Spider biologist denies suspicions of widespread data fraud in his animal personality research. There is a lot more talk on backchannels than you see in this piece, partly because until the full investigation is complete people don’t feel comfortable airing suspicions and rumors. But, it is likely to get worse before it gets better from everything I hear.
Last week a friend in psychology asked whether this was similar to Diederik Stapel. I said at the time that it wasn’t that bad, but I’m really not sure anymore.
Is It Fair to Award Scholarships Based on the SAT? Being WSJ the piece at least mentions Asians. “Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts stopped using the test for merit scholarships last year, said Andrew Palumbo, dean of admission. Instead, the school is weighing grades, community service and leadership.” Biased against Asians, since it is known Asians lack “leadership.” Also, grades will basically disappear as a useful measure since all mostly pre-college prep high schools will be under pressure to give good grades. As for community service, which economic class has the most time for this?
Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe. I quite enjoyed the last Mercier book, The Enigma of Reason.
I would appreciate more positive reviews for The Insight on Apple Podcasts. This week we’ll be posting an episode I recorded with Anders Bergstrom on the genetics of New Guinea.
Her Uighur Parents Were Model Chinese Citizens. It Didn’t Matter.
Family History Assessment Significantly Enhances Delivery of Precision Medicine in the Genomics Era.
Phylogenetic signal is associated with the degree of variation in root-to-tip distances.
Global reference mapping and dynamics of human transcription factor footprints.
I got Coalescent Theory about five years ago. Finally starting to go through it.
Genomic novelty versus convergence in the basis of adaptation to whole genome duplication.
Chiefs Defeat 49ers in Stunning Super Bowl Comeback. Twenty years ago I would have cared because the Steelers still have more wins than the 49ers.
I haven’t been tracking the impeachment or coronavirus since I don’t think they’ll seem too consequential in a few years.