Did the gene-drug revolution just arrive?
Did the genomic revolution arrive last week, or was that just the snowstorm? The answer depends on whom you listened to and what they thought of a study publish...
Tag: Genetics
Two Sharp Takes on Mukherjee’s The Gene
Nathaniel Comfort, “Genes Are Overrated”: Mukherjee gives us a Whig history of the gene, told with verve and color, if not scrupulous accuracy. The ...
James Watson as genetic error
Adam Rutherford addresses James Watson’s attempt to dodge his past: Like all contemporary biologists, my career is largely based on his work. The medal? I...
Biology/Brains and Behavior/Culture/Culture of Science/Genetics/History of science/Medicine/Readings/Writing
Christine Kenneally’s Rich, Rompy Read on Genes
Of Christine Kenneally’s father’s father — a man neither Kenneally nor her father ever knew, a man who did the deed requisite to reproduction and promptly vanis...
Tall tales about tall genes, revised edition.
How do genes generate traits? A prime answer emerging from the ever-increasing power of genetic studies is that genes create traits through accidental teamwork....
Schizophrenia is a thing we all carry a bit of.
Michael O’Donovan and Kenneth Kendler, eminences in psychiatric genetics for good reason, look at the implications of recent (early) progress in identifyi...
Geneticists blast Nicholas Wade for misrepresenting their papers
Today a group of over 130 prominent geneticists, responding to a review I wrote for The New York Times Sunday Book Review of Nicholas Wade’s book A Troubl...
The Limits of Lawyers, Murderers, Maggots, and Brain Scans
Anne Fausto-Sterling is killing it lately on the brain and gene beat. She does so again here with On Maggots and Brain Scans What do brain images really tell us...
Biology/Brains and Behavior/Culture/Culture of Science/Genetics/History of science/Medicine/Psychiatry
Huge Study Throws Tiny Bit More Light on Schizophrenia
An unprecedently large genetic study of schizophrenia has linked a bunch of new genes to this confusing ailment. This’ll take years, decades maybe, to sort out,...
Books/Brains and Behavior/Culture/Culture of Science/Genetics/History of science/Psychiatry/War/Writing
Talking Genetics and Writing with David Goodman
My journalist friend and colleague David Goodman had me on his radio show “The Vermont Conversation” this past Wednesday, over at WDEV’s fine ...