I’m a 51 year old female in the throes of perimenopause, with a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Caltech and a daughter about to enter puberty, so naturally a new book that came out this month: by Dr. Louann Brizendine is of great interest to me. As a consequence of my background in genetics as well as my parenting experiences, my perspective on the nature/nurture balance–with respect to human behavior–has shifted greatly towards nature.

Consequently, I was taken aback when I read in Newsweek that critics of this new book believe that “nurture plays such a huge role in human behavior that focusing on biology is next to meaningless.” In my mind that view is surprisingly out of touch, based primarily on fear rather than science.

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