razib
Posts by this author
June 27, 2008
I just read an interesting new paper, Genetic Variation in Political Participation:
The decision to vote has puzzled scholars for decades...The results show that a significant proportion of the variation in voting turnout can be accounted for by genes. We also replicate these results with data…
June 27, 2008
The best summary so far here of the bird phylogeny paper. Also, Greg Laden. Most definitely I was surprised and interested to learn that falcons are not closely related to eagles & hawks.
June 26, 2008
Sandy pointed me to letter to Nature by a group which has done some earlier pigmentation work, Two newly identified genetic determinants of pigmentation in Europeans:
We present results from a genome-wide association study for variants associated with human pigmentation characteristics among 5,130…
June 24, 2008
Humans, being who we are, are really interested in how our external phenotype is shaped. Since the year 2000 many of the genetic underpinnings of the gross physical features which we use to categorize people, the sort of thing that might show up in a people description, have been elucidated. We…
June 24, 2008
One of the great things about evolutionary genetics is that it is such a diverse field in terms of the cognitive toolkit which one must access as a matter of course. Since R. A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (along with the contemporaneous work of Sewall Wright and J. B. S.…
June 23, 2008
Last month my posts Biblical literalism or low IQ: which came first? and Educational levels & denomination got a lot of play around the blogosphere. I used the US Religious Landscape Survey to get demographic data for denominations, but I had to cobble together numbers on Biblical literalism,…
June 23, 2008
Another story about recent human evolution, this time, really recent. The paper in PLOS is A Drastic Reduction in the Life Span of Cystatin C L68Q Carriers Due to Life-Style Changes during the Last Two Centuries. A mouthful, but the authors are really good at explaining what they're finding and…
June 23, 2008
Britain's Last Neanderthals Were More Sophisticated Than We Thought. I don't need to comment/summarize because Anthropology.net already has....
June 23, 2008
One of the points that I run into all the time is that Buddhism is a religion without god, that is it is an atheistic religion. I admit this assertion as an ideal or elite belief, but contend that the vast majority of the world's Buddhists are theists, so one can't simply present Buddhism as an…
June 22, 2008
I happen to personally accept both of these assertions:
1) A scientific world-view entails atheism
2) A scientific world-view contradictions Creationism
That being said, as matters of debate & discussion I think the former is an open question, while the latter is not an open question. When it…
June 21, 2008
Comparing Genetic Ancestry and Self-Described Race in African Americans Born in the United States and in Africa (H/T Yann):
Genetic association studies can be used to identify factors that may contribute to disparities in disease evident across different racial and ethnic populations. However, such…
June 20, 2008
In short, liberal, yes, but godless, far less so. Religious Beliefs and Behavior of College Faculty:
Faculty are, however, not monolithic. There are divisions among faculty ranks. Science and math faculty are the least religious in belief and behavior. Business faculty are the most conservative and…
June 20, 2008
Steven Pinker: The evolutionary man. Also check out the GNXP interview with Pinker from 2 years ago.
June 18, 2008
Sexual Reorientation: The gay culture war is about to turn chemical:
If the idea of chemically suppressing homosexuality in the womb horrifies you, I have bad news: You won't be in the room when it happens. Parents control medical decisions, and surveys indicate that the vast majority of them would…
June 16, 2008
Genetic and Environmental Effects on Same-sex Sexual Behavior: A Population Study of Twins in Sweden:
There is still uncertainty about the relative importance of genes and environments on human sexual orientation. One reason is that previous studies employed self-selected, opportunistic, or small…
June 16, 2008
I have already posted on Creationism & Bobby Jindal. Here's more:
As a parent, when my kids go to schools, when they go to public schools, I want them to be presented with the best thinking. I want them to be able to make decisions for themselves. I want them to see the best data. I personally…
June 16, 2008
The post on soft drink terms has elicited a great deal of response (on my other blog as well). Many people want a little more granularity; well, it was brought to my attention that Google Maps based survey is up. You can vote and increase the N. I ask all American readers interested in the…
June 15, 2008
Every few years I post this map. Anyone have good explanations for some of the patterns? (e.g., what's going on around St. Louis and Milwaukee?)
June 13, 2008
Via Dienekes, Ancient mtDNA from Sampula population in Xinjiang:
The archaeological site fo Sampula cemetery was located about 14âkm to the southwest of the Luo County in Xinjiang Khotan, China, belonging to the ancient Yutian kingdom. 14C analysis showed that this cemetery was used from 217 B.C.…
June 12, 2008
Over the past decade the concurrent arrival of relatively cheap sequencing technology as well as copious computational power has resulted a flurry of research in the domain of genetic anthropology with the intent of fleshing out historical questions. Spencer Wells' Journey of Man and Bryan Sykes…
June 12, 2008
God makes you stupid, researchers claim:
Lynn and his two co-authors argue that average IQ is an excellent predictor of what proportion of the population are true believers, across 137 countries. They also cite surveys of the US Academy of Sciences and UK Royal Academy showing single-digit rates of…
June 11, 2008
Vitamin D: New way to treat heart failure?. It's been in the news so I figured I'd point to Think Gene's roundup. It seems in the health sciences occasional fads for miracle-nutrients show up, so take it all with a grain of salt. I'm less interested in Vitamin D's relationship with late in life…
June 11, 2008
Josh has a good overview of the wending through the legislature of a Creationist bill in Louisiana. The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, who just turned 37, has made Creationist noises before. This is interesting because Jindal is a Roman Catholic, so he has no necessary religious rationale…
June 11, 2008
Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech:
A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article's tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United…