I think there are two ways to view this detailed, scientific map of Titan from Captain Marvel. The first is that we don’t need to send more missions to Titan, because we already know what is going on. The second is that we absolutely need to send more missions to Titan because what is going on there is so freaking cool.
I favor the second option, both in the comic book and the real world. I mean, come on, lakes of liquid methane. How cool is that?
If you are a regular patron of The Finch & Pea, you know that Nicholas Wade’s controversial book, A Troublesome Inheritance (link is to David Dobbs’ unflattering review), is a work of pseudoscience that purports to draw on the fields of human and population genetics to support a panoply of racist stereotypes. Now, a lengthy list of leaders in these fields, tired of their work being misappropriated, have signed a letter asserting:
We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade’s conjectures. – Graham Coop, Michael Eisen, Rasmus Nielsen, Molly Przeworski & Noah Rosenberg (+134 signatories)
As Mary Carmichael notes, this is probably the first time these 139 scientists have ever agreed on anything.
*Hat tip to Daniel MacArthur.
Last year, I wrote a post about the potential link between autoimmune dysfunction and narcolepsy. Today, a major study published in Science Translational Medicine linking narcolepsy and autoimmunity targeted at hypocretin expressing neurons has been retracted. Ed Yong wrote about the original study when it was released and posted this update on his blog at National Geographic.
Sometimes, even things in big journals (especially big journals?) turn out to be not quite true.
One of the most important ideas ever is the distinction between genotype and phenotype – between our genes and the traits they influence. It seems obvious to us now, but scarcely more than 100 years ago it wasn’t, which led to a lot of confusion.
The scientist who really clarified the distinction between genotype and phenotype (and who, along with the word gene, coined these terms), was Wilhlem Johannsen. I recently wrote about Johannsen for Pacific Standard, in the context of the recent discovery of the molecular basis of a European blond allele. Here I want to show why Johannsen’s key insight dispelled so much confusion.
Johannsen summed up his views in a 1911 paper, “The Genotype Conception of Heredity.” He starts out by saying that scientists have been confused because they are thinking about apparent heredity, or the “transmission-conception” of heredity. This transmission conception, which had been around since Hippocrates and Aristotle, was that “the personal qualities of any individual organism are the true heritable elements of traits!” Continue reading “One of world’s best ideas: the distinction between genotype and phenotype”
This week, Science for The People is learning how deadly and delightful our planet and its ecosystem can be. They’re joined by biologist Dan Riskin, co-host of Discovery Canada’s Daily Planet, to talk about his book “Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You: a Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World.” And they’ll talk to astronomer and author Phil Plait about Science Getaways, his company that offers educational vacation experiences for science lovers.
The Finch and Pea 