Are we products of nurture or nature? Do we come into the world with our personalities and physical constitutions already in place, or do our experiences and circumstances shape us? If we knew the answer to this question, the thinking goes, we could better address the ills in our societies. But it’s the wrong question, as the field of neural development has shown, in particular the field of epigenetics: It’s not one or the other. Nor is it a combination of both nurture and nature. Rather, it’s their constant interaction. Genes don’t encode specific traits as such; rather, they encode
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