Comments openNote from Razib: I haven’t watched BSG since the first few episodes. Please be careful about your first few words in your comments as I have to moderate and will also see them on the right side under recent comments. I plan to watch the whole series on DVD over a weekend at some […]

S knows that P, iff:1. P is true,2. S believes that P is true, and3. S is justified in believing that P. Winner of the thread for the most clear exposition of what’s wrong with this and how to improve it. Labels: philosophy of knowledge

more Labels: academia, bigthink, Larry Summers, science wars, Women in science

Heiner Rindermann, Relevance of education and intelligence at the national level for the economic welfare of people, Intelligence, In Press Cognitive abilities are important for the economic and non-economic success of individuals and societies. For international analyses, the collection of IQ-measures from Lynn and Vanhanen was supplemented and meliorated by data from international student assessment […]

“Evolution and religion: In the beginning” from The Economist One time could be an accident: In the second camp are those, including some high up in the Vatican bureaucracy, who feel that Catholic scientists like Father Coyne have gone too far in accepting the world-view of their secular colleagues. This camp stresses that Darwinian science […]

You’ll find one professional’s answer below the fold. What’s missing is a discussion of genes as replicators. from the SEP – Molecular genetics: In official and public contexts, scientists appeal to the fundamental theory associated with molecular genetics to justify centering research on genes and DNA (e.g., see the websites of funding agencies such as […]

Miura, Yoshiura, Miura, Shimada, Yamasaki, Yoshida, et al. A strong association between human earwax-type and apocrine colostrum secretion from the mammary gland. Human Genetics. Here we provided the first genetic evidence for an association between the degree of apocrine colostrum secretion and human earwax type. Genotyping at the earwax-type locus, rs17822931 within the ABCC11 gene, […]

We previously reported that a measure of school achievement built from national test scores has a nearly perfect correlation with national IQ (at least in the range of scores tested). Subsequently, Lynn et al. (in press) published a very similar analysis: This paper examines the relationship of the national IQs reported by Lynn & Vanhanen […]

Follow up to IQ, height & Crooked Timber: John Quiggin @ Crooked Timber wrote “I’d be interested to read a GNXP view of the main developments in recent decades, taking account of the Flynn effect.” I don’t know that a “GNXP view” exists on this subject aside from what appears to be the scholarly consensus […]

Everybody okay?

In the spirit of Gapminder, I’ve noticed three data visualization sites which present user-generated content:* Many Eyes (does maps!!!)* Swivel* Data360 Labels: data, graph, map, visualization, web

AP and others have the story. Benedict added that the immense time span that evolution covers made it impossible to conduct experiments in a controlled environment to finally verify or disprove the theory. “We cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory,” he said. Setting aside the inappropriately narrow view of how science is done, this […]

That seems to be the conclusion of a recent review of Nick Wade’s Before the Dawn published in Nature Genetics: My reluctance to recommend the book stems also from Wade’s discussions of ‘race’ and biology. I agree with Wade that there is something biological about racial categories. In my opinion, although racial identity is socially […]

I’ve previously argued for the expansion of DNA databases to universal coverage. The reasoning being in part that all-or-nothing coverage is in many ways preferable to the patch-work system now in place. I’m not alone in making this argument, and I find it comforting that most authors commenting on this subject agree that some kind […]

Everything I’ve read about DNA profiling and DNA databases suggests the following: A universal national DNA database should be constructed DNA profiling for this database should switch to SNP genotyping DNA database – The U.S. national and state governments operate a number of DNA databases. Most law enforcement databases are integrated under the FBI’s CODIS […]

PLoS One has been out for a couple months now. They currently list 70 papers in the category of genetics and genomics. They rely in part of community feedback for peer review, so give feedback where you have comments. Plasmids and Rickettsial Evolution: Insight from Rickettsia felis Tagging Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the BRIP1 Gene […]

In IQ and the Wealth of Nations (2002; IQatWoN) and IQ and Global Inequality (2006; IQGI), Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen (L&V) present measurements and estimates of average national IQ (national IQ). In IQatWoN, L&V argue that national IQ predicts per-capita GDP (sup Fig 1). In IQGI, L&V argue that national IQ predicts quality of […]

Hobolth A, Christensen OF, Mailund T, Schierup MH (2007) Genomic Relationships and Speciation Times of Human, Chimpanzee, and Gorilla Inferred from a Coalescent Hidden Markov Model. PLoS Genet 3(2): e7 They estimate 4.1 million years ago. It’s open access so no excerpts needed.

Jensen (1998) makes a point that is worth repeating: The pernicious notion that IQ discriminates mainly along racial lines, however, is utterly false. Jensen presents what should be a predictable pattern for a highly heritable trait: Source % of Variance Average IQ Difference Between races (within social classes) 14 30 12 Between social classes (within […]

Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan have been debating religion. Here’s an interesting excerpt from Sullivan’s Feb 14 entry: …That is because I have never met a human being or a human mind that is “contingency-free”, and never will. No child grows up without the contingent facts of their family, place, genes, and any number of […]