A well-known piece of scientific research purports to prove that alcoholism is hereditary in males. The proof consists of brain scans of acknowledged alcoholics and their eleven-year-old sons. The scans differed from normal brain scans in the same way. The conclusion of the researchers was that alcoholism is hereditary--and that nothing can be done about it. I believe the experiment was very sloppily done, perhaps intentionally, to prove a hypothesis that won't stand up to real scientific scrutiny. I believe the researchers should have tested both fathers and sons for the actual physical presence of alcohol in their systems. I do not think that thy did this, but I'm not sure. Even if they did, they might have been merely looking at how alcohol consumption alters brain chemistry--as we know that many drugs do--and nothing more. The supposition that there was no alcohol in the children was both naive and unscientific.
Researchers have used similar evidence to conclude that the brains of the illiterate are genetically different from the brains of those who can read. It's nonsense, and worse than nonsense. I have a suggestion--let's get some volunteers who are completely illiterate. We scan their brains. Then I teach them to read. Then we scan their brains again. My prediction is that the brain scans will alter radically. Learning matters.
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