You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today has spent most of his adult life trying to assess the strength of the connection between our human genes

and our human traits and behaviours.

Robert Plowman is a world-renowned behavioural geneticist who pioneered the study of twins,

in particular identical twins, to deepen our understanding of the relationship between inherited genetic factors

and environmental factors in human development. In other words, Professor Plomin is at the heart

of the latest scientific thinking on the age-old conundrum. Is nature or nurture the biggest

influence on who we are?

Our recently acquired ability to map the human genome

and spot the crucial genetic differences that make each one of us unique

have reframed that debate.

Professor Plowman writes of DNA as the major systematic force,

the blueprint that defines us.

To some, that raises alarming echoes of past theories of genetic difference

and the seductive siren call of eugenics.

But to Professor Plowman, it holds the promise of enabling us to live better lives.

So put bluntly, are our genes our destiny?

Robert Plowman, welcome to our talk. You have just written an extraordinary book. We're going to talk about it at length. It's called Blueprint. But the subtitle is how DNA makes us who we are. Now, that is a very grand statement. Do you mean it as a sort of engaging

headline or do you actually mean it as straightforward fact?

Well it needs another clause or two to make it a straightforward fact. So guilty as charged,

...