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changed ever so slightly, would produce a cosmos in which life could not exist. Had gravity
been a tad stronger or weaker, or had the weight of a carbon proton been a wee bit different,
our universe just wouldn’t have worked.
What caused this almost-too-good-to-be-true, finely tuned universe? Why is
there something rather than nothing? How did it come to be, in the words of Harvard-
Smithsonian astrophysicist Owen Gingerich (1999), “so extraordinarily right, that
it seemed the universe had been expressly designed to produce intelligent, sentient
beings”? On such matters, a humble, awed, scientific silence is appropriate, suggested
philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be
silent” (1922, p. 189).
Rather than fearing science, we can welcome its enlarging our understanding and
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Not for redistribution.
awakening our sense of awe. In The Fragile Species, Lewis Thomas (1992) described his
utter amazement that Earth in time gave rise to bacteria and eventually to Bach’s Mass
in B Minor. In a short 4 billion years, life on Earth has come from nothing to struc-
tures as complex as a 6-billion-unit strand of DNA and the incomprehensible intri-
cacy of the human brain. Atoms no different from those in a rock somehow formed
dynamic entities that produce extraordinary, self-replicating, information-processing
systems — us (Davies, 2007). Although we appear to have been created from dust, over
eons of time, the end result is a priceless creature, one rich with potential beyond our
imagining.

®
AP Science Practice Check Your Understanding

Examine the Concept Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
▶ ▶Match the following terms (i–iii) to the correct definition (a–c).
Term: Definition:
i. Epigenetics a. Study of the relative effects of our genes and our environment on our behavior.
ii. Heredity b. The genetic transfer of characteristics from parents to offspring.
iii. Behavior genetics c. Study of the environmental factors that affect how our genes are expressed.
Apply the Concept
▶ ▶Imagine that prenatal genetic testing could eventually predict the likelihood of certain complex traits, such as extraversion.
What would be the benefits and drawbacks of such testing? If such tests had been available when you were in the womb, would
you want them to have been conducted?

Answers to the Examine the Concept questions can be found in Appendix C at the end of the book.

Module 1.1 REVIEW

1.1-1 How do evolutionary psychologists use natural • Some genetic variations arise from mutations, others from
selection to explain behavior tendencies? new gene combinations forged at conception.
• Humans share a genetic legacy and are predisposed to
• Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand how our behave in ways that promoted our ancestors’ surviving
traits and behavior tendencies are shaped by natural and reproducing.
selection. Genetic variations that increase the odds of
reproducing and surviving in a particular environment • Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is one of biology’s
are most likely to be passed on to future generations. fundamental organizing principles. He anticipated to-
day’s application of evolutionary principles in psychology.

18 Unit 1 Biological Bases of Behavior

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