• Question: what makes some people more clever than others and why do some people lose their sence's when other people don't?

    Asked by totallygnarly to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 17 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi totallygnarly again! thanks for another question! keep them coming!
      I can’t really help you on thie one – i just don’t know!! Although i don’t think cleverness is that important though – i never received top grades at school! Because wou have a higher IQ won’t make you more likely to be the next einstein!!

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Gnarly, thats a good question. Everything us is a balance of the effect of genes and environment. Some things are all about genetics – what colour your hair is, for example. Other things are mostly about genes, but environment can influence it – your height, for example, is largely due to genetics, but if you are badly malnourished and don’t get certain vitamins, you won’t grow so tall. Cancer is a bit of both too – some forms of breast cancer are inherited, for example, but most are not, whereas the major cause of lung cancer is the environment, ie. whether you smoke or not.

      Where does intelligence fall on that spectrum? Noone really knows, because we still don’t understand enough about how the brain works, but genetics definitely has something to do with it. We can’t yet point to some genes and say “they cause intelligence”, but we will be able to one day. BUT (and it’s an important but), my guess is that genetics will only ever explain a little bit of it, and your environment – schooling, support network, etc, will be just as important if not more so.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      There was a book recently published looking at why some poeple (Barack Obama, high up scientists etc) seem to be more successful than others, and I agree with the main argument: Genius is not born, it is made. I don’t think that certain people are necessarily more clever than others, you can do whatever you want to do as long as you’re willing to work hard for it – there’s no biological difference between a student getting C grades and a student getting A grades. Another key ingredient is having faith in your ability to do something, once you believe you can master a subject at school, or a sport, there will be no stopping you.

      As to the second part of your question, why some people lose their senses whilst others don’t – Steve is probably the person to ask about this, but I presume that there must be a strong genetic element, and perhaps this runs in families.

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi totally

      There is evidence that how clever someone is can be determined by both your genes and your environment (or nature and nurture). But it’s more complicated to understand why some people lose their senses while others don’t. When it comes to sight and hearing, we will all experience some level of decline when we get old. But at least for blindness, the most common form of vision loss is linked to mutations in certain genes. Those mutations on their own won’t necessarily make you lose your sight, but they will if you smoke or have a bad diet. This is a good example of how interactions can happen between your genes and the environment.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi totallygnarly,
      I think it’s all genetics. A person’s ability to learn and understand must be based somewhat on how their brain works which is inherited in their genes from their parents. However, there is lots of evidence that people who work their brain by learning and challenging themselves, can increase their brainpower!

      Eoin

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