mental Retardation
Dr. Ed McCabe, Chief of the Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, talks about prenatal tests that can be done to test for signs of mental retardation in the fetus. "Down's Syndrome is certainly one that we're very aware of and that we know how to test...
The Code: The Genetic Blueprint
Every cell of the human body carries 23 pairs of chromosomes. The chemical substance within each chromosome--the DNA--contains hundreds, sometimes thousands of different genes, depending on the size of the chromosome. Genes direct the formation of t...
Violence and Genetics
Dean Hamer, Director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute, talks about a family in Holland that included multiple individuals who were violent criminals. This behavior prompted scientists to explore possible gen...