Monthly Archives: March 2013

Once upon a time, before we all realized that the United State’s true purpose was rocking the casbah  – as long as grass grows or waters flow –  some of us had other goals in mind. I sold one of … Continue reading →

In the days of old, deafness was arguably a fate worse than death, since it left you unable to produce or understand speech. It also must have reduced fitness to near zero, for those who care about such things. Today, … Continue reading →

This is an email I sent to a friend back  on 10/14/2002.  He was arguing that Saddam was close to having the Bomb and would then make Iraq a terrorist base – so we should invade. Madness of Crowds: Come … Continue reading →

John Burdon Sanderson Haldane, FRS [1892-1964] was one of the three main founders of modern population genetics, along with Sir Ronald Fisher and Sewall Wright. In his life he played many parts: biochemist, physiologist, geneticist, soldier, popularizer of science, and … Continue reading →

Dan Freedman’s  work makes it clear that there are hard-wired differences in personality between different human populations.   On average, but quite noticeable.   Not just between groups that are separated by long distances or ancient population splits: there are noticeable differences … Continue reading →

Daniel Freedman was a professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago.  For his doctoral thesis, he did adoption studies with dogs.  He had noticed that different dog breeds had different personalities, and thought it would be interesting to see … Continue reading →

A ebook version of the first year and a half of this blog is now available on Amazon.

There was a recent journal article about the East Asian variant of EDAR, v370 A. This variant influences the development of the ectoderm in many ways, and is responsible for many of the phenotypes characteristic of East Asia. In the … Continue reading →

There have been several articles in the literature claiming that the gene frequency of the 35delG allele of connexin-26, the most common allele causing deafness in Europeans, has doubled in the past 200 years, as a result of relaxed selection … Continue reading →

Homosexuality likely has a biological cause. I’ve argued that the most likely kind of cause would be some pathogen – but finding any biological cause would be absolutely rife with implications. With that knowledge, you could likely prevent homosexuality, and … Continue reading →