razib
Posts by this author
April 16, 2006
Rob Knop, physicist and Christian, offers us his ruminations on religion. But Rob is not an "orthodox" Christian from what I can tell, he says in a follow up post:
...do I really believe that Jesus was really bodily resurrected, in contrast to everything we have observed, and everything we know…
April 16, 2006
I just read Ed Brayton's commentary about an attack on a pro-life display on the campus of the University of Northern Kentucky. The professor who seems to have encouraged this is quoted as saying:
"Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it…
April 16, 2006
Afarensis has a long post worth reading about new discoveries relating to the peopling of the Americans. This is a controversial topic, Moira Breen has been covering this issue for several years now in relation to the famous Kennewick Man. But, this caught my eye:
Still, not all scientists are…
April 16, 2006
What people believe, what they say they believe and what they do may be wholly unrelated, but are never perfectly correlated. The only reason I note this is that I meet so many intelligent people who seem to assume a deep correlation between these distinct vectors.
April 16, 2006
Below I mentioned the doyen of living population geneticists, James Crow, yeah, Jim Crow. Collaborater with Motoo Kimura of Neutral Theory fame, Crow is still an active member of the biological community. Recently he reviewed Genes in Conflict : The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements by Bob…
April 14, 2006
As a follow up to my post below, here is a comment over at Uncertain Principles:
Being a lowly biologist myself, I will just note that there is a long tradition of physicists making important contributions in biology (Schroedinger, Pauling), but I can't think of any reverse cases -- that is,…
April 13, 2006
Alex and PZ point me to this quote from one John Barrow:
When Selfish Gene author Richard Dawkins challenged physicist John Barrow on his formulation of the constants of nature at last summer's Templeton-Cambridge Journalism Fellowship lectures, Barrow laughed and said, "You have a problem with…
April 13, 2006
By now most of you have read Online Journalism Review, which deigns to character moi as:
...And there are several blogs, such as Afarensis and Gene Expression, that tend to stay away from cultural and political commentary altogether.
Well, Mr. Science and Politics might have something to say…
April 12, 2006
According to The New York Times Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests is the most emailed article today. As I've stated before, I believe this area of science & technology is driven by psychology. The same drive which has led men and women to enter into the time consuming hobby of…
April 11, 2006
There's a terrifying article in The New York Times titled Seeking Ancestry in DNA Ties Uncovered by Tests. Here is a sample:
Alan Moldawer's adopted twins, Matt and Andrew, had always thought of themselves as white. But when it came time for them to apply to college last year, Mr. Moldawer…
April 11, 2006
I just skimmed through Human Biological Variation today. It was somewhat disappointing, the exploration of topics was often too superficial and I really didn't need a review of what mitosis, meiosis and Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium were. They do collate some interesting data in the latter portion…
April 10, 2006
Gary Marcus, author of The Birth of the Mind, has a pithy piece in The New York Times, From Squeak to Syntax: Language's Incremental Evolution, which sketches out the refinements that the new science of genomics is adding to our understanding of the origins of language. In fact, one could argue…
April 9, 2006
No, not really, but perhaps a British newspaper will pick up this meme and I'll be responsible for a butt-load of misinformation. You gotta get fame somehow! Anyway...
Cohort effects in a genetically determined trait: eye colour among US whites:
The prevalence of blue eye colour among non-…
April 9, 2006
Well...Mitt Romney's stock is starting to rise from what I can sense, not that I'm much of a politics follower. I've expressed why I'm skeptical of Romney's candidacy, in short, I doubt Americans are ready to elect a non-monotheist to our highest office. That being said, here is a revealing quote…
April 9, 2006
Just to reinforce the "Live Journal" flavor of this weblog...I have to recount a Craig's List story. I was recently looking for an apartment to rent, and I was playing email/phone tag with a guy "Zeke" who was subletting his extra room. When I was looking at a different place "Zeke" called me,…
April 9, 2006
A week ago I interviewed cogntive psychologist Justin L. Barrett. Dr. Barrett studies religion as a natural phenomenon, and I asked about the nature of individuals who are atheists. He responded:
As self-proclaimed atheist Jesse Bering has observed it can be very hard to identify true atheists.…
April 8, 2006
I'm a Dubliner! Thanks to grrlscientist, of course :)
You Belong in Dublin
Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions.
You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.
What European City Do…
April 7, 2006
Nancy Etcoff has a nice piece about twins, genetic predispositions, context and psychology.
April 6, 2006
I have just finished reading No Two Alike by Judith Rich Harris. A review will be forthcoming, after I've digested the material and can offer up some coherent reflections. But one of the things that is great about Harris' book is that its review of the literature is both thorough and engaging.…
April 6, 2006
On my other weblog someone is asking about genetics & evolution texts. Specifically they were wondering about the order in which to read Principles of Population Genetics, Evolutionary Genetics and Quantitative Genetics. That was actually the order I suggested, the first book is more basic…
April 5, 2006
Evolgen has an interesting post about going to a math department seminar where the topic was genomics. He goes over some questions mathematicians had about biology and their misconceptions. I don't know...I talked to a woman this January who has an undergraduate math degree, and she told her…
April 4, 2006
Seed has a new in house weblog, Stochastic, and our resident intern Katherine Sharpe is asking about the best science books for laypeople...which would be a long list. But, I can unhesitantly offer the most influential science book in terms of making me explore many domains of the natural sciences…
April 2, 2006
Ed Brayton says there is a double standard in how people judge Islam and Christianity. That is, criticism of Christianity is tolerated, while criticism of Islam frowned upon (or at least generalization). I put in two reasons why this is so on this comment boards, first, Islam is treated as a quasi…
April 1, 2006
Via grrlscientist here is my EgoSurf result: 5715.
You can check me: .
Since this uses google I think that explains the high showing of grrlscientist and the low rank of Glenn Reynolds. I have noticed that some blogs are high driven by referrals from other blogs and others by by search engine…
April 1, 2006
Just noticed that there is now an epigenetics weblog out there. Epigenetics is one of those terms you have to know...and it seems that this new weblog doesn't just follow model organisms (e.g., S. cerevisiae) but tries to tie the topic humans.
March 30, 2006
Below is an image which offers evidence for functional analysis in the context of The Pliocene Pussy Cat Theory.
Clearly the bipedal posture allows humans to recline in a fashion where the feet can be raised and utilized for more efficient feline insulation.
March 30, 2006
Interesting paper out in JAMA, Coffee, CYP1A2 genotype, and risk of myocardial infarction:
The association between coffee intake and risk of myocardial infarction (MI) remains controversial. Coffee is a major source of caffeine, which is metabolized by the polymorphic cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2)…
March 29, 2006
You want to know what John Hawks sounds like? He'll be on Radio Open Source tomorrow (there should be a web feed). I talked to David Miller about getting John on the show before he became famous in Slate, so I am going to take a little credit for this. John and Spencer Wells will be "facing off…
March 29, 2006
I have a maxim, "beware of British newspapers." I guess I should add the BBC to that list after reading this slapdash piece, Obese men 'have lower IQs'. Speaking as a normal weight individual with a BMI of 22.8 I don't have a personal axe to grind, but this study screams correlation does not…
March 28, 2006
Very evil in fact. See below.
Via Afarensis.
You Are 62% Evil
You are very evil. And you're too evil to care.
Those who love you probably also fear you. A lot.
How Evil Are You?