Clik here to view.
Diminishing returns of ancestry analysis (for me)
Zack has finally started posting results from HAP. To the left you see the results generated at K = 5 from his merged data set with the first 10 HAP members. I am HRP002. Zack is HRP001. Paul G., who...
View ArticleYour genes, your rights – FDA’s Jeffrey Shuren misleading testimony under oath
Update: Welcome Instapundit readers! Please make sure to follow the very thorough discussion/debate over at Discover Blogs, where this has been cross-posted. End Update Over the past few days I’ve been...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Income and IQ
As I noted in my recent post on Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, Gladwell ignored the possibility that traits with a genetic component, other than IQ, might play a role in determining success. His approach...
View ArticleThe heritability debate, again
Like the level of selection debate, the debate about what heritability means has a life of its own. The latest shot comes from Scott Barry Kaufman who argues (among other things) that: The heritability...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The miswired brain
Recent evidence indicates that psychiatric disorders can arise from differences, literally, in how the brain is wired during development. Psychiatric genetic approaches are finding new mutations...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where do morals come from?
Review of “Braintrust. What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality”, by Patricia S. Churchland The question of “where morals come from” has exercised philosophers, theologians and many others for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Complex interactions among epilepsy genes
A debate has been raging over the last few years over the nature of the genetic architecture of so-called “complex” disorders. These are disorders – such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, type II diabetes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Environmental influences on autism – splashy headlines from dodgy data
A couple of recent papers have been making headlines in relation to autism, one claiming that it is caused less by genetics than previously believed and more by the environment and the other...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Welcome to your genome
There is a common view that the human genome has two different parts – a “constant” part and a “variable” part. According to this view, the bases of DNA in the constant part are the same across all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Split brains, autism and schizophrenia
A new study suggests that a gene known to be causally linked to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders is involved in the formation of connections between the two hemispheres of the brain. DISC1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Does brain plasticity trump innateness?
The fact that the adult brain is very plastic is often held up as evidence against the idea that many psychological, cognitive or behavioural traits are innately determined. At first glance, there...
View ArticleClik here to view.
De novo mutations in autism
A trio of papers in this week’s Nature identifies mutations causing autism in four new genes, demonstrate the importance of de novo mutations in the etiology of this disorder and suggest that there...
View Article
