Category: genetics

The decision by a federal appeals court in New York to reject Myriad Genetics’ and the University of Utah’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit against them was a small step toward the inevitable recognition that uncreated biological information should not be patentable.

The genetics-solves-everything crowd is continuing to have an influence on society that threatens to set Americans’ notions of equality back decades. I still believe these attitudes are cyclical, but it is always depressing and disturbing to be in the regressive part of the cycle, with no hint of change in sight. The target [...]

A paper discussed in an earlier post (Alford et al., 2005) relies for much of its justification on a series of papers by Thomas J. Bouchard and coauthors. An expansive claim for genetic heritability of all sorts of behavior and attitudes is found in Bouchard and McGue (2003). Frankly, the arguments made are [...]

Isn’t parenthood supposed to be about raising a kid to be a healthy, happy, independently functioning, contributing member of society? These distorted, egocentric days in Yuppieville, it seems instead to be all about the reproductive process, rather than a far-off endpoint, that bolsters the parent’s self esteem. All the issues surrounding [...]

Go to Geek Counterpoint for the latest Tangled Bank installment, addressing topics from genetics to exoplanets to the continuing discussion about Wikepedia’s accuracy.

There has been continuing interest in the case study known widely as the “German super baby.” I did a brief post in November linking to the New Scientist article based on the original journal paper (Schuelke, et al., 2004. Myostatin Mutation Associated with Gross Muscle Hypertrophy in a Child. New England Journal of [...]

We have two male black and white cats (also known as tuxedo cats, or holsteins), shown here. The older one, Ippy, is well known in the neighborhood for playing with kids in the park a block away, and following people walking by our house to the grocery store across the park, waiting for them [...]

As more and more Neanderthal DNA is discovered and made available for anaysis, it’s easy to envision a new typing service: How much Neanderthal DNA do you (or your loved one) have? This is a question many have sought to answer, and I’m sure that soon you will have your chance.

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This kid is only 7 now, so we may hear more about him in the future. Be sure to test your kid with 10-lb weights. Perhaps s/he has the potential to become a governor some day.
As a corollary, there appears to be a mutation in cats with the opposite effect - i.e., a disproportionately [...]