By STEPHEN S. HALL
The New York Times
Tallness has always been viewed as a desirable physical trait — so desirable that more than a century ago, Francis Galton began collecting measurements of British schoolchildren as a prelude to his dream of breeding genetically superior human beings. Although his eugenics project went nowhere, his obsession with [...]
Dutch looking down at everyone thanks to health, wealth
By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press Writer
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Most of us are taller than our parents, who probably are taller than their parents. But in the Netherlands, the generational progression has reached new heights.
In the last 150 years, the Dutch have become the tallest people on [...]
Nature versus nurture is a shorthand expression for debates about the relative importance of an individual’s innate qualities (”nature”) versus personal experiences (”nurture”) in determining or causing physical and behavioral traits, including height.
The Dutch are tallest in the world. The study of auxology is a cross-disciplinary field involving historians, economists, biologists, anthropologists, and physicians who accept that height is a response to both nature and nurture.
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