The Weather, South Asia, and coronavirus
I have a post where I analyze the idea that weather has an effect on the spread of coronavirus. One thing to note is that the best models focus on absolute humidity. This means that coastal Karachi is much better placed than inland Lahore, because Lahore often has low humidity. Mumbai shouldn’t be well suited …
Nature will not help us against COVID-19 in the American Spring
It’s the beginning of the official spring of 2020, and the United States of America is now in the midst of a massive upsurge in positive test results for COVID-19, the illness caused by SARS-Cov-2. Right now, New York City is the major focus. Seattle, which was an early outbreak hotzone has taken a backseat. […]
COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, how bad will it get?
This weblog started in the spring of 2002, in the wake of 9/11. Like much of the early blogosphere it was inspired and precipitated by armchair punditry that bubbled up out of the interwebs in the wake of that exogenous shock. Similarly, a whole set of financial blogs (e.g., Calculated Risk) popped up in the […]
COVID-19 and its weather dependency
We’ve been talking about Coronavirus in our house pretty constantly since early February. I’ve come out into the open and admitted my family is doing self-quarantine to reduce spread (we don’t think we’re sick, but we don’t want to spread it by getting sick). I haven’t been very hopeful in a month due to what […]
The genetics of obesity is about the environment
An American classicIn the 1960s the average American man weighed 166 pounds. Today, the average American man weighs 195 pounds. In the 1960s the average American woman weighed 140 pounds. Today, the average American woman weighs 166 pounds. According t…
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 31: Obesity & Genetic Prediction
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 31: Obesity & Genetic PredictionThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts) Razib talks to Dr. Amit Khera, a cardiologist, and geneticist. We talk about the relationsh…
Why do South Asians have heart disease?
Why Do South Asians Have Such High Rates of Heart Disease?: Some of the most striking findings to come out of Masala relate to body composition. Using CT scans, Dr. Kanaya and her colleagues found that South Asians have a greater tendency to store body fat in places where it shouldn’t be, like the liver, …
How much bigger Americans are in two generations
Average American Size 2015 Men Women Height 69.2 inches (175.8 cm) 63.7 inches (161.8 cm) Weight 195.7 lbs (88.8 kg) 168.5 lbs (76.4 kg) Waist 40 inches (101.5 cm) 38.1 (96.9 cm) Average American Size 1960 Men Women Height 68 inches (173 cm) 63 inches (160 cm) Weight 166.3 […]
Putting a stop on the biological clock
Egg freezing enters clinical mainstream:
Egg freezing is no longer an experimental procedure, according to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), which on 22 October issued new guidelines on the controversial practice. The change in pol…
The moral measure of bad teeth
Recently I was at the dentist and I was told that because I did not have any caries at this age, I would probably not have to worry about that in the future (in contrast, I do have some issues with gingivitis). I wasn’t surprised that I didnR…
Being fat is like being gay (?)
Anti-obesity: The new homophobia?:
Consider the many parallels between the treatments advocated by those who claim being gay is a disease, and those being pushed by our public health establishment to “cure” fat children and adults of their supposed…
The eternal question of calorie restriction
There’s a lot of buzz about a new paper in Nature (yes, I know there’s always buzz about some Nature paper or other), Impact of caloric restriction on health and survival in rhesus monkeys from the NIA study. You’ve probably heard abo…
A circumcision compromise?
The New York Times has a piece on an update to the American Academy of Pediatrics position statement on circumcision (shifting toward a more pro-circumcision position of neutrality). In the United States the rates of circumcision for infant boys has go…
A circumcision compromise?
The New York Times has a piece on an update to the American Academy of Pediatrics position statement on circumcision (shifting toward a more pro-circumcision position of neutrality). In the United States the rates of circumcision for infant boys has go…
Why some people don’t think Down Syndrome is bad
I often criticize Lefty readers for their lack of reality-basis. Specifically, they often want to align reality with their own normative preferences, even though normative preferences aren’t necessarily contingent upon reality (e.g., sex differen…
Who is the decider of the good life?
‘Ashley treatment’ on the rise amid concerns from disability rights groups: A controversial procedure to limit the growth of severely disabled children to keep them forever small – which ignited a fiery debate about the limits of medical intervention when it was first revealed five years ago – has begun to spread among families in […]
American medicine & American red-tape
I just attended a presentation where a researcher outlined how epigenomics could help patients with various grave illnesses. Normally I don’t focus on human medical genetics too much because it always depresses me. I don’t understand how medical geneticists don’t start wondering what hidden disease everyone around them has. In any case the researcher outlined […]
Personal genomics: more than fun & games
My main current interest in personal genomics right now is pure recreation. I don’t expect much utility out of it, because a lot of correlations between genes (SNPs, etc. ) and traits/diseases are rather weak. But there are some exceptions. Recently I was temporarily put on a prescription medication and I wanted to check if […]
Eugenics as a luxury of the affluent
In the comments below Jason says in regards to the connection between eugenics and genocide and the “slippery slope”:
In your current comfortable first world circumstances, you are right the slope is perhaps not that slippery. I hope you ar…
None dare call it eugenics
In the comments below Phillip Lemky observes:
Hi Razib. I find disturbing all this talk of assortative mating and biological castes, as it sounds eerily similar to eugenics. Please correct me if I’m mistaken to be making this connection.
This is a co…