““We know that height is highly heritable. Dozens of studies over a century have shown that the vast majority of differences in height in a given population are down to genes, and only a small proportion due to the environment. If the tallest person in a population is seven foot, and the shortest five, there’s a twenty-four-inch difference. Approximately twenty-two of those inches are the result of genetic differences. Tens of thousands of people have been inputted into GWAS analysis, which has revealed plenty of alleles that stand out as relevant. But, in total, when you add up the contribution that each seems to make to height, it only comes to around an inch or two. The genetic contribution that makes up the other twenty inches is—for now—missing in action. It’s the same for heart””
