Tag: polygenic scores

Ancient DNA: A window into human nature and change

I read an article this week which described an analysis of ancient DNA samples from Portugal to understand how prehistoric populations mingled and merged to form the modern Portuguese gene pool (Martiniano et al. 2017). This type of article is not unusual. Similar studies have been conducted on populations from every inhabited continent. What interested…

Lewontin’s bait-and-switch: A strategy to undermine genetic explanations of behavior

Feb 4, 2020Russell T. Warnebehavioral genetics, Charles Murray, Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender Class and Race, In the Know: Debunking 35 Myths About Human Intelligence, Michelle N. Meyer, Patrick Turley, polygenic scores, Richard Lewontin

Coinciding with the launch of his book, Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class (see my thoughts here), Charles Murray had an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal where, among other things, he discussed the importance of polygenic scores in making predictions. Polygenic scores are scores derived from DNA variants. Bits of…