[gurps] BioTech-- Eugenics Question

[David Scheidt]

On Jan 26, 2008 11:07 PM, Chris J. Whitcomb <rekres at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> David Scheidt wrote:

> > Dutch men are the current favorite example of this.  They're about 20
> > cm taller (average height is a bit more than 185cm) than they were
> > about 100 years ago.  Given that it is
> > rather unlikely that they've been engaging in selective breeding,
> > that's down entirely to factors like diet.
>
> It all depends on how you define selectice breeding.  If the women of the
> country on average prefer taller men, then for the most part the taller men
> will breed...
>
> I'm not saying it definitely is a factor, but that it can't be completely
> ruled out.

Actually, the study that result comes from has really good
multi-generational data.  Dutch children (women as well) have been
taller than their parents for the period in question.  There's also
nice data that shows that children born just before or during WWII are
shorter than their siblings born after the war.  It's pretty clear
that height is a complex thing, very largely dependent on environment,
but with a substantial heritable portion.  The current evidence shows
that Dutch heights have reached a peak.  We'll see in a 100 years or
so, maybe.


-- 
David Scheidt
dmscheidt at gmail.com