razib
Posts by this author
March 5, 2007
I have often said that I tend to see "group selection" as a lesser evolutionary force when set against lower levels of evolutionary processes, e.g., "individual" or "gene" level selection. By group selection I do not mean pro-social tendencies, or the success of individuals who band together as a…
March 4, 2007
Over at my other blog I have a long post where I comment on the recent piece in The New York Times which highlights the debate around the evolutionary origins of religion.
March 1, 2007
Thought I'd post this link to a conference on the biology and genetics of music. As someone who is tone deaf I'm interested in the topic, though obviously as an outsider.
February 28, 2007
I was chatting with another Neville, and I repeated something which I have observed: Many atheists are as able to be rational about an analysis of religion as many opponents of the "War on Terror" are about a deeper understanding of Islam, Islamism and terrorism. Now, the interesting point is…
February 28, 2007
A story just came out today about drinking high fat vs. low fat milk, and the positive effect on fertility that the former can have. Remember the report that drinking milk increases twinning? Issues like this should be kept in mind when considering the spread of lactose tolerance, anything that…
February 27, 2007
Early man 'couldn't stomach milk'
Working with scientists from Mainz University in Germany, the UCL team looked for the gene that produces the lactase enzyme in Neolithic skeletons dating between 5480BC and 5000BC.
These are believed to be from some of the earliest farming communities in Europe.…
February 26, 2007
The comments for the post where I imply that Sam Harris is a religiously inclined individual addressed the topic of whether Buddhism is a religion or not. This is a common issue, and I tend to cause some irritation whenever I declare that Buddhism is a theistic religion, because that's not what…
February 25, 2007
John Emerson has a long post about the relationship between irrationality and the emergence of new cultural forms. Worth reading. The other day I had a thought: many cultural traits are basically hitch-hiking along. Consider circumcision and the ban against pork consumption for Muslims, in places…
February 21, 2007
Most of you know I'm not very into politics...but I do have two political weblogs in my RSS which pound it hard, Matt Yglesias on the "Left" and Daniel Larison on the "Right."1 I humbly request that Robert Wright have these two face off on Blogging Heads, just to see if English will allow them to…
February 21, 2007
Sam Harris says:
I do not deny that there is something at the core of the religious experience that is worth understanding. I do not even deny that there is something there worthy of our devotion. But devotion to it does not entail false claims to knowledge, nor does it require that we indulge our…
February 20, 2007
Bora sayeth:
Are you sure? How can a hierarchical, Chain-of-Being, authoritarian, sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, religious ideology be 'normal' when it does not understand the world correctly? Isn't it maladaptive to hold erroneous views of nature (and human nature) and try to organize…
February 19, 2007
For those of you who don't know, check out Allabout-SP.net/, which has an archive of all the South Park episodes. I don't own a TV mostly because most of the stuff is crap but still compulsively addictive...but the great thing about South Park is that I enjoy 80-90% of the episodes, so there is a…
February 17, 2007
Success begets succes, Dienekes was looking closely at genetic data due to the publication two papers which suggest an Anatolian origin for Etruscans (there has been previous mtDNA going back at least 5 years as well). He finds that central Italy exhibits a relatively high frequency of a variant…
February 17, 2007
Do you remember the age before polling in politics? I don't. Today we bemoan the emphasis on polls and idealize the past, before candidates knew in scientific and statistically significant detail the temperature of the democratic water. But no one is going to ban polls in the near future, for…
February 16, 2007
The always fascinating Ron Gunhame parses the GSS and religion & intelligence data. He finds:
Mean vocabulary score - Whites
6.52 Doesn't believe
7.24 No way to find out
6.96 Some higher power
6.02 Believes sometimes
6.42 Believes but doubts
6.05 Knows God exists
Ron concludes that atheists…
February 15, 2007
Yesterday I posted about the mtDNA results which suggest that Etruscans were Anatolian emigres to Italy. More data just came to light:
In the region corresponding to ancient Etruria (Tuscany, Central Italy), several Bos taurus breeds have been reared since historical times. These breeds have a…
February 14, 2007
Most of you know that I believe there are serious problems with much of contemporary historical population genetics. Grand unfounded narratives, and scientists who lack requisite historical knowledge, litter the field. But, narrow, precise and crystal clear studies do emerge now and then. This is…
February 13, 2007
Had to link to a paper with such a title. Relative Impact of Nucleotide and Copy Number Variation on Gene Expression Phenotypes:
...SNPs and CNVs captured 83.6% and 17.7% of the total detected genetic variation in gene expression, respectively, but the signals from the two types of variation had…
February 13, 2007
My coblogger @ GNXP Ikwa has a measured response to Chris Mooney and Alan Soka's notable op-ed about the conflict between the Right & science. Here's the gist:
For example, I don't think it's obvious that fundamentalist Christian fears that Darwinism will lead to the death of morality and the…
February 12, 2007
When I was in 7th grade a school psychologist tested & interviewed me for the gifted program. During the knowledge section he asked me to describe Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. I am pretty sure that my response was rather garbled, I don't personally think I really understood evolution…
February 12, 2007
A Week of Just Science just finished up, and to all those who participated, I say bravo! The stipulation to post only science and at least one item of meaty substance per day was straining for many of us, and life intervenes and not everyone could hit their quota. But that's fine, the point wasn't…
February 11, 2007
Update: Greg Laden has a post worth reading on tis topic.
Sexual selection is an expansive topic. It is also one with a complicated history and fits messily into a rigorous empirical research program. I will base this post predominantly on the verbal exposition in R.A. Fisher's The Genetical…
February 10, 2007
Many months ago I was reviewing R.A. Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection when I touched upon his view of the nature of adaptation, precisely, that it occurs though the substitution of mutations of small effect. This dovetails with the "gradualism" which Charles Darwin promoted, and…