razib
Posts by this author
September 29, 2008
Another paper with another technique to detect positive selection in the human genome, Identification of local selective sweeps in human populations since the exodus from Africa:
Selection on the human genome has been studied using comparative genomics and SNP architecture in the lineage leading to…
September 28, 2008
FuturePundit comments on the recent story about the shift away from the "Mediterranean diet" in the Mediterranean, specifically Greece. This is naturally leading to greater obesity. FuturePundit states:
Fresh produce and olive oil can't compete with hamburgers and fries. We need to either…
September 28, 2008
When I look through the GSS I am struck, and sometimes disturbed, by the way attitudes toward science track various demographic slices. It is no surprise that Fundamentalist Christians tend to be suspicious of science, but blacks and the poor also tend to be much more hostile than whites and the…
September 27, 2008
I have turned on moderation for all comments. This means that you may have to wait a considerable amount of time before I publish them on the weblog (I will not be checking and approving on an iPhone for example). If your comment is not published within about 1 day then you may assume I have…
September 27, 2008
There is some buzz recently about a lawmaker in Louisiana, John LaBruzzo, who is proposing to pay poor women to be sterilized. His logic seems naively reminiscent of Thomas Malthus. It any case, I will admit that I'm generally skeptical of the efficacy of these sorts of programs. But I think…
September 27, 2008
R. A. Fisher and the Adaptive Landscape:
...My own interpretation is that Fisher was sceptical about the value of the landscape concept as such, because both environmental and genetic conditions were too changeable for the metaphor of a 'landscape' to be useful. For Fisher the question of the '…
September 27, 2008
Earlier I reviewed a new paper which made some species-wide grand claims about the nature of human demographic dynamics. Specifically, as it relates to the ratio and reproduction of males and females over time. But to me some of the less ambitious but more specific work in this area where…
September 26, 2008
Of Names and Politics: The Palin Story (H/T Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science):
Characteristic blue state names: Angela, Catherine, Henry, Margaret, Mark, Patrick, Peter and Sophie.
Characteristic red state names: Addison, Ashlyn, Dakota, Gage, Peyton, Reagan, Rylee and…
September 26, 2008
I have an interview in the form of 10 questions with Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order.
September 26, 2008
PLoS Genetis has a neat paper up which clarifies something which we kind of already knew, Sex-Biased Evolutionary Forces Shape Genomic Patterns of Human Diversity:
Like many primate species, the mating system of humans is considered to be moderately polygynous (i.e., males exhibit a higher variance…
September 25, 2008
Dienekes points me to a new paper, Japanese Population Structure, Based on SNP Genotypes from 7003 Individuals Compared to Other Ethnic Groups: Effects on Population-Based Association Studies:
....Here, we examined Japanese population structure by Eigenanalysis, using the genotypes for 140,387 SNPs…
September 24, 2008
What if there were no God? Politically conservative and liberal Christians imagine their lives without faith:
A sample of devout Christian adults, ranging widely in political orientation, described what their lives (and the world) might be like had they never embraced faith. Politically…
September 23, 2008
Austin Bramwell makes a point that has been noted elsewhere:
Instead, perhaps a plurality of the rich private school kids in Manhattan--even at historically Protestant schools--are Jewish. The Jewish Daily Forward goes so far as to report that Trinity and Dalton, two of the top private schools in…
September 23, 2008
A few weeks ago I had a post up, Down syndrome and abortion rates. Today I noticed a variable in the GSS, GENEABRT, which gives responses to the following question:
1567. Suppose a test shows the baby has a serious genetic defect. Would you (yourself want to/ want your partner to) have an…
September 22, 2008
I was browsing RedState today and I noticed an advertisement for the National Geographic special on the Neandertal genome. At first I was surprised at the appearance of this on a right-wing website; after all, there is a bias toward Creationism on the modern American Right. Then I realized that…
September 22, 2008
Shelley Batts, Nick Anthis and Tara C. Smith have a new paper, Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy, in PLoS Biology. Also, Living the Scientific Life has posted a similar article which will be published in Research Fortnight.
September 21, 2008
Carl Zimmer has a post up where he points to a piece he just wrote for Scientific American, Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes. Here's the major point:
Intelligence tests do identify a difference among people that has predictive power, and that difference can be linked-in part-to differences…
September 20, 2008
Dienekes points out that John Hawks is staring in a new National Geographic special on the Neandertal genome.
September 19, 2008
John Hawks has a good critique of the conservatives-are-fearful study.
September 19, 2008
You might have heard that Richard Dawkins' website has been blocked in Turkey because of that moron Harun Yahya (H/T Thabet). Here's the justification:
His press assistant, Seda Aral, said: "We are not against freedom of speech or expression but you cannot insult people. We found the comments…
September 19, 2008
The intelligent can be wrong very coherently. The intelligent can be right very coherently. The stupid can be wrong very incoherently. The stupid can be right very incoherently. The intelligent can do some stupid things very quickly. The stupid can do many stupid things very slowly. The…
September 18, 2008
FuturePundit points me to a new paper in Science, Political Attitudes Vary with Physiological Traits:
Although political views have been thought to arise largely from individuals' experiences, recent research suggests that they may have a biological basis. We present evidence that variations in…
September 18, 2008
Excellent summary. I don't have anything to add obviously; I've heard/read all the fragments, but nice to see it all in one place from people in the know. H/T The Elf.
September 18, 2008
In my post below responding to David Goldstein's implication that intelligence has been subject to strong directional selection I put up a chart from the GSS which illustrated the fact that women who have weaker vocabularies tend to have more children. If you don't believe that intelligence "means…
September 17, 2008
Does the reconstructed Neandertal look like someone you know? I was talking to a friend and he mentioned it looked like a friend, and I immediately thought of some dude I know.
Update: A reader says that the Neandertal looks like Pete Postlethwaite.
Update II: Sandman has more.
Update III: Some…
September 17, 2008
Lactase persistence-related genetic variant: population substructure and health outcomes:
Lactase persistence is an autosomal-dominant trait that is common in European-derived populations. A basic tendency for lactase persistence to increase from the southeast to the northwest across European…
September 15, 2008
A few months ago I reviewed David Goldstein's Jacob's Legacy, a geneticists look at the history of the Jewish people. Today The New York Times has a piece, A Dissenting Voice as the Genome Is Sifted to Fight Disease, which profiles Goldstein and uses his own positions and opinions as a jumping off…