razib | November 22, 2007I downloaded and installed Firefox 3.0 beta. It might have some bugs, but it resolved all the problems I'd been having earlier with Firefox crashing in gmail.
razib | November 20, 2007Targeted discovery of novel human exons by comparative genomics:
Here we describe a genome-wide effort, carried out as part of the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project, to identify human genes not yet in the gene catalogs. Our approach was to produce gene predictions by algorithms that rely on comparative sequence data but do not require direct cDNA evidence, then to test predicted novel genes by RT-PCR. We have identified 734 novel gene fragments (NGFs) containing 2188 exons with, at most, weak prior cDNA support. These NGFs correspond to an estimated 563 distinct genes, of which >160…
razib | November 19, 2007The most common emails I receive are about hair and eye color, and of these the most frequent source seems to be from individuals in interracial relationships. Quite often they are curious as to the possible outcome of their offspring's phenotype. Sometimes they wonder why their offspring looks the way he or she does. On one disturbing occasion someone was appealing to me to clear up the suspicion of non-paternity because of the unexpected outcome of the offspring's appearance! Today I received this email:
I have a 19 month old son who is very light skinned, blond hair and blue eyes. My…
razib | November 18, 2007Technology dramatically speeds gene mapping. A short little piece which repeats the standard mantras; faster, cheaper and better. The Human Genome Project was proof of principle. Right now, with all the stuff that is starting to bubble up around personal genomics it looks like we're at a technological and social point of no return, the second derivative is positive, the the rate of change is increasing. Hsien-Hsien is going to have to start getting a bit more selective about what she blogs about since the sample space of upon which the commentary is based will start to rapidly increase in…
razib | November 18, 2007Just talked to my mother today and she phoned relatives in Dhaka. Everything is OK, electricity is coming back online. She seemed dismissive of the idea when I asked if it was all well in the rural areas where some of my distant relatives live; it wasn't that big of a deal. On the other hand a cousin married a man whose family is from Barisal. Her husband went to check out the situation (family has estates and properties around the Sundbarbans) which was in the path of the storm, and it wasn't as pretty there as everything had been blasted away and tossed around. The main aim of my call…
razib | November 17, 2007My Genome, Myself: Seeking Clues in DNA:
For as little as $1,000 and a saliva sample, customers will be able to learn what is known so far about how the billions of bits in their biological code shape who they are. Three companies have already announced plans to market such services, one yesterday.
Offered the chance to be among the early testers, I agreed, but not without reservations. What if I learned I was likely to die young? Or that I might have passed on a rogue gene to my daughter? And more pragmatically, what if an insurance company or an employer used such information against me in…
razib | November 17, 2007Update: OK, not to be morbid, but the confirmed death tolls is now greater than 3,000, and there is a tentative projected death toll on the order of 10,000. That's in line with my comments below. End Update
The death toll is pushing 2,000. I think I might be safe in saying that the fatalities are going to be one order of magnitude lower than the 1991 and 1970 typhoons. Chris Mooney considers whether Sidr was as bad as hurricane Mitch in 1998. Mitch caused 11,000 fatalities. Sidr might cause as many. But the combined population for Nicaragua and Honduras is about 13 million today (one…
razib | November 17, 2007A few weeks ago I reported some research that seemed to show a relationship between a gain in IQ due to breastfeeding and a particular genetic variant. Looks like I spoke too soon. p-ter has the goods:
The fact that they have a measure of maternal IQ but don't directly include it in the published multiple regression suggests that they tried it, but didn't like the results. They didn't include parental phenotype in any of their previous studies, but there, at least, there was some functional evidence linking the polymorphism and the phenotype. Here, there's nothing. Considering the fact…
razib | November 16, 2007Simpler mode of inheritance of transcriptional variation in male Drosophila melanogaster:
Sexual selection drives faster evolution in males. The X chromosome is potentially an important target for sexual selection, because hemizygosity in males permits accumulation of alleles, causing tradeoffs in fitness between sexes. Hemizygosity of the X could cause fundamentally different modes of inheritance between the sexes, with more additive variation in males and more nonadditive variation in females. Indeed, we find that genetic variation for the transcriptome is primarily additive in males but…
razib | November 15, 2007It's almost Friday here in the United States. The latest update I can find is that 200 people have died due to typhoon Sidr. These are almost certainly "early returns," and the numbers will keep going up. Like pre-modern battles most of the fatalities won't be directly due to the cyclone. Social disturbances, and likely outbreaks of disease (cholera) are going to take their their toll. That being said, at this point I think it is important to have a sense of perspective. A cyclone in 1991 killed 138,000 people and left 10 million homeless (I heard from relatives who told of how they had…
razib | November 14, 2007I've discussed heritability quite a bit on this weblog. Over the past 5 years of blogging on genetic topics this is the #1 issue I've been attempting to nail into the heads of readers because it is a concept which is critical in correctly modeling the world around us. It isn't an idea which is in common circulation, as evidenced by the common assertions in the press which go along the lines of "the trait is half genetic" or "the trait is mostly genetic," after reporting the heritability estimate from the original research. Part of the problem is that heritability emerges out of the…
razib | November 13, 2007NOVA's documentary about the Dover Creationism case, Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial, aired tonight. If you don't have a TV, or missed it and don't have a TIVO, etc., you can watch it online on the 16th.
razib | November 13, 2007I don't post much on politics because I really have little value to add. And with my diverse readership in regards to politics I can't really be throwing posts to the effect of "look at these idiotic conservatives/liberals!!!" and expect to get a bunch of "right on!" comments in response. But I do pay cursory attention to the political blogosphere via my RSS, and I was struck by simultaneous fissures emerging on the Left and Right blogosphere for Godwinesque reasons.
On the right, Little Green Footballs is trying to purge the anti-jihadist movement of fascists. Specifically the…
razib | November 11, 2007On page 380 of Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory I stumbled onto some interesting data from the 1970s. The paper was Admixture Studies and the Detection of Selection , and its aim was to gage the extent of white ancestry within black populations. They generated a measure, M, for the extent of ancestry across a range of loci like so:
change in allele frequency between African Americans and West Africans
____________________________________________________________
change in allele frequency between Europeans and West Africans
In short M relates the ratio of the genetic…