Monthly Archives: February 2016

There are a couple of recent papers on introgression from some quite divergent archaic population into Pygmies ( this also looks to be the case with Bushmen). Among other things, one of those papers discussed the time of the split … Continue reading →

I’m led to believe that Greeks fall into two essentially distinct categories: those with about 25% Slavic ancestry and those with none at all. I think there’s an obvious explanation, especially if you’re familiar with Byzantine history and the fate … Continue reading →

I am beginning to suspect that there’s some serious genetic stratification in Iran.

There is a new article out on the genome of the Altai Neanderthal, found in the same cave as the Denisovan. The authors find clear signs that this population of Neanderthals had some admixture with modern humans, roughly 100k years … Continue reading →

There’s a new paper out that extends the record of host manipulation by toxoplasma. We already knew that toxoplasma infections cause mice to lose fear of cat urine – turns out that toxoplasma infections also cause chimpanzees to develop a … Continue reading →

I was reading a article in Ars Technica about the Columbia disaster, back in 2003, written by Lee Hutchinson, who was doing some support work for NASA back then. He talks about the possibility of a rescue mission using the … Continue reading →