***** Vol.3 Chap.22 Further intellectual exchanges *****
Many started to leave, but a small crowd gathered at the front, taking turns to talk to Frank and May-Ling. Eventually, the crowd thinned as they had to move to the lobby with a few persistent conference attendees when another session was about to begin.
Frank went over to the refreshment table and poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Doctor Chen, would you like a cup of tea?”
“If there is tea, that would be nice. Thank you.”
“What kind of tea would you like? I am afraid we don’t have Oolong or Jasmine. But we have an excellent selection of herbal tea, like apple cinnamon and lemon lift.”
“Well, I like to sample the apple cinnamon. Thank you.”
May-Ling turned back to talk with a small group that had gathered around her.
“I don’t know about the meaning of those two meridians. It is hard for me to comprehend that the positive and negative life forces in my body are so physically available.” One colleague said.
“I agree with you wholeheartedly. I was pleasantly surprised as well.” May-Ling replied.
“Could it be that those two meridians possess other functions?”
“Quite possible.”
“Maybe they are connected to the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system?”
“That is entirely possible because the autonomous system exerts positive and negative effects on bodily functions.”
“What do you think, Dr. Abdulcizi?” Just then, Frank joins the crowd with a cup of coffee in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. He gave the cup of tea to May-Ling.
“Thank you.”
“What was the question again … er, Dr. Smith?” Frank bent down to read the name on the speaker’s conference badge.
“We were just wondering if the meridians that Doctor Chen had found were connected to the sympathetic and parasympathetic system of the body.”
“Sounds perfectly reasonable. Of course, I am the wrong person to answer that question, since I am only a computer scientist. I am not a physiologist. The last time I took biology in college, I made the worse grade in my entire college years.”
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Everyone laughs.
“Dr. Abdulcizi, I never quite get your answer to the question of nature versus nurture?”
“Well, from my research, there is definitely a relationship between a person’s genetic code and the expressed violent behavior. So, there is justification for the effects of nature. But we must be careful in drawing conclusions right now. …”
“I know you were cautious in making statements. But may be off the record, you could enlighten us on your position.”
The questioner interrupted Frank.
“It is not clear if the genetic code segment that we considered is actually the genetic coding for violence. Even if it is so, it may not be the cause. It may only be a catalyst for violent behavior expression. Hence, the cause may not be direct. It may also be a negative catalyst, i.e. a suppressant for another messenger RNA that actually suppresses violence, the Yang effect. If so, this piece of genetic code is not the cause at all.”
“What about the role of nurture?” The persistent questioner would not let him go.
“There is definitely room for nurture. Who can argue against Doctor Chen’s results this morning? Yes, the environment plays a definite role. Even from my own results, the correlations were not perfect. There was some variance between the predicted degree of violence and the actual observed degree of violence. Hence, the difference could come from the learned response imposed upon us by our nurturing.”
“You saw some variances in the data?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Gee, I was hoping I could say definitively that I was born that way.”
Everybody laughed.
“You may be born that way, but that cannot be an excuse because you can learn. Like Doctor Chen said, a talkative person must learn to be quiet, while a quiet person must learn to be talkative.”
“What about you, Doctor Chen? Would you like to add any comments on this subject?”
“Well, regardless of what we are endowed with, anyone can learn. Far too often, the pretense that I am born this way, or that way, is used to excuse ourselves for our unwillingness to change. We should always learn and try our best to better ourselves.”
“But isn’t even such a desire to change is possibly genetic inherited from nature?”
“Perhaps.”
“If I am born unwilling to change, I probably would not change either.”
“Probably not.”
“It is all nature, then?”
“Even if you are unwilling to change, the society has a way to make you change. That is the environment.”
There was a slight pause while the group was silently processing what was said.
A strange man, taking the opportunity of a break in conversation, came up to Frank.
“Dr. Abdulcizi?”
“Yes? Er… Dr. Schmidtiz?”
Frank bent to look at the questioner’s name tag.
“I enjoyed your talk very much. I wanted to know how certain you are regarding the correlation between the sequences you found and violent tendency?”
“Well, our computer modeling shows that there was excellent correlation, as presented in the talk.”
“If so, what would happen if one can manipulate that sequence? Would the person’s behavior also be changed accordingly?”
“I really don’t have an answer to that. Sorry. All we know is that there may be a connection between observed violent tendency and the DNA sequences we used.”
“Thank you, Dr. Abdulcizi. You have a genuine discovery here.”
Before Frank could answer, he was gone.
There was something strange about him and with that conversation.
The encounter vaguely reminded him of the newscast sometime past about the incident at Qetidghe in South Africa. Why and how? He was not sure if there was any relation between the two.
He shook his head.