posted by S. Abbas Raza in 3 Quarks Daily: John Mullen in Metapsychology:
The author of blueprint, Robert Plomin is an American psychologist, geneticist and neuroscientist and perhaps the most important voice, over many years, in the field of behavioral genetics. It is difficult today to imaging how scientifically taboo it was to study the genetics of human behavior after the racist horrors, bogus research and eugenics projects carried out by the Germans in the Nazi period. The field of behavioral genetics got off to a politically rocky beginning in the 1960s, but has gradually gained respectability, although some of its applications, particularly in the area of race, have been controversial (I would argue, misguided). The great achievement of the field is to show without any doubt that understanding human behavior must include the factor of genetic predispositions. Robert Plomin is to be admired for his contributions and his courage. What he writes deserves attention.
Two general points about the book.
First, it is not written for specialists. For example, there is a chapter that clearly, and at a very basic level, summarizes the basics of DNA. And a major point of the book is a societal question of how to reconcile the idea of genetic influences upon behavior with beliefs in meritocracy, free will and others.
Second, ideas of innate or genetic differences among people, including human groupings, have a real potential to do harm if not discussed clearly and applied accurately. This is particularly true today as we witness a dangerous rise in racist and nationalist politics.
These two points put a difficult burden upon Robert Plomin to write very clearly so that the reader does not misunderstand his conclusions and put them to wrong-headed use.
More here. And here is another older review by Matt Ridley.
Hazel’s comment:
This book was first published just over a year ago. Judging by the two reviews it is something that I would struggle to understand in its entirety but the basics of DNA could be a useful piece of background knowledge.
Showing posts with label DNA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DNA. Show all posts
Friday, 15 November 2019
Friday, 26 July 2019
Lessons from testing decades of forgotten rape kits: serial rapists are common, they don't follow a pattern, they're not very bright, and they're often the same men who commit acquaintance rape
a post by Cory Doctorow for the Boing Boing blog
Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit, Victim, Safariland
America has an epidemic of untested rape kits, thanks to the institutional misogyny of police departments and prosecutors, especially when it comes to rapes committed against poor and racialized women.
An Obama-era subsidy for clearing rape kit backlogs, combined with DNA testing, has completely upended the conventional wisdom on rapists and how they commit their crimes.
The first insight is that serial rapists are very common and very prolific. Police departments had assumed that rapes with different types of victims and different techniques were committed by different men, but it turns out that serial rapists aren't meticulous and careful repeaters of patterns: they're chaotic and impatient and even if they're looking for a specific kind of woman to attack, if they can't find someone who matches their desires, they'll just attack any handy woman.
So rapists also aren't very smart about their crimes: their poor impulse control leaves behind plenty of physical evidence that can be used to convict them (Former Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty: "These are not the Napoleons of crime. They’re morons. We were letting morons beat us"). They get away with it because the cops don't investigate rapes.
Continue reading
Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit, Victim, Safariland
America has an epidemic of untested rape kits, thanks to the institutional misogyny of police departments and prosecutors, especially when it comes to rapes committed against poor and racialized women.
An Obama-era subsidy for clearing rape kit backlogs, combined with DNA testing, has completely upended the conventional wisdom on rapists and how they commit their crimes.
The first insight is that serial rapists are very common and very prolific. Police departments had assumed that rapes with different types of victims and different techniques were committed by different men, but it turns out that serial rapists aren't meticulous and careful repeaters of patterns: they're chaotic and impatient and even if they're looking for a specific kind of woman to attack, if they can't find someone who matches their desires, they'll just attack any handy woman.
So rapists also aren't very smart about their crimes: their poor impulse control leaves behind plenty of physical evidence that can be used to convict them (Former Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty: "These are not the Napoleons of crime. They’re morons. We were letting morons beat us"). They get away with it because the cops don't investigate rapes.
Continue reading
Friday, 23 March 2018
Scientists discover hundreds of new genes that may affect cognitive ability
a post by Andrea James for the Boing Boing blog
Scientists analyzed almost a quarter million DNA samples in the UK Biobank and found 538 new genes that appear to have a role in intellectual capabilities.
Polygenic traits like brain function have previously been determined to have a significant heritable component, although it’s still unclear exactly how much. The study also found that people with more of the polygenic intelligence genes also had parents who tended to live longer:
Continue reading
Scientists analyzed almost a quarter million DNA samples in the UK Biobank and found 538 new genes that appear to have a role in intellectual capabilities.
Polygenic traits like brain function have previously been determined to have a significant heritable component, although it’s still unclear exactly how much. The study also found that people with more of the polygenic intelligence genes also had parents who tended to live longer:
We find a novel genetic correlation between intelligence and parental longevity... This indicates that the polygenic load for greater intelligence is associated with greater longevity, using parental longevity as a proxy phenotype.There’s some unfortunate dumbed-down coverage of this that overstates the findings, but it is a remarkable breakthrough nonetheless.
