Old Males Rule the Roost Even as Sex Drive Fades. Seems like older roosters, whose sperm are more likely to carry deleterious mutations, can still be more reproductively fit because they can expend capital earned through their life history of social dominance. This is the revenge of the vehicle against the replicator.
Personal genomics: the importance of sequencing. Why whole genome sequencing yields returns over SNP chips which focus on a subset of hundreds of thousands of polymorphisms: “If you get sequenced now, about 200,000 single-base variants in your genome will never have been seen before, ever.”
Testing for traces of Neanderthal in your own genome. From what I know some people are looking to see if they’re Neandertal at particular variants, for example where the Neandertal allele is at high frequency in Eurasians.
For Speediest Athletes, It’s All in the Center of Gravity. Average differences in body form to explain why West Africans seem to dominate some running competitions. It’s trivially obvious to note that most of the variation in differences in body form are between populations. But, when it comes to extreme traits (e.g., the combination of body form, physiology and psychology, to make for a world class athlete) the disproportionate representation at the tails of the distribution because of small average differences are going to make a big difference.
How to Retard Scientific Progress. Great institutions eventually die. It’s a law of nature. The Confucian bureaucratic system managed to persist for 2,000 years before it met reality.