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Grab your broom, set your Portkey, or prepare to Apparate! From July 27-30, 2006, Las Vegas, Nevada is the place to be for Harry Potter fans near and far as we gather to attend Lumos 2006: A Harry Potter Symposium. Following our theme of "Back to School," we are planning a variety of daytime academic presentations and panels, including special workshops for educators and librarians. In the evenings, we'll be having fun with an assortment of activities, including Water Quidditch, Hogwarts Night Classes, and Live Chess.

Prepare to be completely immersed in the world of Harry Potter. Our host hotel will be decorated Hogwarts-style, with a "Great Hall," a "Common Room" for all houses, and a library for those wishing to emulate our favorite bushy-haired witch. We'll also enjoy British food and butterbeer throughout the symposium.

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It is clear from the work of J.K. Rowling that the ability to manipulate magic has a genetic component. The wizarding community is acutely aware of this; many wizards use a person’s bloodline as a proxy for their personal worth. Understanding the basis for inheritance of wizarding abilities is thus an issue of import, but the disdain of the wizarding community for muggle science has left it almost completely unprepared for any serious inquiry in the field. This presentation explores several ways in which the ability to use magic might be partially based in a person’s genes, how that ability is passed on (or not) from parent to offspring, and the reasons why wizarding is such a resilient trait. In addition, the presentation will explore issues of “purebreeding” in wizard and muggle families, the consequences of interbreeding, and the possible futures for the wizard and muggle worlds from a genetic perspective. No previous knowledge of genetic science will be required to appreciate the information presented.
While there has been little formal, controlled study of inheritance of wizarding ability, we do know several things about its nature. First, it is highly likely that magic talent is at least partially an inherited trait. Secondly, it has been noted that non-magic-using offspring from wizarding parents (sometimes known pejoratively as “squibs”) are rare, but do occur. Third, pairings between muggles can, in some instances, produce wizarding offspring (known as “muggle-borns”, or sometimes by other extremely impolite terms which will not be used here). While these phenomena can be explained by inheritance of a single gene, the observed occurrence of “squibs” and “muggle-borns” suggests that inheritance of wizarding ability is more complex than has been previously suggested. Systems in which two or more genes contribute to a person’s wizard/muggle status are more able to explain the observed inheritance patterns of magic ability. Several such possible systems will be presented and discussed.
It is worth noting that certain elements of the wizarding community hold the belief that one’s talent in the use of magic is related to one’s heritage, and thus that “muggle-born” wizards are likely to be inferior in abilities to those of “pureblood” heritage. Indeed, even some wizards and witches who profess to be free of anti-muggle prejudice display similar assumptions when asked to make judgments about (for example) a student’s potential. Whether these beliefs are likely to have any basis in fact is a question whose answer likely lies at least partially within the realm of genetics, and thus will be a topic for discussion. In addition, the presentation will include some discussion on the genetics of magical beasts, some provocative theories regarding cross-species interbreeding, and the genetic futures of the wizarding and muggle worlds.

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