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Saturday, 3 February 2018
Increased level of security using DNA steganography
an article by P. Vijayakumar (VIT University, Chennai, India), V. Vijayalakshmi (Pondicherry Engineering College, India) and R. Rajashree (GKM College of Engineering and Technology, Chennai, India) published in International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms Volume 10 Number 1/2 (2018)
Abstract
Security has become one of the important fields of concern when the scenario of information transport is viewed. Cryptology is a traditional technique that hides the message by encoding it.
Nevertheless, now it is not only demanded that the data that is being transmitted is encoded, but the very existence of knowledge of data transmission should be concealed. Steganography is thus a technique where the data are not only encoded, but hidden within a carrier. This therefore provides a two-level security.
The proposed paper describes a highly secured steganography technique using DNA sequence. The report suggests a technique of hiding an image in an image using DNA sequence.
I can’t imagine how it can be done but I can see the value of hidden DNA used to secure important information.
Abstract
Security has become one of the important fields of concern when the scenario of information transport is viewed. Cryptology is a traditional technique that hides the message by encoding it.
Nevertheless, now it is not only demanded that the data that is being transmitted is encoded, but the very existence of knowledge of data transmission should be concealed. Steganography is thus a technique where the data are not only encoded, but hidden within a carrier. This therefore provides a two-level security.
The proposed paper describes a highly secured steganography technique using DNA sequence. The report suggests a technique of hiding an image in an image using DNA sequence.
I can’t imagine how it can be done but I can see the value of hidden DNA used to secure important information.
Monday, 23 October 2017
Negative Experiences in Childhood May Permanently Alter Your DNA
a post by Philip Perry for the Big Think blog
Negative childhood experiences make chronic inflammation in adulthood more likely.
Syrian refugee children. Getty Images.
How much of our childhood experiences affect our long-term health? That’s a question a group of Northwestern University researchers, led by Thom McDade, PhD., attempted to answer recently. Turns out, certain negative experiences can permanently alter your DNA. These results of this study were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Scientists gathered genetic and epigenetic information from around 500 people in the Philippines. McDade and colleagues say they collected a “lifetime of information,” according to the report. Previous research found that mistreatment during childhood might lead to chronic inflammation in adulthood. But this study went one step farther, identifying actual epigenetic mechanisms behind it.
What they found is, growing up in highly stressful situations can lead to low-level, chronic inflammation inside the body, which has been implicated in a number of diseases associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, among the topmost killers worldwide. Negative experiences in childhood makes chronic inflammation far more likely in adulthood.
Continue reading
NOTE: The reverse has not been proved, nor should it be. Inflammation in adulthood has many causes which have nothing to do with a negative childhood.
Negative childhood experiences make chronic inflammation in adulthood more likely.
Syrian refugee children. Getty Images.
How much of our childhood experiences affect our long-term health? That’s a question a group of Northwestern University researchers, led by Thom McDade, PhD., attempted to answer recently. Turns out, certain negative experiences can permanently alter your DNA. These results of this study were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Scientists gathered genetic and epigenetic information from around 500 people in the Philippines. McDade and colleagues say they collected a “lifetime of information,” according to the report. Previous research found that mistreatment during childhood might lead to chronic inflammation in adulthood. But this study went one step farther, identifying actual epigenetic mechanisms behind it.
What they found is, growing up in highly stressful situations can lead to low-level, chronic inflammation inside the body, which has been implicated in a number of diseases associated with aging, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, among the topmost killers worldwide. Negative experiences in childhood makes chronic inflammation far more likely in adulthood.
Continue reading
NOTE: The reverse has not been proved, nor should it be. Inflammation in adulthood has many causes which have nothing to do with a negative childhood.
Tuesday, 3 October 2017
Change Your DNA with Mind-Body Interventions
a blog post by Kathryn Drury Wagner for World of Psychology
Meditation, tai chi and yoga – we know how good it feels to practice these and other mind-body traditions. We become more relaxed. More focused. We find ourselves becoming better partners, parents and coworkers. A new study, though, shows just how deeply these mind-body interventions (MBIs) truly work.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, suggests that the behavior of our genes can be changed, benefiting both mental and physical health, when MBIs are used. Researchers at the universities of Coventry and Radboud looked at 18 studies, done over 11 years and covering 846 people, and found patterns in how genes activate to produce proteins.
Continue reading
Meditation, tai chi and yoga – we know how good it feels to practice these and other mind-body traditions. We become more relaxed. More focused. We find ourselves becoming better partners, parents and coworkers. A new study, though, shows just how deeply these mind-body interventions (MBIs) truly work.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, suggests that the behavior of our genes can be changed, benefiting both mental and physical health, when MBIs are used. Researchers at the universities of Coventry and Radboud looked at 18 studies, done over 11 years and covering 846 people, and found patterns in how genes activate to produce proteins.
Continue reading
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