Category: science
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The re-enchantment of the world
Nature Human Behaviour has a new editorial that has to be read in full to understand what’s going on in academia today, Science must respect the dignity and rights of […]
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A white French aristocrat from the 18th century inspiring a Bengali Muslim woman from the late 20th century
My cousin Shoma was obsessed with Antoine Lavoisier. She had a bunch of books about him as a teen. I know this because I visited Bangladesh in 1989 and there […]
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Science before the replication crisis
I’m still broadly supportive of the heuristics and biases program. I still think Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment and Thinking, Fast and Slow are worth reading. This sort of […]
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Do genes determine intelligence?
Both conservatives and liberals are ignoring the realities of biology
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Do genes determine intelligence?
Both conservatives and liberals are ignoring the realities of biology
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Being Right, being agreeable, being nice
Many years ago I suggested to Ta-Nehisi Coates that he should interview Neil Risch after Coates waxed on about race and biology. He subsequently did so. The reason I suggested […]
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The Evolutionary History of Man’s Best Friend Revealed
Man and dog share a long history. In much of the world, a history as old as humanity. The latest genetic evidence now tells us that the emergence of the domestic dog lineage occurred soon after the human expansion out of Africa 50,000 years ago, in the depths of the last Ice Age. We came.…
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Dime-Store Genomics
Genetic testing will soon be cheap, routine, and ubiquitous.
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From the earth to the moon!
Congrats to India on launching the Chandrayaan! Here is an explainer. And an older WSJ piece, India Looks for Its Own Elon Musk to Win the Space Race with China. It’s a commentary on our times that the 21st-century “space race” is between India and China (and Elon and Jeff). As for me, I’m pretty…
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Humanity on the edge of the world
Nordic “Northern Lights”One of the most curious aspects of our species, in particular, modern humanity, is our tendency to wander, to push the limits of habitation beyond reason for rhyme. Humans have been using tools for millions of years, and Neander…
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Of proteins and paleontology
Ostrich eggAncient DNA has transformed our understanding of the biological past. The sequencing of mammoths, moa, and Neanderthal have opened up a window upon evolution which we had previously only perceived through material remains. Whereas 20 years a…
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 32: Tibetan Denisovans!
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 32: Tibetan Denisovans!Denisovan MandibleThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts) Razib talks to Dr. Frido Welker, a pioneer in the field of ancient protein phylogeneti…
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 28: Altitude Adaptation and Denisovans
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 28: Altitude Adaptation and DenisovansK2This week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) Razib talks to Emilia Huerta-Sanchez, a computational biologist at Brown University abou…
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 27: Neolithic Massacre
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 27: Neolithic MassacreThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) Razib talks to an archaeologist and geneticist who were authors of a paper that documented a Neolithic mas…
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 26: The Epigenetics Revolution
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 26: The Epigenetics RevolutionThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) Razib talks about the “Epigenetics Revolution” with John Greally of Albert Einstein School of Medi…
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The misunderstanding of epigenetics
Conrad Waddington’s “epigenetic landscape”In most graduate programs students must complete a series of oral exams or make a presentation to professors to “qualify” to proceed in their research. The goal here is to make sure that a student goes forward …
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 24: Deconstructing the Denisovans
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 24: Deconstructing the DenisovansThe Dali skull, 200,000 years old. A Denisovan?This week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) Spencer is back, as we go back to our old two-ma…
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Denisovans and the human story
The Siberian cave where a new human species was discoveredWe are all aware of the iconic fossil finds which mark the various milestones of our understanding of human evolution. The story of how our species became what it is today. Raymond Dart’s Taung …
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The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 21: The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe
The Insight Show Notes — Season 2, Episode 21: The Genetic History of Ice Age EuropeAurignacian artifactsThis week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts) we discuss the genetic history of Ice Age Europe with Cosimo Posth…