Denisova in the news
Hey, I'm in the New York Times today! "DNA Turning Human Story Into a Tell-All" It's a story about the Denisova genome and its possible relationships to recent human populations. We have been...
View ArticleAmerican Anthropological Association keeps it from the people
Synopsis: A White House request for comment on access to journal articles brings an unexpected comment.Last month, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy solicited comments concerning...
View ArticleMalaria death toll estimate rises
Notable, from the Guardian: "Malaria kills twice as many people as previously thought, research finds". The study demolishes conventional thinking on malaria – that almost all the deaths are in babies...
View ArticleDenisova APOE status
I got thinking this evening about APOE, which includes a very well-known polymorphism of three alleles, where the most ancient (ApoE4) is associated significantly with Alzheimer's Disease risk in...
View ArticleExome sequencing into Norway national health care
From Ewen Callaway: "Norway is set to become the first country to incorporate genome sequencing into its national health-care system." In its three-year pilot phase, the Norwegian Cancer Genomics...
View ArticleA fieldwork tale from beneath the pyramid
Kate Clancy shares a reader's story about her experiences as a graduate student doing fieldwork with a team of anthropologists: "From the Field: “Hazed” Tells Her Story of Harassment". My professor...
View ArticleAnthropology 105, lecture 2: Feet
Synopsis: An open courseware lecture for my course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison I'm doing an open courseware initiative with my introductory course, Principles of Biological Anthropology. I...
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Piltdown and Presapiens
Synopsis: The intellectual legacy of a hoax and its affect on our view of Neandertals as ancestorsRobin McKie has a feature article about the Piltdown hoax in the Observer today, that makes good...
View ArticleInto the belly of the whale
Carl Zimmer profiles anatomist Joy Reidenberg, who has scored a coup for public communication of science on the BBC show, Inside Nature's Giants: "From Inside Lions and Leviathans, Anatomist Builds a...
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Darwin Day events, 2012
We have lots of biology events going on here for the Darwin Day celebration this week, with the theme of "Unnatural History". Here's the really cool poster, and a link to the schedule on the Crow...
View ArticleSession notes from our ScienceOnline2012 classroom blogging session
Andrea Novicki has published some of her notes on the session that I organized with Jason Goldman at ScienceOnline2012: "Blogging in the undergraduate classroom". I'll write up my own notes when I have...
View ArticleAnthropology 105, lecture 3: Legs
Synopsis: Why children resemble their parents, through the concept of heritability In this lecture, the main theme is the concept of heritability. I use survey data from my class, both this semester...
View ArticleAnthropology 105, lecture 4: Vertebrae
Synopsis: Vertebrae, segmentation in body plans, and homology In this lecture, the key concepts are homology, serial homology, gene regulation, and the geological timeline. I introduce the vertebral...
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Which population in the 1000 Genomes Project samples has the most Neandertal...
Synopsis: Europe has a touch more Neandertal than East Asia; Tuscans have more than any other European sampleLast December I began writing about an analysis of introgression in the 1000 Genomes Project...
View ArticleJob marketing yourself
Some job interview advice from Karen Kelsky: "The 'Be Yourself' Myth". [Y]ou have to create a professional persona. That persona is a full-fledged adult who demonstrates a tightly organized research...
View ArticleKidney recapituation
Jerry Coyne reviews a case of recapitulation in human embryonic and fetal development: "Evidence for evolution: development of our kidneys". One example is the development of the human kidney, which is...
View ArticleSeminar in Ann Arbor
I will be in Ann Arbor next week visiting the University of Michigan. For those in the area, I'll be giving a seminar next Wednesday, February 15. Title: "Behavioral implications of archaic human...
View ArticleDarwiniana
Larry Moran posts a bit of Darwin history, focusing on a meeting with William Gladstone "Happy Birthday Charles Darwin". Our quiet, however, was broken a couple of days ago by Gladstone calling here.—I...
View ArticleFloating to the top of the data
The New York Times writes today about "Big Data" and its effects on disparate fields of science and public policy: "The Age of Big Data". For my money, this quote should be at the beginning of the...
View ArticleNeandertal anti-defamation files, 15
David Swindle, writing at PJ Media about George Lucas' revelation that Han Solo would never have shot first. Here’s the medicine we all need to swallow: as children we were more grown up than George...
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