Why do we look like this?

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Richard Wilson

Too risky?

Psychologist Raj Persaud takes the ride of his life to explain why we’re drawn to taking a risk.

Feeling blue: good for you?

What's the point of misery? Why do we have to feel messed up? Why do we have emotions?

Next stop Galton laboratory, part of University College London named after Francis Galton, a nineteenth century explorer and scientist who believed it was possible to determine people’s character from the way they looked, be they a soldier, farmer or lawyer…

Richard: What have you done to the scans you did, since we last saw you? Galton Laboratory David Hopkinson: Well we’ve got them ready for more detailed analysis. I’ll show you, first of all this is Shelly’s mother and then on the next screen Shelly. What we’re looking at here is the geometry of the face. We’ve divided the face up into areas which are symmetrical peaks (the red colour) and symmetrical depressions, we can now look for features that we might be able to see in both. For example this little red band across the nose, which we can see in Shelly can also been seen in her son’s face.

Richard: Now you’ve analysed the family, what do you do with that analysis?

Computer representation David Hopkinson: We put the data together from one individual family with data from other families, so that we gradually build up a pattern of information, which tells us whether we’ve actually selected a feature which shows whether it’s a genetically determined factor. In other words, if we see it in a parent, we will see it in approximately half of the offspring. It gives us an idea of how many genes are involved in determining the facial features. It will tell us, whether this is a problem capable of solution.

If you would like a taste of biology then course S204 Biology:Uniformity and Diversity should suit you down to the ground

If you would like to find out more about these subjects, here are a few suggestions.

Books you can read:

Two-And Three-Dimensional Patterns of the Face, A K Peters, Ltd; ISBN: 1568810873

Intelligent Biometric Techniques in Fingerprint and Face Recognition (CRC Press International Series on Computational Intelligence.) L. C. Jain, CRC Press; ISBN: 0849320550

The Art of Genes, Enrico Coen, Oxford Paperbacks; ISBN: 0192862081

Human Facial Expression : An Evolutionary View, Alan J. Fridlund, Academic Press Inc; ISBN: 0122676300

Links You Can Surf:

For more information on David Hopkinson and the Galton Lab

Looking at the characteristics of the face

Also on this site: You can join Raj Persaud as he takes a look at the importance of first impressions and Louise Jameson as she finds out what’s really behind autobiographies

If you think you might be interested in studying more about these subjects, find out what the Open University has to offer.

The BBC and the Open University are not responsible for the content of external websites.

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