The fallacy of “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” is one of the truisms of our age. I am trying to think of a nice way to get across another idea, that phylogeny does not necessarily imply morphology (or phenotype). In other words, this is the inverse of convergent evolution, where phylogenetically distant kinds exhibit similar morphology because […]

Although the scientific community has been dismissive of the threat of juvenile neurological disease posed by thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative used in vaccines), the theory linking mercury to autism has persisted in the popular mind. The US is in the middle of a vast–if late and unwilling–experiment in reducing thimerosal use, and the results are […]

MC Coffee Mug put together a little rap with a shout out to themes close to the mind of GNXP.

This is kind of funny. I liked the definition of Molecular Ecologists especially. John Hawks’ post on genomics is also of interest.

I’ve received several emails about this study, Atheists identified as America’s most distrusted minority. This shouldn’t surprise too many people, but I think some perspective is in order. I think the results are probably accurate, but, I also think that the belief is wide but shallow. I went to high school in an area that […]

Common loss-of-function variants of the epidermal barrier protein filaggrin are a major predisposing factor for atopic dermatitis: Filaggrin is a key protein that facilitates terminal differentiation of the epidermis and formation of the skin barrier. Here we show that two independent loss-of-function genetic variants (R510X and 2282del4) in the gene encoding filaggrin (FLG) are very […]

Attractive birds won’t catch the flu. Just a reminder that sexual selection and beauty signalling health isn’t an illusion…. Update: Here’s the link to the paper. Shout out to Lukas.

As my previous posts should have made clear the biggest short term problem caused by inbreeding is that deleterious alleles will be “unmasked” in their homozygous state. The individuals in question don’t necessarily have a greater proportion of deleterious alleles in regard to their genome content, but, there is likely to be less complementation. So, […]

Rob Skipper has a post where he cooks up a different concoction of natural selection, and John Hawks responds, to which Skipper answers with his own rejoinder. It is well worth reading and pondering all of it. The seed from which the exchange grew isn’t that interesting to me, the definition of natural selection. My […]

I listened to “The Demographics of Liberalism” on NPR, and noted a striking similarity between Phillip Longman’s conclusions and those of Steve Sailer’s Baby Gap research. More from Longman in USA Today. The main difference between Sailer and Longman appears to be their audiences. While you’re chewing on that, I wanted to pose a question: […]

This article about Bedouin genetic diseases in Israel due to cousin marriages seems like clear cut pedigree collapse wreaking havoc. One of the most annoying things about people not knowing science is that a superficial understanding of a topic can be really problematic. Check out this article from Slate from a few years back: Now […]

Posts related to Angelina Jolie & buggery at my other weblog.

For all of you Futurama fans, Billy West who is the voice talent behind the characters of Philip J. Fry, Dr. John Zoidberg, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Captain Zapp Brannigan and Richard Milhous Nixon writes that Futurama is being resurrected: And the other good news is that they’re doing 26 new episodes of ”Futurama” for […]

Matt Hogan pointed me to this Chris Roach post on the music used in al Qaeda propaganda videos. The post is worth a read and Roach links to some exemplars for those who haven’t listened to any of the stuff. It got me wondering about the actual neuroscience and psychology of music. This is an […]

I think that it’s about time that the Woman’s Movement start mooting legislation barring women from consuming alcohol. I readily admit that this is an outrageous position but considering the alternative legislation that gets advanced from feminist thinkers, such outrageous legislation might actually result in an increase in public safety and a decrease in the […]

I came across this sexual assault court case and thought it would make for an interesting post. Here are the established facts: The complainant [Christine Elizabeth Watson] was befriended by the wife [Katrina Ann Carter, AKA Mrs.Ibbs] and, when the man with whom the complainant had been living required her to leave their house, she […]

I read Peter Frost’s paper on blonde hair and sexual selection awhile ago. I don’t have much to say on it that I didn’t already say in the previous conversation, I think ascertainments or suppositions in regards to sexual selection in the evolution of the human species and our phenotype(s) will be a lot more […]

Apropos of our conversation in the post below in regards to proving recent common ancestry, Breakpoint Cloning and Haplotype Analysis Indicate a Single Origin of the Common Inv(10)(p11.2q21.2) Mutation among Northern Europeans: The pericentric…mutation has been frequently identified in cytogenetic laboratories, is phenotypically silent, and is considered to be a polymorphic variant…All 20 apparently unrelated […]

I have a post on Post Modern biology on my other weblog. I talked to David Miller of Radio Open Source about this topic on the phone. I basically told him using terms like “Post Modern” vs. “Modern” smacked to me more of marketing than substance. Of course, scientists have to eat and be famous […]

Steve Olson of “Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans” fame has a piece in Slate discussing this finding with a lead-in related to the The Da Vinci Code trial: On Monday Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, testified in a London courtroom to defend himself against the charge that he […]