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I'm back...
after a self-imposed exile. So what's good?
What is the Zeitgeist?
Here is today’s zeitgeist, by which I mean the working assumptions made by top scientists, politicians, academics and journalists, as they do their jobs, every day: Free will is an illusion. The interests, passions, motivations, obsessions, fears and desires that...
High likelihood that my daughter does not have an autosomal dominant condition
After my previous post my wife started doing research online. The autosomal dominant condition that I have is almost certainly localized to one particular chromosome (there is a large effect QTL there that is strongly associated with my condition). Additionally, I inherit this condition from my mother. My daughter has her whole pedigree genotyped, thanks [...]
What is the good life?
Now that I have a daughter I do reflect a bit more on what the purpose of my life is, because at some point I want to talk to her about the purpose of her life. There is a little bit of irony in this insofar as now she is a primary purpose of my [...]
Fantasy Football: The End of the Road
So its time to announce the regular season and playoff winners for the Fantasy Football Challenge. Regular Season: 1. Bashir (has dethroned PLS for the first time!) 2. Odyssey 3. Chall Playoffs: 1. Odyssey 2. Chall (just lost the tie breaker) 3. Bashir Congrats to everyone. It was fun. And as we end on this [...]
Mitochondrial Eve: a de facto deception?
The above image, and the one to the left, are screenshots from my father’s 23andMe profile. Interestingly, his mtDNA haplogroup is not particularly common among ethnic Bengalis, who are more than ~80% on a branch of M. This reality is evident in the map above which illustrates the Central Asian distribution my father’s mtDNA lineage. [...]
Greatest Christmas Song Ever...
Fuck Bing Crosby...There is no debate.
The Hobbit, part 1
I went and saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey yesterday. It’s been 20 years since I last read The Hobbit, and even longer since I saw the television film from the late 1970s. So I really didn’t notice all the differences between the three hour film and the original novel. Two quick comments: 1) I [...]
Don’t wait to have older children!
The New Republic has a piece up, How Older Parenthood Will Upend American Society, which won’t have surprising data for readers of this weblog. But it’s nice to see this sort of thing go “mainstream.” My daughter was born when her parents were in their mid-30s, so I know all the statistics. They aren’t good [...]
Did The FDA’s Jeffrey Shuren Mislead A Congressional Hearing?
A video posted yesterday on FDABlog appears to show Jeffrey Shuren, Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, providing misleading information to a 2010 Congressional hearing into the direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry. The timing of the...
Plug And Play For DNA
In the fast-paced world of DNA sequencing technology, Oxford Nanopore Technologies provides a touch of tasteful British reserve in a sea of Californian brashness. While the likes of Pacific Biosciences have wowed the crowds – and brought in the cash,...
Guest Post: Introduction to Nanopore Sequencing
[Advances in DNA sequencing are crucial for the future of personal genomics, and approaches based on nanopores - tiny holes in a solid matrix, which can detect molecules passing through them - are a particularly promising area of innovation. You'll...
I need a Cure for a song stuck in my head...
The Cure came on the radio this morning and I can't get this song out of my head. Damn you. Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend.
Last Call for Football...
Let me know if you want to play fantasy football with us in our annual Scienceblogger league. NFL games kick off tomorrow night.
So sad but yet so awesome
h/t: Reddit
Thanks for the memories
I’m not big into music, being of the aesthetically retarded set, but as I age memory becomes more important, and that is strongly colored by music. The 80s anthems of the Beastie Boys were part of the cultural firmament for me, but at that stage I was more of a Transformers kind of guy at that stage. Show More Summary
The great pruning, and the great synthesis
Sahul 10,000 years ago
John Hawks has a very long rumination on the story of blonde Melanesians which came out last week. If I can read between the lines I think some of the implications dovetail with John’s thesis in his 2007 paper on adaptive acceleration. Show More Summary
Ten Years Gone
On the drive into work today, the thought popped in my mind that I have been working in science for a little over 10 years now. Not that it is a major accomplishment and many have put full lifetimes into it, but it is a significant mile marker in my life. Believe me I did [...]
Need to kickstart this morning
I've had no caffeine this morning and its slow goings, here is a little music to jolt you into getting it done today.
