Genes, Girls, and Gamow

"I wanted to include at least one book written by my hero, James D Watson. Humans, just like all other species in nature, are largely unaware of the evolutionary logic behind their design. They know what they want, but they don’t usually know why they want what they want. The ultimate (albeit largely unconscious) goal of all human behaviour (as well as the behaviour of all other species) is reproductive success. We do what we do, ultimately, to make as many copies of our genes as possible. In particular, virtually everything men do has the ultimate goal of impressing women, so that, hopefully, some of them would agree to have sex with them and have their children. Men do everything they do in order to get laid. In my 2003 article in The Journal of Research in Personality, I show that scientists are no exception to this rule; they also do what they do in order to impress women. Just like criminals, male scientists appear to do their best work when they are young and single, and seem to “desist” from doing good science once they are married (just like male criminals do). The 1962 Nobel Laureate James D Watson is exceptional in this regard, because he seems to be fully conscious of the evolutionary logic behind his motives to do great science. In Genes, Girls, and Gamow, Watson’s second autobiography (after The Double Helix and before Avoid Boring People), Watson chronicles his days as a young assistant professor at Caltech and Harvard, after his discovery (with Francis Crick) of the structure of the DNA and before his marriage to his wife Liz. Even though the book ends when Watson marries Liz, it’s not mostly about Liz, but another woman Watson pursued during this time, the daughter of the great Harvard biologist Ernst Mayr, Christa. Be compatible with or understand each other? Given how different men and women are, it might be very difficult for men and women to understand each other truly, deeply and completely, but I don’t think it means that they could not be compatible partners for life. After all, the same process that made them very different – evolution – also made them very compatible; men and women have evolved together and with each other for millions of years. I think the first key to a successful long-term relationship as compatible partners may be to realise that men and women cannot truly understand each other because they are so completely different. But why can’t different people be compatible with each other? The compatibility can stem from complementarity, not the sameness. In 1966, a couple of statisticians mathematically proved that the optimal method of finding an ideal mate is to reject the first 37 per cent of all the lifetime potential mates, and then marry the first candidate who is better than all the ones who came before. If you consistently follow this method, you have about 37 per cent chance of marrying the best of all possible candidates. You may think that 37 per cent chance is not very good, but, unfortunately, there are no other methods that will consistently produce a higher rate of success. Given that this method is mathematically proven to be optimal, it is likely that evolution has equipped women to follow this strategy, without being consciously aware of the mathematics behind it. Among other things, this can explain why women in large metropolises stay single longer and marry later than women in small towns, because the former have more men to reject than the latter before they can get serious about finding a husband. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter Of course! The socially imposed monogamy (we are legally required to be monogamous even though we are by nature polygynous) means that there is someone for everyone. There is a man for every woman and a woman for every man. There would have to be, given the roughly 50-50 sex ratio and the socially imposed monogamy. The process of assortative mating means that the most desirable (young and beautiful) women pair off with the most desirable (rich and powerful) men, less desirable women pair off with less desirable men, and the least desirable women pair off with the least desirable men. However, evolution has equipped us with the capacity to fall truly in love, not necessarily with the most desirable potential mate, but with someone who would make a good match for us in the process of assortative mating. Most women truly love their husbands despite the fact that George Clooney is out there (and single), and most men truly love their wives despite the fact that Keira Knightley is out there (and single). If we are designed to pursue only the most desirable mate seriously and earnestly, then every woman except for one (the lucky eventual Mrs George Clooney) and every man except for one (the lucky eventual Mr Keira Knightley) will remain unmarried for life. Evolution and our genes are much smarter than that."