It is now time to kick James Watson’s ass.
The man is a terrible embarrassment to us all. (“Us” being scientists and rational types.) It is said by the press that Watson “makes his colleagues cringe when he goes off script” or “is known for making controversial remarks” and so on. […]

African Lynne Simpson, 2001 winner of Augrabies Ultra-Marathon in South Africa
On one hand, everyone knows that the differences between humans that are often categorized as “racial traits” are either overstated or irrelevant. All humans have essentially the same basic potentials, and the genetic differences that do exist between people are not sorted out […]

The following claim is being made by Timothy Frayling of Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, UK, and colleagues:
A genetic survey of more than 34,000 people has revealed the first gene known to have a decisive effect on height in people of average stature. A change to just a single letter of genetic code is linked […]

A colleague of mine, now retired, was once invited to a lunch with Sir Edmund Hillary, at which he was asked to help in the search for Yeti as part of an upcoming trip to the Himalayas. His reply, wisely, was “I’ll be the first to join your second expedition.”
I think that […]

Much to the consternation of everyone in England, as well as everyone in Scotland and, by the way, Ireland (a very ethnocentric and racist set of cultures, by and large), all of these people are kissin’ cousins, it turns out.
…geneticists who have tested DNA throughout the British Isles are … struck by the overall genetic […]

As you probably know, everyone should drink milk. Lots and lots and lots of milk. All your life. Or so says the American Dairy Industry, often using those sexy posters of famous people with milk smeared on their faces.
The truly amazing thing about those posters is that the people in them […]

Phenylketonuria (fee-null-keet-o-noo-ria), mercifully also known as “PKU” (pee – kay – you) is a disorder in which phenylalanine, an essential amino acid, is not broken down as it normally would be by an enzyme (phenylalanine hydroxylase) and thus accumulates (in the form of phenylpyruvic acid) in the body. Normally, Phenylalanine hydroxylase coverts phenylalanine into […]

University of Georgia researchers have developed what they claim to be the first working model that explains how a particular biological clock operates. The work is coming out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“When the clock goes awry in mammals, it can lead to many diseases, ranging from cancer […]

February issue of Cultural Anthropology includes a paper by Michael Montoya on race and diabetes detection. It is a reificiation of what is now common knowledge among most people who study race, but not so much beyond this sphere.
“Although it’s true that certain ethnic groups have higher rates of diabetes, our social […]

I just read Larry Moran’s definition of a gene.
While reading it I was reconsidering (as I have been for a few days) the exclusion of sequences that are templates for non-coding RNA. That’s what my definition does. I excluded them in my definition because they are part of the system of gene […]

I just wrote a very long semi-ranting comment over on Pharyngula that I decided to put it here as a post to be considered along with Basics: What is a Gene?
MartinCL: Greg, that definition is SO twentieth century. A gene doesn’t necessarily have to encode a protein. What about non-coding RNA genes like microRNAs or […]

The following is my provisional definition of a gene. I’m sure it needs a great deal of work! I am particularly unsure of some of the generalities (or lack there of) across the full diversity of life. (I tend to gravitate in my thinking towards multicelled organisms, then usually the furry or […]