

A Chinese company wants to let parents pick their smartest embryo - JamesArgo
http://qz.com/166699/a-chinese-company-is-pioneering-the-technology-to-let-parents-pick-their-smartest-embryo/

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tokenadult
Boy this is a crap link. I had better proactively post some links to some
better information about behavior genetics as that relates to human IQ.

Deary, I. J., Penke, L., & Johnson, W. (2010). The neuroscience of human
intelligence differences. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(3), 201-211.

[http://www.larspenke.eu/pdfs/Deary_Penke_Johnson_2010_-_Neur...](http://www.larspenke.eu/pdfs/Deary_Penke_Johnson_2010_-_Neuroscience_of_intelligence_review.pdf)

"At this point, it seems unlikely that single genetic loci have major effects
on normal-range intelligence. For example, a modestly sized genome-wide study
of the general intelligence factor derived from ten separate test scores in
the cAnTAB cognitive test battery did not find any important genome-wide
single nucleotide polymorphisms or copy number variants, and did not replicate
genetic variants that had previously been associated with cognitive ability."

Johnson, W. (2010). Understanding the Genetics of Intelligence: Can Height
Help? Can Corn Oil?. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(3),
177-182

[http://apsychoserver.psych.arizona.edu/JJBAReprints/PSYC621/...](http://apsychoserver.psych.arizona.edu/JJBAReprints/PSYC621/Johnson%20Current%20Directions%20Psych%20Science%202010%20\(G%20and%20E%20in%20IQ\).pdf)

"Together, however, the developmental natures of GCA [general cognitive
ability] and height, the likely influences of gene-environment correlations
and interactions on their developmental processes, and the potential for
genetic background and environmental circumstances to release previously
unexpressed genetic variation suggest that very different combinations of
genes may produce identical IQs or heights or levels of any other
psychological trait. And the same genes may produce very different IQs and
heights against different genetic backgrounds and in different environmental
circumstances. This would be especially the case if height and GCA and other
psychological traits are only single facets of multifaceted traits actually
under more systematic genetic regulation, such as overall body size and
balance between processing capacity and stimulus reactivity."

Chabris, C. F., Hebert, B. M., Benjamin, D. J., Beauchamp, J., Cesarini, D.,
van der Loos, M., ... & Laibson, D. (2012). Most reported genetic associations
with general intelligence are probably false positives. Psychological science,
23(11), 1314-1323. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611435528
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498585/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498585/)

[http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/9938142/Most_Repo...](http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/9938142/Most_Reported_Genetic.pdf?sequence=1)

"At the time most of the results we attempted to replicate were obtained,
candidate-gene studies of complex traits were commonplace in medical genetics
research. Such studies are now rarely published in leading journals. Our
results add IQ to the list of phenotypes that must be approached with great
caution when considering published molecular genetic associations. In our
view, excitement over the value of behavioral and molecular genetic studies in
the social sciences should be tempered—as it has been in the medical
sciences—by an appreciation that, for complex phenotypes, individual common
genetic variants of the sort assayed by SNP microarrays are likely to have
very small effects."

Simply put, the company has no capability to deliver what it promises parents.

