razib
Posts by this author
September 26, 2006
Sandy at Discovering Biology in a Digital World responded to my post about skin color with White People are Mutants. This is an interesting juxtposition with a observation that some might claim that this implies that one is saying white people are more evolved. But it's more complex than that, as…
September 25, 2006
A year ago, Armand Leroi, the author of Mutants, wrote:
...We don't know what the differences are between white skin and black skin, European skin versus African skin. What I mean is we don't know what the genetic basis of that is. This is actually amazing. I mean, here's a trait, trivial as it…
September 22, 2006
Two articles are out, one by Stephen Oppenheimer, author of The Real Eve, and another profiling some of Bryan Sykes'1 new research. The headlines are eye-catching, "We're nearly all Celts under the skin!" The fine print:
Even in England, about 64 per cent of people are descended from these Celts…
September 21, 2006
Which is the correct tree?*
One could argue that this is fallacious insofar as Judaism is the "ancestor" of both Islam and Christianity, but my own opinion is that the Jewish traditions of this day and age (including "Orthodox" Judaism) are very different from ancient Judaism (the transition from…
September 21, 2006
Pure Nerd
82 % Nerd, 17% Geek, 30% Dork
For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has…
September 21, 2006
Mike Dunford has the low down on how to help by doing something. If you have a blog, consider linking and bringing attention to this matter. Mass action is crucial!
September 21, 2006
The first chapter of Evolutionary Genetics: Concepts & Case Studies gives a quick sketch of the arc of the field that the book covers via exposition of topical and current issues. Michael R. Dietrich focuses on the series of controversies which serve as "hinges of history." I have addressed…
September 20, 2006
A report in The University of Chicago Magazine details the problems that interracial children have in relation to monoracial children, specifically, violence, drug abuse and disciplinary problems. Ah, but note this:
Choi has yet to decipher all the factors that exacerbate multiracial youths' "bad…
September 20, 2006
Declan Butler is urging everyone to get the word out about the Bulgarian and Palestinian medics falsely accused of infecting children with AIDS. I've known about this story for a while, and like a lot of tragedies it has bubbled in the background. The reality is that even doing good in a nation…
September 20, 2006
John Derbyshire reviews a book about Christian Europe slaves in North Africa. I've read that book, and it's pretty good, though one should also check out Islam's Black Slaves as a companion.
September 19, 2006
A spicy solution for colon cancer?:
Looking for a cancer cure? Try the spice rack.
In the last few years, that tactic has proved productive for researchers investigating turmeric, a curry spice used for centuries in Indian traditional medicine.
They've found that turmeric's active ingredient,…
September 19, 2006
A few weeks ago I posted my fixations which put the spotlight on some elementary population genetics formalisms. I thought I'd put my elementary Illustrator skills to use and throw up the canonical diagram use to elucidate basic population genetics in many classrooms. Here you see two demes, two…
September 18, 2006
Not much on evolution and genetics of late...well, sometimes life goes in other directions. But, I though I'd point you to JP over at my other blog commenting on a paper where the author dismisses the rate of human genomic evolution next to his vaunted Drosophila (the full paper can be found in the…
September 18, 2006
Interesting article about the teaching of evolution in a United Methodist affiliated college, and Creationism in a Baptist one. From the Creationist:
"At the time of the Big Bang, evolutionists believe there was all this matter out there, where did that matter come from? At the time of the Big Bang…
September 17, 2006
...to show that he regrets his gaffe.
[From the Muslim Onion]
This whole fiasco is making Sam Harris' point for sure. Too bad I have no expectation that this sort of irrationality can be banished as opposed to managed in the future....
Though seriously.
1) The Pope quoted Manuel II Palaiologos who…
September 16, 2006
I recently read the remarks of the Pope. Everyone is focusing on the aggressive tone taken toward Islam. Muslims are reacting in a typically bestial manner. But it seems to me that Benedict is being disingenuous in pretending as if Christianity was spread purely through moral suasion. I have…
September 15, 2006
The other day I was IMing a friend of mine. She's a college graduate with two liberal arts degrees. Anyhow, I accused her best friend of racism. See, what happened was that I asked how many men this woman had dated. My friend stated 6 men. I asked if they were all white. My friend said, "Yes,…
September 15, 2006
A new find pushes the date for the last Neandertals in southern Iberia to 28 K B.P., but John Hawks advises some skepticism. I'd listen to Hawks, he's a pro, but, I would also assume it is important to remember that normally the first and last appearance of a species in the fossil record often…
September 14, 2006
PLOS has an interesting article which reports on the differentiation of European populations into northern and southern clusters, along with separability between various nationalities. Since until recently mate selection has been a function of distance and topography, and national borders also…
September 14, 2006
I think this comment in the message boards needs to be highlighted:
I think it's important to know that functionally, stated atheism in Japan is quite different than stated atheism in the west. In Japan, "religion" (the word itself in Japanese: "shuukyo" was a Meiji era invention), is generally…
September 14, 2006
Since this blog has basically turned into a forum for my opinions about religion, I thought I'd offer my comments on Pope Benedict's challenge to Islam and secularism. First, I'll point you to John Wilkins' deconstruction of Benedict's misimpressions of evolutionary theory. Ah, the bad.
But…
September 13, 2006
I just noticed that David C. Queller's review of the history of the evolutionary biology of sex ratios is open access. Here's the conclusion:
Most important, this seemingly arcane topic has played very prominent roles in the development of game theory, in the debate over group selection, in…
September 13, 2006
Ed Brayton and Jason Rosenhouse have long posts up about the recent dispute between PZ Myers and Ken Miller, the Roman Catholc cell biologist who has been one of the most prominent popular expositors of evolutionary biology in these United States. You can read my 10 questions for Ken Miller to get…
September 12, 2006
Scent of father checks daughter's maturity. Basically the authors found in a survey that if biological fathers are around, girls mature more slowly. This sounds like the Harpending-Draper model of father absence, though with a somewhat more biological edge. The researchers suggest that the late…
September 12, 2006
Baylor university has a new survey (PDF) of American religion out, and it is an excellent supplement to The American Religious Identification Survey.
Here are some findings I found interesting:
Instead of 14% of Americans with "No religion" (nearly doubling in a generation) the new survey…
September 11, 2006
Do you remember the famous saying by which began Martin Niemöller "First they came for the Jews...." The moral is that evil targets the weak and the vulnerable and works its way up the food chain. By safeguarding the rights of the weakest of us we safeguard all our rights. By humanizing the…