Discover
Transgenic crops cut toxins, boost ecosystem
Environmentalists who are skeptical about genetically modified crops should think again, judging from a study published last June. Researchers reported in ...
Using your 23andMe data: How inbred are you?
South Asian populations exhibit a lot of between population genetic distance, and not simply as a function of geography. But ...
Buyer beware in ancestry testing!
Over at Genomes Unzipped Vincent Plagnol has put up a post, Exaggerations and errors in the promotion of genetic ancestry testing, which to ...
We don’t know why Ethiopians breathe easy
Most people are aware that altitude imposes constraints on individual performance and function. Much of this is flexible; athletes who ...
How accurate is 23andMe?
My initial inclination in this post was to discuss a recent ordering snafu which resulted in many of my friends ...
Harvard’s Richard Lewontin mangles population genetics review
Discover's blogger Razib Khan's dissects Harvard evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin's biologically troublesome take-down of two books on "Jewish genetics". Lewontin ...
Political leanings and Prop 37: Do they correlate?
San Francisco supported Proposition 37!Discover Magazine (blog)A few weeks ago I alluded to the controversy around proposition 37. This was ...
Science versus values in personal genomics for children
When it comes to what a child should know I tend to disagree with the consensus among genetic counselors. It ...
Many complex diseases may simply be side-effects of adaptation
A recent paper identified Dozens of new Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBD) genes, but can they predict disease? The short answer ...
Humans are at least 8% virus
In the comments below there is a lot of talk about the worry of transferring gene X from organism 1 ...
Sloppy anti-GMO journalism goes viral
Keith Floor, who thoroughly deconstructed the uncritical reporting that accompanied the release of the now widely discredited Seralini GM maize ...
Under controlled: Why the new GMO panic is more sensational than sense
A new toxicology study states that rats eating genetically modified food and the weedkiller Roundup develop huge tumors and die ...
The Bushmen tell us a lot about human evolution and genetics
When it comes to the human genetics of the Khoe-San there’s a little that’s stale and unoriginal for me in ...
Prenatal information: Ecstasy or agony?
Slate reposts a piece from New Scientist, Do You Really Want To Know Your Baby’s Genetics? It is arranged as ...
Pedophilia: Is it genetic?
Gawker published a piece on the neurological problems which might result in pedophilia, and naturally a lot of shock and ...
Not all genes are created the same
The map to the right shows the frequencies of HGDP populations on SLC45A2, which is a locus that has been ...
Human-assisted evolution to help animals survive a human-dominated age
UK-based photographer Vincent Fournier collaborated with scientists to create his digitally enhanced photographs of genetically modified animals better suited to ...
Are Ethiopians descended from the Queen of Sheba?
Razib Khan of Discover Magazine’s Gene Expression blog, challenges the facile reporting in a slew of articles based on an ...
Genes are overrated, genetics is underrated
A few days ago Nathaniel Comfort pointed me to this post, Genetic determinism round-up. If you are curious go read ...
Abraham’s genetic threads- Jewish genes
From looking at these patterns of relatedness the authors infer that despite the genetic variation in the modern Jewry, most ...
Suicides in India over GM crops: How false anti-GM story took root
That indebted Indian farmers have taken their own lives in horribly high numbers is true. But it’s a complex story ...
