In light of the resurgent fuss about race and IQ sparked by Will Saletan’s Slate columns, I may as well weigh in on the side of those who think this is just a largely unfruitful topic, at least for the popular press. I have no idea whether there are any average genetically-rooted intelligence differences between […]

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I’m of two minds about the recent resignation of eminent geneticist James Watson, following the publication of an interview in which the Nobel laureate suggested that Africans are inherently less intelligent than Europeans. On the one hand, I’m pretty confident that given all the various factors that influence intelligence—upbringing, adequacy of childhood diet, social expectations, […]

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We hear constantly about how very, very obese Americans are supposed to be—both statistically and in the form of anecdotes about foreigners identifying American tourists by their girth. And while I hadn’t explicitly put it to myself this way, I had always, I suppose, taken this with a grain of salt because it was out […]

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Ross Douthat is defending his application of the term “eugenicist” to people who don’t have any quarrel with selective abortion of fetuses with Down Syndrome, in part on the grounds that some people who support reproductive freedom take the position that, in fact, there is nothing wrong with the “eugenic” goal of seeking to ensure […]

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Virginia Postrel asks: Personal interests aside, the more fundamental issue is the way we treat the term disease. If something is a “disease,” it is worth treating. If it isn’t a “disease,” you should just live with it. But why? Why not treat a biological condition you just don’t like? Of course, I’m in full […]

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In A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle has John Watson describe one of his earliest conversations with Sherlock Holmes: His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might […]

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I can’t say I much regret having missed this AEI event on “Darwinism and Conservatism.” According to The Weekly Standard‘s account, the panelists grappled with such “knotty questions” as: Does reality have an ultimate, metaphysical foundation? Is there content to the universe? Maybe I’m betraying my roots in an analytic department, but I’m pretty confident […]

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Ron Bailey’s latest Reason column focuses on a study in Nature I’d meant to link a couple weeks back purporting to find a “Robin Hood” impulse in a series of behavior experiments: Subjects randomly allotted varying sums of money, without any prospect of reciprocation or retaliation, were willing to spend their own money to raise […]

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You’d doubtless already heard that tofu will turn your little boys gay. But now it appears that beef may lower their sperm counts. What’s a parent to do?

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Via Marginal Revolution comes a report of a company that is apparently making diamond rings using (and don’t ask me how this works) Beethoven’s DNA, extracted from remnants of the great composer’s hair. I’m curious: How good is the sample that can be extracted at this point? Because, at the risk of giving Leon Kass […]

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