Category Archives: Genetics
“Huge service to the university and the community more generally”
Again, not to pat myself on the back, but to suggest to others what you can do to fight back against ignorance. There are protests, join them. There are businesses & organizations that are being attacked, support them. And there … Continue reading
A World Famous African-American Scientist Puts the Presidential Election in Perspective: “I Am Not Surprised At All”
On Wednesday, the day after our 2017 presidential election, I dreaded having to put on my host face to go out to dinner with Dr. Joseph Graves, our ALLELE speaker for Thursday. I couldn’t really stand the thought of talking … Continue reading
Darwin’s Daily & Hourly Dharma
I’m just going to leave this right here… Yes, I know, I should explain, but my mind is reeling a bit right now. Ever have those experiences when you stumble across a literature that advances a model that runs parallel to … Continue reading
We Need Neandertals or Some as Yet Unknown But Genetically Similar Population Within the Last 100 ky in Our Story
A couple years ago when I first started blogging here, my friend John Edvalson asked me right out of the gate my opinion on the Neandertal-sapiens interbreeding controversy. I think I skirted an answer because, though as a biological anthropologists … Continue reading
Modeling Recent Human Genetic Adaptation
Geneticist Dr. Sarah Tishkoff from the University of Pennsylvania is speaking as part of UA’s ALLELE series today, & EvoS students are reading a recently review she co-authored for Nature with Laura Scheinfeldt for the occasion. The piece, “Recent human … Continue reading
Evolved for Higher Consciousness? Evidence Please
A publication came out in Consciousness & Cognition last year by a neuroscience group in Slovenia that starts off speculating that pursuing higher consciousness is “natural to the experience and potential growth of every human being.” They tested this by … Continue reading
Dr. Evil!?! Or the Entire Denisova Genome from One Girl’s Finger Bone
University of Wisconsin-Madison paleoanthropologist John Hawks was UA’s second ALLELE lecturer of the season. Hawks was trained at the University of Michigan in anthropology by the famous Milford Wolpoff (he of multiregionalism infamy) & completed a postdoc in evolutionary genetics … Continue reading
Remembering Brent Colyer: Serotonin, Alcoholism, & Evolution
I am beginning the writing of this on Saturday, December 8, around 11:30PM. A week ago & a few hours earlier, I was agitating over six lead changes as I watched Bama ultimately beat Georgia in the SEC college football … Continue reading