Everyone has an opinion about the Internet, whether they use it or not, and
the same is true of intelligence. Nothing excites debate like the question of
what intelligence is, whether it exists and (if it does) how much of it can be
inherited.
Robert Plomin reopened the debate this month with his claim to have found a
gene, called IGF2R, that can account for 2 per cent of the variation in
intelligence tests. Plomin expects to find more genes that have a greater
effect. He works in the social, genetic and developmental psychiatry research
centre at King鈥檚 College London鈥檚 Institute of Psychiatry. The department鈥檚 home
pages (http://www.iop.bpmf.ac.uk/home/depts/sgd/sgd.htm) hold more
information.
