Please change your links
If you have a blog, and you link to http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/, I would appreciate it if you switched to http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/. I know most people don’t use blogrolls much, but it matters for PageRank, and the archives have b…
America the Catholic, t + 40 years
Bryan Caplan points to a quote from Will Durant’s The Lessons of History: In the United States the lower birth rate of the Anglo-Saxons has lessened their economic and political power; and the higher birth rate of Roman Catholic families suggest that by the year 2000 the Roman Catholic Church will be the dominant force […]
No longer at ScienceBlogs, but at Discover Blogs
Many of you already know this, but I’ve moved from ScienceBlogs to Discover Blogs. There isn’t much to say about this, I had a good run at ScienceBlogs, but Discover Blogs offers some new opportunities. All that matters for you is this, please update your bookmarks and/or RSS feeds: Bookmarks: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/GeneExpressionBlog Also, […]
Matt Stone & Trey Parker on NPR
They review the past 14 years.
Atheists and the legal system
This article at The Jury Expert serves as a nice review of literature. Here’s their summary: Atheists are unique and individual (just like all of us) and we have to attend to the attitudes, beliefs and life experiences that all of us (even atheists) bring to the table as jurors. Conversely, jurors need to be […]
Others in Siberia?
The complete mitochondrial DNA genome of an unknown hominin from southern Siberia:
With the exception of Neanderthals, from which DNA sequences of numerous individuals have now been determined…the number and genetic relationships of other hominin lineages are largely unknown. Here we report a complete mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence retrieved from a bone excavated in 2008 in […]
Neuroscience blog of note
Check it out, Wiring the Brain.
Helicobacter pylori strains among Iranians
Ethnic and Geographic Differentiation of Helicobacter pylori within Iran:
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the human stomach, with individual infections persisting for decades. The spread of the bacterium has been shown to reflect both ancient and recent human migrations. We have sequenced housekeeping genes from H. pylori isolated from 147 Iranians with well-characterized geographical and ethnic […]
The origins of morality do not matter | Razib Khan
Mothers will makes sacrifices for their children, whether they believe in God, karma, or a mindless evolutionary processIs morality meaningless when its natural foundations are exposed? No, unlike the naked emperor there is a clear substance to the gen…
Gene Expression Facebook group
I guess I should mention this. A year and a half ago someone started a Gene Expression Facebook group. Nothing much is going on there right now, but I thought I’d point to it….
Monkeys are more complicated than you’d think
Generous Leaders and Selfish Underdogs: Pro-Sociality in Despotic Macaques:
Actively granting food to a companion is called pro-social behavior and is considered to be part of altruism. Recent findings show that some non-human primates behave pro-socially. However, pro-social behavior is not expected in despotic species, since the steep dominance hierarchy will hamper pro-sociality. We show that […]
Cartman on “gingers”
(here’s the context)
Non-deep thought
We’ll never have utopia. A world in which in many nations it is normal for the poor to be fat is, is a utopia by any measure from the perspective of someone who lived in 1900. Prompted to think about this after listening to part of this diavlog between a transhumanist and Massimo Pigluicci. Sometimes […]
How the outsider looks
Heartthrob’s Barbed Blog Challenges China’s Leaders:
Since he began blogging in 2006, Mr. Han has been delivering increasingly caustic attacks on China’s leadership and the policies he contends are creating misery for those unlucky enough to lack a powerful government post. With more than 300 million hits to his blog, he may be the most popular […]
Tickling
Did not know this:
Still, these platonic tickle sessions appear to be rare. Based on a survey he conducted for his fascinating book Laughter, neuroscientist Robert Provine notes that adults and adolescents are seven times more likely to be tickled by members of the opposite sex. When asked whom they would most like to be tickled […]
The Oscillator, synthetic species
I’ve already linked to this blog on ScienceBlogs, but I thought I might as well point to it from here. Check out The Oscillator, every entry is dense with science. The focus in synthetic biology. I wanted to see if there’d been a mention of Craig Venter’s synthetic bacteria project, but the the search box […]
Only a minority of Iranian Americans are Muslims
According to this survey done by Zogby International. The numbers:
42% Muslim
9% Christian
6% Jews
5% Zoroastrian
7% Bahai
31% “Other” (the pollsters presume this is mostly those with “No religion”)
The sample size was small, only around 400. And it seems really strange that there was a religious option for “Other” but not “No Religion,” but perhaps the pollsters simply […]
Culture & genomics
Interesting post, Culture and the human genome: a synthesis of genetics and the human sciences, at Replicated Typo. Looks like an interesting blog, not updated that often, but the posts have value-add. Definitely adding to my RSS reader. My main complaint about the weblog are the annoying little Snap div pops. Is there anyone […]
Heterozygote advantage in resistance to tuberculosis
The lta4h Locus Modulates Susceptibility to Mycobacterial Infection in Zebrafish and Humans:
Exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis produces varied early outcomes, ranging from resistance to infection to progressive disease. Here we report results from a forward genetic screen in zebrafish larvae that identify multiple mutant classes with distinct patterns of innate susceptibility to Mycobacterium marinum. A hypersusceptible […]
Creative destruction in the personal genomics industry?
I’m hearing about rumblings at 23andMe, and not in a good way. The company made a big splash a few years ago, and came highly recommended by friends (e.g., “They know their science, and have a bottomless pool of money”). This story at BNET got my attention though, and confirmed what many have been […]