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There's this classic thought experiment about two gardens.
有一个关于两个花园的经典思想实验。
So imagine one garden and it has the perfect amount of sunlight, and then you plant different flowers in that garden.
假设有一个花园，里面有恰到好处的光照，你在这个花园里种了各种各样的花朵。
And you can look and say, "Well, the differences between them in these plants' heights is about the seeds that I planted.
你会看着它们说，这些植物之间的高度差异是因为我种下了不同的种子。
They all have the perfect environmental conditions.
它们都有完美的自然生长条件。
The differences between them are genetic."
它们之间的差异是由基因造成的。
Now imagine another garden, and it is neglected.
再假设有另一个管理不善的花园。
If you looked at that and you said, "All those plants are stunted and dead,"
你会看着它们说，这些植物都发育不良，已经死掉了，
and then you said, "Ah, the difference between these two gardens is that these plants in the neglected garden are genetically shorter than these plants in the rich, well-resourced garden."
然后你会说：啊，这两个花园之间的区别是，管理不善的花园里的那些植物生来就比资源丰富的花园里的植物要矮一些。
We can't then say that all the differences between tall and short plants across very different environments are in fact due to genetics.
我们并不能说不同环境中的高植物与矮植物之间的区别都是由基因造成的。
That's a really obvious thing when it comes to plants, but it's a really difficult thing for people to keep in mind when we're talking about individual versus group differences.
在涉及植物的时候，这一点很明显，但我们在讨论个人与组织之间的区别时，却常常忘了这一点。
This relationship between heritability and response to the environment is a complicated one.
遗传可能性与环境反应之间的关系很复杂。
'Heritability' is the proportion of variation in a population that's due to genetic differences between people.
“遗传可能性”是一个群体中由于人与人之间的基因差异而产生的变异比例。
It's a confusing term because people misinterpret heritable to mean 'genetically determined, unmodifiable by the environment, or innate.'
这个术语会让人产生困惑，因为人们会把遗传理解为“基因决定，环境无法改变，或者天生的”。
And it doesn't mean any of those things.
但它实际上与这些没有半点关系。
But it's hard for us scientists to describe why.
可我们这些科学家又很难解释清楚为什么。
The thing about factoring in environment in genetic studies is that we already face an enormous, statistical power problem.
要在基因研究中考虑环境因素，一个问题是，我们面临着巨大的统计能力问题。
Do you have enough people?
是否有足够的人手？
Do you have enough observations?
是否有足够的观察？
Do you have enough data to be able to reliably say that what you're picking up on is real and not just random chance?
你是否有足够的数据来证明你的结论是真实的，而非随机的可能性？
Genetic studies that ignore the environment and are just looking for the "main effects" of genes are already requiring sample sizes in excess of one million people.
忽略环境因素，只研究基因的“主要影响”的基因研究要求要有超过百万人的样本。
So when you start to factor in gene-by-environment interaction, the power problem gets even bigger.
所以如果要研究环境与基因的相互作用，能力问题就更严重。
Statistics is hard, biology is hard.
数据上很难，生物学上也很难。
A lot of times people haven't had exposure to this since high school, if at all.
很多时候，人们自从高中毕业后就没有接触过这些东西，非要说的话。
In the larger conversation, we're trying to make sense of information about race.
在更广义的话题下，我们是在试着理解种族信息。
We're trying to make sense of information about genes, about education, about inequality.
我们在试着理解关于基因、教育、不平等的信息。
I think it's really understandable that people have a hard time thinking about how all these things go together.
人们很难理解这些东西是如何共同运作的，这很正常。
'Portability' is this idea that what we've discovered in one sample or one group of people,
“可移植性”是指我们在一个样本或一群人中发现的东西，
how much can we port that over to a new group of people,
有多少能够转移到新的一群人身上，
and trust that things are gonna work in the same way?
并且相信它们会以同样的方式运作？
So we see this all the time with our social science effects.
我们在社会科学效应中经常看到这种情况。
A minimum wage change in one state doesn't have the same effect as a minimum wage change in another state.
一个州的最低工资变化所产生的效果跟另一个州的最低工资变化产生的效果不一样。
What I think people often miss is that genetic causes can operate in the same way.
我觉得人们经常忽略的是，遗传原因也是以同样的方式运作的。
So, just because a gene influences the probability of an outcome in this group of people,
所以，一个基因影响了这群人当中的某种结果的概率，
to the extent that that's probabilistic rather than deterministic, to the extent that that genetic effect is moderated by the environment,
在某种程度上，这是一种概率，而不是确定性的，在某种程度上，基因的影响是由环境调节的，
we're not gonna be able to expect it to be portable when we study a new group of people.
我们在研究新的一群人时，并不能指望同样的结果也会转移过来。
When I say that something's heritable, I mean that within a group of people that have experienced roughly-equivalent environmental conditions,
我说某种东西是可继承的，是指在一群经历了大致相同的环境条件的人中，
genetic differences between them are related to the phenotypic differences between them.
他们之间的遗传差异与表型差异有关。
The genes of the seeds are related to the height of the flowers.
种子的基因与花朵的高度有关。
But that doesn't allow us to make the leap that differences between groups that have experienced really different environmental legacies are due to genetics.
但这并不能让我们跳跃到这个结论，即经历了不同环境的群体之间的差异是由基因造成的。
