Does your twin have “rights” on your genomes?
Randall Parker asks, Genetic Privacy And Identical Twins:
Suppose you have a right to genetic privacy. You might believe you do. Suppose you have an identical twin. Suppose the identical twin decides to publish his (or her) genetic sequence on the web….
The short life expectancy of longevity genes (?)
When I first heard in the media there was a new study of longevity which had produced a model based on your SNP profile that was “77% accurate” as to whether you’d live to the age of 100 or not, I assumed this was confusion or distortion (perhaps The Daily Mail had broken embargo first […]
Don’t genetically profile yourself just yet…perhaps
Newsweek has a long piece up which reviews some major issues with the new study of centenarians that’s been all over the media right now. Ed Yong already covered the paper, but I’m going to look at the details myself. Here’s a update from the Newsweek post:
Within an hour of this story’s publication, the Science […]
Malnutrition now, arthritis later?
Of Moose and Men: 50-Year Study Into Moose Arthritis Reveals Link With Early Malnutrition:
“As the study entered its second decade there was increasing evidence of Osteoarthritis (OA) in the moose population,” said lead author Rolf Peterson from Michigan Technological University. “OA is a crippling disease and is identical to that found in humans. It is […]
Tick-tock biological clock
There will be an interesting presentation tomorrow at the European Society of Human Reproduction & Embryology. Basically the researcher is going to present on a method for predicting when a woman will hit menopause. This part from the press release is the important bit:
“The results from our study could enable us to make a […]
Random acts of ill-health
Stochastic epigenetic variation as a driving force of development, evolutionary adaptation, and disease:Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory is based on exquisite selection of phenotypes caused by small genetic variations, which is the basis of quantitati…
Coincidence or adaptation?
Different Evolutionary Histories of the Coagulation Factor VII Gene in Human Populations?:Immoderate blood clotting constitutes a risk factor for cardiovascular disease in modern industrialised societies, but is believed to have conferred a survival ad…
Where the fat folks live
Since it’s after Thanksgiving and I’m feeling bloated, I figure a follow up to the post on obesity and diabetes might be apropos. I want to focus on obesity. I have the raw county-by-county data, but obviously it isn’t broken down by race. But, I do ha…