In the News – Inherited Genes and Why We Resemble Our Parents

Snippet from the article:

Why do children resemble their parents? It’s a question that has intrigued people for millennia, and surprisingly, in spite of our cutting-edge biotechnology, scientists still don’t have an answer. But when they find one, it will have big implications for how we use genetics to personalize medicine and understand human behavior.

Today, we take it as given that children have inherited genes from their parents, but the idea that parents pass on genetic material was a late development in science. Until the 19th century, those who considered the issue generally figured that parents made their children by a process analogous to fermentation. In essence, family resemblance was the consequence of the unique brewing conditions created by each set of parents. René Descartes compared semen to the “scum formed on beer” that can be used to make the next batch. Families differed because some couples make ales, while others make lagers.

Read the rest — We still don’t know why we look like our parents

The article continues that, “Rather than simply knowing that there is a genetic basis for male-pattern baldness or cancer, we want to know the identities of the actual genes involved so that we can study their biological role and come up with ways to prevent, treat, and even cure what ails us.”