In praise of... grey matter | Editorial

Research emerges to prove that, as Bertie Wooster always suspected, grey matter matters"How is the grey matter, Jeeves," pleads Bertie Wooster, appealing for aid to get a friend out of a fix – "surging about pretty freely?" Always keenly aware that his manservant was more cerebrally endowed than himself, Bertie also fretted that his quotient of the grey stuff would not be sufficient to dabble in publishing (until he figured out that a cheque book could be used to hire Substantia grisea from elsewhere). Now research emerges to prove that Wooster couldn't, after all, have been thick as a plank, because – as he always suspected – grey matter matters. People with one gene, found scientists at King's College London, had a thinner cortex in the left hemisphere (and thus less of the so-called grey tissue, which, in the living, retains a pink hue) and also fared worse in trying to solve tricky problems. All this accounts for 0.5% of observed variation in intelligence, leaving 99.5% still to be sorted out. But then Jeeves is still going to need something to do.King's College LondonPG WodehouseEditorialtheguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Editorial Tags: Comment The Guardian King's College London PG Wodehouse Science Editorials Comment is free Source Type: news