I’m caught up in the microfinance hype. Maybe you’re looking for something to do with that extra xmas cash. That or tell me what’s wrong with it. Update: Be sure to read the comments before you run off and end up a sucker.

Have a good day everyone.

About 6 months ago I speculated that Shiloh Pitt was going to be a very beautiful baby considering how hyperattractive her parents were. Well, I was in the supermarket checkout line today and I saw some pictures of her in US WEEKLY. This is the best res photo I could find online, but the spread […]

In the post below I got pretty blogged down by the definition of the word religion. This is not new, almost anything is tagged as a ‘religion.’ Elvis fandom, football, and so forth. Six months ago I spelled out in tedious detail some of the definitions which I allude to contextually when I say “religion.” […]

A link between coat color and certain behavioral traits has reportedly been discovered in a couple of dog breeds. A dog’s colour reflects a pooch’s personality, scientists say, at least in one breed, the English cocker spaniel. The latest study, recently published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, shows that golden/red English cocker spaniels […]

Low Levels of Genetic Divergence across Geographically and Linguistically Diverse Populations from India: The authors performed an extensive investigation of Indian genetic diversity and population relationships, sampling 15 groups of India-born immigrants to the United States and genotyping each individual at 1,200 genetic markers genome-wide. Populations from India, and groups from South Asia more generally, […]

Scoop out their sperm!!! I’m writing a series on human behavioral ecology over here, and am currently writing about sperm competition. Obviously, any strategy that enhances your likelihood of fertilization should be strongly favored by natural selection. In particular, I was thinking of probabilistic strategies that enhance the likelihood that your sperm does the job […]

Ah, what the hell, I’m putting the full text of the initial profile below the fold (the full sidebar on research into ASPM and microencephalin is here). If anyone is horribly offended by this, I’ll take it down. But hey, if they remark that unnamed “bloggers” (well, John Derbyshire is mentioned by name) “jumped on” […]

A clarification on the post below, when I talk about the spread of ‘monotheism’ I’m talking about the outward spread of groups who espouse an Omni-god. I’m not talking psychologial monotheism, I don’t think it makes much sense to really distinguish it from polytheism. To be frank, the Omni-god monotheisms have many gods, some of […]

The week’s Science has a two-part profile on Bruce Lahn which includes some new information on research into ASPM and microencephalin. One of the two articles in entirely devoted to the flurry of articles disputing various claims about the two genes. Full text below the fold. Some of Bruce Lahn’s provocative claims are running into […]

Every time I allude to the male biased readership, one feisty individual emails me to take issue with my assertion. I thought I’d pass on the email since I think some of you might be surprised at who reads our little blog: I’m a lady (73 years old) and read Gene Expression most every day. […]

Evolgen points out that the new open access journal PLoS One is now online. The journal looks to make commenting and ongoing editing a central part of the publishing process, and I certainly wish them luck. Their launch is certainly impressive; here are a couple papers that might be of interest to readers. If you’ve […]

While we’re on the subject of freaks, let’s talk about polydactyly; that is, the presence of one or many additional digits on the hands and/or feet. It’s actually a fairly common malformation, and it segregates as a dominant phenotype. But the genetic basis for this phenotype has only recently been elucidated, and the eventual culprit […]

Four Stone Hearth 5.

Of course you should read George Packer’s piece in The New Yorker, Knowing The Enemy. The contempt for knowledge common in our government today is a shame of, but let’s not cut any slack for academics who won’t work within the system which in the end protects them.

Nature has two studies on the difference in gut microbe composition between lean and obese mice and people (mice study, human study). Read their news department’s review here to get the skinny (c’mon, you had to have seen that one coming!). In brief, the balance between two divisions of bacteria — Bacteroidetes (B) and Firmicutes […]

First, a Long post where I say all have to say publically about the “hot chick” topic. As I note at the end, I’d like to move on. I hope that GNXP readers won’t waste their time on threads ‘defending’ me. I excoriate readers enough that I hope that you allot your time more productive […]

My review of The Gecko’s Foot is out in Science & Spirit. I’ll be honest, I’m not happy with the review since I was on a time crunch (I was a back up reviewer and the piece needed to be sent in on a short deadline) & very busy with other things. Nevertheless, the take […]

A.K.A smelly t-shirt experiment revisited. These experiments basically ask women to evaluate the “sexiness” of a man’s body odor. Turns out, women consistently rated odors of men with dissimilar MHC genes to be most attractive. Here is a link to some background info. Similar studies have been done in mice and other primates and show […]

Here is my general model. Ignore the magnitude of the slope, I suspect the covariance between IQ & hotitude is rather modest indeed. Nevertheless, the graph illustrates my general model, a linear increase between 85 and 115, about 75% of the population. Then, a slight linear decrease up the IQ ladder (though beyond 140 you […]