Gene Expression

Voyage to Antarctica

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:28:40 -0500

Living the Scientific Life is still in the running for the trip to Antarctica. If you haven't, consider voting for her essay.

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How tall will Megan McArdle & Peter Suderman's theoretical offspring be?

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:54:43 -0500

Peter Suderman & Megan McArdle are getting married. One of my thoughts was, "How tall will their offspring be?" (assuming they are intent on producing any) I couldn't tell Peter Suderman's height from photographs with certainty, but he has confirmed they are the same height, 6 feet 2 inches. What sort of heights would we expect for the McSuderkinder?* Assuming 80% heritability for height, 3 inches as the standard deviation for both sexes, 5'10 and 5'4 as mean heights (male & female), and plugging into the calculator:

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Attitudes about evolution across countries

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:38:28 -0500

I have posted Creationism as a function of geography before. John Lynch pointed me to a new poll of Argentina, China, Egypt, Great Britain, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, Spain and the USA. Though the set of countries is smaller than in some surveys, the number of questions asked were much larger:

-Heard of Darwin
-Not Heard of Darwin
-Know a good/fair amount Know a little/not much
-Know nothing
-Agree that scientific evidence for evolution exists
-Do not think there is scientific evidence for evolution
-Neither agree nor disagree there is scientific evidence for evolution
-Think it is possible to believe in a God and evolution simultaneously
-Think it is NOT possible to believe in God and evolution simultaneously
-Neither agree nor disagree that it is possible to believe in God and evolution
-Think only evolution should be taught in education
-Think evolution should be taught alongside other theories
-Think evolution should NOT be taught, only other theories
-No theories at all should be taught
-No Opinion

You can see the results at the link above. It also turns out that all the nations listed are represented in the 2005 World Values Survey, so one can compare the responses to variables in that data set. So I looked at the variable "God Very Important," with the frequency who said it was "very important" and added it as a column. Additionally, many of the questions have alternatives which add up to less than 100% because only a subset of the respondents would be able to answer them (those who "Heard of Darwin"). I normalized these results so that they added up to 100% (e.g., so really 40% of people who have Heard of Darwin might agree that scientific evidence for evolution exsts).

Comparing the relationships between the columns I selected a few that I thought were interesting, mostly to see where on the chart the nations cluster.

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Desktop blogging

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 21:04:22 -0500

An Index Of Blogging Clients:

Blogging clients allow you to prepare posts and then upload them directly. Useful for

-composing drafts of posts offline
-easier editing of HTML
-easier inserting and handling of photos
-easier editing of existing posts

Here's a list of the ones I know of. Any additions welcome.

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The Illumina whole-genome-sequence

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:50:00 -0500

I notice that Fortune has a story on personal genomics up, Genetic sequencing gets personal Biotech firm Illumina will sequence your entire genetic code -- and throw in a Mac -- for $48,000:

So far, personalized genomics make up just a small fraction of Illumina's revenue. High costs keep sequencing out of reach for most people. But prices will fall substantially as the technology improves. In fact experts say costs could reach $1000 within three to five years, making more people privy to their entire genetic code.

...

One area Illumina is not diving into is sequence analysis. Instead, it is partnering with genomics companies Navigenics, 23andMe, deCODE Genetics (DCGN), and Knome, which are developing platforms to decipher the data generated by Illumina. So far, the partners are keeping mum on how much they plan to charge the customers Illumina sends their way. Based on the costs of their current genotyping services, prices could range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Dan MacArthur covered the Illumina story last month in more depth.

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Hornet vs. bee; insect wars

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:43:44 -0500

Many of you might have seen this video of Japanese bees defending their nest against giant hornets:

The Japanese bees swarm and bake the giant hornets. But Ed Young reports that there is more to this story.

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I don't get political punditry

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:01:27 -0500

Palin's Move Shocks G.O.P. and Leaves Future Unclear:

Many Republican strategists have argued that it would be difficult for someone to run for governor in 2010 and turn around immediately, while running a state, and run for president in 2012. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota announced last month that he would not seek re-election when his term expired in 2010, as he considers a race for president.

