Evolgen links to a Michael Lynch letter to Nature where he tackles the “issue” of Intelligent Design. RPM echoes Lynch, noting: it should be made clear that evolutionary biology (specifically evolutionary genetics) is one of the most quantitative fields in biology, and evolutionary biology is not a “soft science.” Of course, math doesn’t mean that […]

Not much time, but I wanted to link to this blog entry which reviews the recent paper by Kanazawa and Vandermassen which surveys 3,000 individuals and finds a strong tendency for people in “systemizing” professions to have sons and vice-versa for those in “empathizing” professions. If you want a “pulse of the public” (or high […]

In The New York Times today there is an article that highlights the trend of increased evangelical enrollment at Ivy League universities. There is a folk-anthropological feel to the whole piece, and I found it interesting that the author states that Calvin College is “an evangelical institution.” Specifically, Calvin is an institution that derives from […]

A week ago I noticed this article which profiled the All-Girls National Chess Championships. On the one hand the author seems to want to break down the stereotypes,1 but then you get this: …the hallways were filled with boys roughhousing, and that “when they find out you’re on the opposing team, they’re nasty.” “This is […]

John Hawkes reviews a Jared Diamond review of some literature on the evolution of human skin color variation. It seems plausible that on a world-wide scale skin color variation is a reaction to a variety of environmental selection pressures, relaxation of functional constraints and social/sexual selection. Diamond focuses on the idea that balance of catabolism […]

Randall Parker has a wide ranging post reflecting on the response to the “Koran flushing” incident. Aziz Poonwalla argues that the Koran abuse was only a trigger for underlying rage. Part of the problem of course is that stories like this range over multiple countries and several layers of analysis get confounded together. Posted by […]

Simon Baron-Cohen has a new piece over at Edge elaborating on his ideas about systemizers and empathizers. He received many responses and responded to those responses. I think there are two primary issues that I see here: In the details Baron-Cohen’s theory will probably be wrong because most scientific hypotheses are wrong in terms of […]

A new study pinpoints a polymorphism on the androgen receptor gene (AR), located on the X chromosome, as the primary factor in early male pattern baldness among German men. The authors also postulate recent selection for this gene. Posted by razib at 08:12 PM

I’m on semi-vacation, but I want to give a quick blurb to Armand Leroi’s Mutants. This is a really entertaining book, though if you aren’t into developmental biology and epigenetics, you’ll have to get used to weird uses of words like “abolished” (or “silenced,” for some reason specific technical uses of these terms in molecular/developmental […]

Are you an economist, sitting around the department, running some godforsaken regression estimating wheat price elasticity? Do you secretly wish you had taken finance instead, so that you too could have worn nice suits to work? Are the down payments on the Volvo getting you down? Don’t despair! The solutions to all of your problems […]

I noticed a news report this week that the population of France was predicted to rise from 60 million to 75 million by 2050. As I found this surprising, I tried to find out more. For those who can read French, the fullest report seems to be here. For the benefit of others, the key […]

Be sure to check out Robert McHenry’s excellent article on “Intelligent Design” over at TechCentralStation. Then there is the simple fact that the “theory” of ID is no theory at all, not in the sense that the word is used in science. It is not based on the best available evidence; it enables no predictions; […]

I got an email from Greg Cochran last night, with the full text of this article: There’s Something Curious About Paternal Age Effects There seems to be a good connection between paternal age and short-limbed dwarfism. A simillar pattern can be seen in Apert’s syndrome. Both these disorders seem to be present in the population […]

Since Jensen & Rushton’s article a few weeks ago (but really since Day 1 of graduate school), I’ve heard a lot of arguments against using IQ instruments, some are great (the best were from Jensen himself), some are mediocre (from Robert L. Williams, creator of Ebonics and the BITCH) and some I can only shake […]

All right, it’s time for local school boards to start mandating the teaching of all that Intelligent Design garbage alongside Evolution. Enough people believe it — enough people in important positions no less — that ignorance of the main tenants of ID is akin to ignorance of the Bible. And the place where ID should […]

Great piece in the LA Daily News today by Leonard Adleman. The ostensible crux of the article is to give reason why Rush Limbaugh should have received an honorary doctorate (an idea I am not necessarily super-keen on), but the subtle (and, I think, real) point behind the story is a little lower in the […]

test Posted by Jason Malloy at 06:32 PM

Sniffing out the gay gene by Steven Pinker. According to Pinker, there is a reason that the recent discovery of differing reactions to odor by gay and straight men was made in Europe. In America, the biology of homosexuality is a politicized minefield that scares away scientists (and the universities and agencies that pay for […]

This is the funniest thing I’ve read all year, and pretty close to the truth: “College Profs Denounce Western Culture, Move to Caves” from Iowahawk. A brief sample:… When he earned tenure in 1991, Grok decided to broaden his philosophical research. “I realized that deconstructing literature was overly limiting. It was clear that other fields […]

Thought that would get your attention. The NYT also has an article on the evolutionary purpose of the female orgasm and the name of one of the scientists they quote is, get this, Dr Alcock. Posted by jeet at 06:33 PM