Can researchers see race in the genome? (Science News). Like many popular press articles the link (which is the first in a two part series, the second to be titled "The Race to Prescribe") is presented in the format of "the other side disagrees...." This is a shift, as the assumption is now that there are two valid sides. For the sake of argument, if the scientific consensus does start shifting toward the relevance of populational information presented as clusters ("race"), the expositors better get ready to beat back a resurgence of Platonic typologies. The fact is that the public does not usually engage in "population thinking" as biologists have been wont to do since the dominance of the Modern Synthesis even when it comes to the general fact of evolution. Remember, this is the public that credulously soaks up headlines shouting that "the gene has been discovered that causes-an-extremely-complex-polygenic trait-modified by many environmental factors" (fine print: "scientists note that gene X accounts for 15% of the variation in trait Y").

Related: Pattern Classification in Population Genetics, Pt. 1. Genetic structure, self-identified race/ethnicity, and confounding in case-control association studies. Evidence for Gradients of Human Genetic Diversity Within and Among Continents.