Man or Mouse?

Recent news (not really news, more like notice) has popped up that genes have taken a slight lead in the race between heredity and environment for is more important in shaping kids.

Not that it would matter if the question were to be eternally decided — dads can be blamed or credited no matter which is primary. But if environment meant nothing while heredity turned out to be all that, fathers could pretty much head to the couch with a beer to punch in a football game after the sperming was done.

Which would be ironic in light of the recent study that suggests couch potato mice are more likely to have couch potato offspring. More likely, as in they might also have couch ottoman mice or a footballer like Joe Montana might father a future quarterback — but this not being an exact science, so might skater Wayne Gretzsky. And, oddly enough (and a monkey wrench in the process of figuring out evolution), the young Montana and Gretzsky are joined on the same high school football team by the son of actor Will Smith.

Maybe it's the sport? NASCAR dads seem to be pretty consistent at breeding just NASCAR kids. Or, maybe it's just that we haven't yet solved the mystery of the argumetn and we're not yet ready to write off a father's influence on a kid through either heredity or environment?