THE ‘WARRIOR GENE’ AND THE MÃORI PEOPLE: THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE GENETICISTS

The ‘gene of’ is a teleosemantic expression that conveys a simplistic and linear relationship between a gene and a phenotype. Throughout the 20th century, geneticists studied these genes of traits. The studies were often polemical when they concerned human traits: the ‘crime gene’, ‘poverty gene’, ‘IQ gene’, ‘gay gene’ or ‘gene of alcoholism’. Quite recently, a controversy occurred in 2006 in New Zealand that started with the claim that a ‘warrior gene’ exists in the Mãori community. This claim came from a geneticist working on the MAOA gene. This article is interested in the responsibility of that researcher regarding the origin of the controversy. Several errors were made: overestimation of results, abusive use of the ‘gene of’ kind of expression, poor communication with the media and a lack of scientific culture. The issues of the debate were not taken into account sufficiently, either from the political, social, ethical or even the genetic points of view. After more than 100 years of debates around ‘genes of’ all kinds (here, the ‘warrior gene’), geneticists may not hide themselves behind the media when a controversy occurs. Responsibilities have to be assumed.     

THE CRYOSCOPIC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF "BOUND WATER"

1. The criticisms by Grollman (7) of the cryoscopic method for the determination of bound water as proposed by Newton and Gortner (1) have been considered, and it is pointed out that even admitting the correctness of his contentions does not negative the conclusion that bound water values as determined by the cryoscopic method parallel in a remarkable manner the physiological responses of plants to environmental conditions. 2. A new method of calculating the true freezing point of a solution is proposed. 3. Gum acacia in aqueous sucrose solutions shows positive amounts of bound water to the extent of 0.6 to 0.7 gm. of bound water per gram of gum. 4. Gum acacia in aqueous solutions of KCl and KBr shows slightly negative amounts of bound water, indicating a preferential adsorption of the solute rather than the solvent.