Gene Expression
Archives for August, 2007
Genetic vs. heritable trait
Posted by Razib Khan on August 30, 2007 When someone tells you that height is 80% heritable, does that mean: a) 80% of the reason you are the height you are is due to genes b) 80% of the variation within the population on the trait of height is due to variation of the genes The answer is of course b. Unfortunately in…
Menopause in Matrilineal Whales
Posted by Razib Khan on August 30, 2007 I’ve talked about menopause a fair amount on this blog, usually in relation to the Grandmother Hypothesis. So I thought I’d pass along this article, Eusociality, menopause and information in matrilineal whales, along. I know that many think that menopause is something that will naturally happen if a mammal lives long enough, as opposed to…
Dirty old men
Posted by Razib Khan on August 29, 2007 Update: Comment from Chris Surridge of PLOS One: Just a quick note. The paper is now formally published on PLoS ONE. The citation is: Tuljapurkar SD, Puleston CO, Gurven MD (2007) Why Men Matter: Mating Patterns Drive Evolution of Human Lifespan. PLoS ONE 2(8): e785. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000785 As it is PLoS ONE you can rate the…
Twins – Korean that is….
Posted by Razib Khan on August 29, 2007 Genetic and environmental contributions to prosocial behaviour in 2- to 9-year-old South Korean twins: …The best-fitting model indicated that 55%…of the variance in the 2- to 9-year-olds’ prosocial behaviour was due to genetic factors and 45%…was due to non-shared environmental factors. It is concluded that genetic and environmental influences on prosocial behaviour in young South…
Seasonal science
Posted by Razib Khan on August 28, 2007 I was talking with a friend of mine who is an economist about science, and the great productivity in modern societies which allows for the perpetuation of narrow specialties in scholarship. I repeated to him my own hunch that if all scientists who were alive today disappeared and the next generation of aspiring scholars had…
10 questions for Greg Clark
Posted by Razib Khan on August 28, 2007 Over at my other blog Herrick posts a response to 10 questions for Gregory Clark. Clark is an economic historian whose most recent book Farwell to Alms is making a splash. I read the book recently, but because I’m not well versed in economics I’ve held off saying much. I will add that Clark’s point…
New Steven Pinker interview
Posted by Razib Khan on August 25, 2007 Check out this new interview with Steven Pinker. It ostensibly focuses on his new book, The Stuff of Thought, though it covers a lot of ground. My own feeling is that the interviewer should have let the focus be more on Pinker than his own pet theories, but there’s a lot of good stuff in…
Update on redhead “hoax”
Posted by Razib Khan on August 25, 2007 Yesterday I posted on the resurrection of the “redheads going extinct” meme (as I noted, this story seems to cycle every few years). The current source is National Geographic Magazine, which doesn’t have the “article” online. I went to the bookstore and checked out the September 2007 issue, and a write up does exist about…