The Genetics of Magic
The year-end edition of the British Medical Journal always covers
topics that are typically overlooked in the biomedical literature
during the rest of the year. This year Sreeram V Ramagopalan and
colleagues have published a review of the literature* on the genetics
of magic, "Origins of magic: review of genetic and epigenetic
effects". Their conclusions:
Results Magic shows strong evidence of heritability, with familial
aggregation and concordance in twins. Evidence suggests magical
ability to be a quantitative trait. Specific magical skills,
notably being able to speak to snakes, predict the future, and
change hair colour, all seem heritable.
Conclusions A multilocus model with a dominant gene for magic might
exist, controlled epistatically by one or more loci, possibly
recessive in nature. Magical enhancers regulating gene expression
may be involved, combined with mutations at specific genes
implicated in speech and hair colour such as FOXP2 and MCR1.
They even propose a model of enhancer-driven gene regulation in
individuals displaying the magical ability phenotype:
Now, like all good modern journals, BMJ allows comments on their
articles (called "rapid responses" to make them sound less Live
Journally, I suppose). One of the commenters has an excellent
suggestion: a follow-up article on the heritability of Jedi powers. A
tough research project since it would require sitting through Episodes
I-III and reading the massive array related literature, but someone
should definitely do it!
* The literature in this case being the Harry Potter series of books
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