George W. Bush was reelected in Texas in 1998 and ran for president in 2000. Is that so exceptional? Or are there other variables at play? And if so, why is this variable so important? (I've seen this assertion elsewhere) I'm not steeped in political history, but I note that F.D.R. won the governor's mansion of New York in 1930, before running for president in 1932.

It seems in regard to Sarah Palin no one really knows what's going on right now. So all the speculation and analysis reminds me of someone who didn't do background reading for their final in class bluebook test and is producing a stream of total crap in the hopes that the professor will deign to pass them.

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For American readers

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:51:37 -0500

Enjoy the fireworks & the heat.

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Sarah Palin resigning, the Obama effect?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:50:01 -0500

Palin announces resignation:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Friday that she was resigning her office later this month, a stunning decision that could free her to run for president more easily but also raises questions about her political standing at home.

Palin disclosed the surprise news Friday afternoon from her home in Wasilla with her husband, Todd, and Lt. Governor Sean Parnell, who the governor said would take over the state on Saturday, July 25th.

By not running for re-election, Palin liberates herself from the political constraints that come with running for president while still in elected office.

It seems like a joke that someone who was governor of Alaska for such a short time could conceive of a presidential run, but Barack Obama didn't even complete his term as senator, so the bar has been reset when it comes to political experience.

Update: Since I posted this the whole announcement has gotten a lot weirder and murkier, so I don't know what's going on. Let's hope she doesn't decide to go hiking with Todd on the Appalachian Trail.

Update II: CNN video of the Palin resignation speech below the fold....

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Katz

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:54:39 -0500

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US Job Losses in a historical context

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:46:16 -0500

Excellent chart via Calculated Risk. It looks like we're in a whole different territory of anti-superlatives in terms of length & depth in regards to the employment drought....

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Four Stone Hearth #70

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:28:54 -0500

Is over at Afarensis.

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The evolution of blogging

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:54:12 -0500

Lots of chatter about The Blogosphere 2.0, a post which has 7 bullet points:

- The A-List Doesn't Matter Anymore
- It's all about niche blogs
- Blogger Burn Out
- Reader burn out
- MSM yawns
- Huffington Post.
- Twitter and Facebook

Not much I'd disagree with in the generality. Multiple times that politics/general interest weblogs have linked to me it is noted that I'm a "specialist/technical weblog," but I really think everyone is focused on a specific area at this point. It's just that political and policy weblogs seem to think everyone has a general interest in their topic. Also, I do think the "A-List" matters a little more than the author of the above post, especially for new blogs who just aren't on anyone's radar.

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The genetics of the descendants of the Garamantes

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:12:22 -0500

First Genetic Insight into Libyan Tuaregs: A Maternal Perspective:

The Tuaregs are a semi-nomadic pastoralist people of northwest Africa. Their origins are still a matter of debate due to the scarcity of genetic and historical data. Here we report the first data on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic characterization of a Tuareg sample from Fezzan (Libyan Sahara). A total of 129 individuals from two villages in the Acacus region were genetically analysed. Both the hypervariable regions and the coding region of mtDNA were investigated. Phylogeographic investigation was carried out in order to reconstruct human migratory shifts in central Sahara, and to shed light on the origin of the Libyan Tuaregs. Our results clearly show low genetic diversity in the sample, possibly due to genetic drift and founder effect associated with the separation of Libyan Tuaregs from an ancestral population. Furthermore, the maternal genetic pool of the Libyan Tuaregs is characterized by a major „European" component shared with the Berbers that could be traced to the Iberian Peninsula, as well as a minor 'south Saharan' contribution possibly linked to both Eastern African and Near Eastern populations.

The Tuaregs of the Fezzan are almost certainly the remnants of what classical authors described as the Garamantes. The Spitton covers most of the important points. Do note that mtDNA is a very small slice of the total picture of a population's ancestry, and because it is passed through only ~1/2 of the population the long term effective population is even smaller than most loci (and so subject to greater genetic drift). Interestingly the greater proportion of Sub-Saharan African ancestry among the Tuaregs of the western Saharan give one a sense of the relative importance of various trans-Saharan trade routes in a quantitative sense.

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Don't mess with the live shot

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:01:10 -0500

Really funny scene of a reporter being harassed by a drunk guy (H/T Daily Dish).

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