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December 31, 2006
Convergent evolution in skin color - part n permlink
Category: Genetics
Genetic Evidence for the Convergent Evolution of Light Skin in Europeans and East Asians: ...these results point to the importance of several genes in shaping the pigmentation phenotype and a complex evolutionary history involving strong selection. Polymorphisms in two genes,...
Posted by Razib at 4:43 PM • 0 Comments
The reality of epistasis permlink
Category: Genetics
Earlier this week I sketched out the general theoretical basis for not denying unexpected deviations from expectation, so to speak, when it comes to quantitatve traits. The main issue is that varying genetic backgrounds leave unaccounted for gene-gene interactions, and...
Posted by Razib at 11:31 AM • 3 Comments
December 28, 2006
Evolutionary genetics going down permlink
Category: Genetics
Life has been occupying me, why, between good wine (I prefer mild Chardonnay), work, books and beautiful women who detest science fiction I haven't been able to resume my survey of Evolutionary Genetics: Concepts & Case Studies. Nevertheless, I'd like...
Posted by Razib at 10:44 PM • 5 Comments
Yahoo Mail "Beta" sucks permlink
Category: Blog
I work on two machines in the mid-to-high 2 Ghz range with 1 gig of RAM on a regular basis. And yet the new YAHOO MAIL "Beta" has consistently crashed and throttled Firefox multiple times within the last few days....
Posted by Razib at 2:12 AM • 11 Comments
Dawkins & theological sophistication permlink
Category: Religion
John Lynch has a post up about Richard Dawkins' lack of theological sophistication in The God Delusion. John is basically reiterating the point that Dawkins did not truly engage theological arguments for theism on a very high or sophisticated level....
Posted by Razib at 1:25 AM • 23 Comments
December 26, 2006
More complex than simple addition permlink
Category: Genetics
A few months ago I posted Discrete continuity in genetics to show how the granular nature of genetic inheritance may still manifest to our perception as continuous variation (i.e., quantitative traits). I used skin color as a model trait because...
Posted by Razib at 11:29 AM • 1 Comments
December 24, 2006
The season needs no reason permlink
Category: Psychology
Below I spoke of historical perspective, while earlier I referred to Christmas as "universal pagan wine poured into a particular Christian chalice." I thought I might elaborate upon this. First, the cultural and historical origins of Christmas are multi-textured. Though...
Posted by Razib at 4:29 PM • 16 Comments
Historical perspective permlink
Category: History
I'm reading The Fall of the Roman Empire by Peter Heather. Most people know I'm a classical history buff (e.g., I've read a fair number of the late Michael Grant's works). Now, one thing that always strikes is this: 2,000...
Posted by Razib at 12:57 PM • 14 Comments
December 22, 2006
And a Merry Christmas to you! permlink
Category: Blog
Steinn Sigurðsson has an has an amusing post up about his multicultural Christmas. Here is the "American Infidel," Robert Ingersoll, on Christmas (1892): This is the festival of the sun-god, and as such let its observance be universal. This is...
Posted by Razib at 10:58 PM • 2 Comments
Brown people are all the same (perhaps) permlink
Category: Genetics
New paper in PLOS Genetics, Low Levels of Genetic Divergence across Geographically and Linguistically Diverse Populations from India. Here's the conclusion: Populations from India, and groups from South Asia more generally, form a genetic cluster, so that individuals placed within...
Posted by Razib at 11:59 AM • 8 Comments
Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis permlink
Category: Biology
Via Genetics and Health, Many Clinics Use Genetic Diagnosis to Choose Sex (on NPR radio feed). Of course, the couple profiled are brown. Related: To breed a better human - we have the technology....
Posted by Razib at 4:19 AM • 2 Comments
Bruce Lahn, gene thug strikes again permlink
Category: Genetics
Over at GNXP p-ter posts two profiles from Science on Bruce Lahn....
Posted by Razib at 2:07 AM • 0 Comments
December 21, 2006
4 Stone Hearth #5 permlink
Category: Evolution
4 Stone Hearth #5 is up! Via Bora....
Posted by Razib at 10:39 AM • 0 Comments
December 20, 2006
Book review - The Gecko's Foot: Bio-inspiration: Engineering New Materials From Nature permlink
Category: Blog
My review of The Gecko's Foot is out in Science & Spirit. I'll be honest, I'm not happy with the review since I was on a time crunch (I was a back up reviewer and the piece needed to be...
Posted by Razib at 9:20 PM • 0 Comments
