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Genetics
Evil is all in the brain. Or is it?
Michael Cook | 07 February 2013 |
After 3000 years of speculation, a German neurologist has finally located the source of evil. Well, at least Das Bild says he has. Gerhard Roth showed the tabloid images of the offending portion of the brain. It is an 'evil patch' in the brain's central lobe which shows up as a dark mass on X-rays, he says.
Save newborn blood samples, say bioethicists
Michael Cook | 11 November 2012 |
Blood samples left over from newborn screening tests are a genetic treasure trove which should be available to researchers.
Gene of the week: internet addiction
Michael Cook | 14 September 2012 |
Everybody is talking about internet addiction – many people spend hours online and immediately start feeling bad if they are unable to do so. Medically, this phenomenon has not been as clearly described as nicotine or alcohol dependency. But a German study in the Journal of Addiction Medicine suggests that there are molecular-genetic connections in internet addiction, too.
Politics is in your genes
Michael Cook | 01 September 2012 |
Studies asserting that political preferences are genetically determined are dog-whistles for the media and consequently great publicity for journals. So on cue, at the beginning of the Republican National Convention in Tampa this week, Trends in Genetics issued a press release about a highly positive review of research into genetics and political behaviour.
Hungarian “racial purity” genome test slammed
Jared Yee | 23 June 2012 |
The Hungarian Medical Research Council (ETT), which advises the government on health policy, has asked public prosecutors to investigate a genetic-testing company that confirmed that a member of parliament was of pure Hungarian stock and did not have Jewish or Roma heritage.
Study hits back at “genopolitics”
Michael Cook | 09 March 2012 |
A couple of years ago political scientists from the University of California at San Diego made a media splash with their theory (published in Science!) that political preferences are, in part, genetically determined. Whether you vote Democrat or Republican is literally in your DNA. “Genopolitics”, as this theory was dubbed, was supported last year with a report that your politics is related to the structure of your brain. But in the latest issue of the American Political Science Review academics from Duke and Harvard rubbish the notion that two genes could be responsible for the way you vote.
Have we really exorcised eugenics from genetics?
Michael Cook | 28 May 2011 |
he linkage between genetics and eugenics is an oft-told story, but it bears repeating again and again. This is an idea hammered home in latest issue of Annals of Human Genetics.
Can an imaginary gene keep you behind bars?
Michael Cook | 04 February 2011 |
Perhaps, in New York
John Cleese on the God gene
Michael Cook | 23 December 2010 |
Scientific reductionism made, as you would expect, absurd
WikiLeaks: are Chinese spies stealing Iceland’s genetic database?
Jared Yee | 18 December 2010 |
WikiLeaks docs point at spies
Test for baby’s DNA in the womb
Michael Cook | 11 December 2010 |
Maternal blood reveals foetal DNA
In search of a gene for naïveté
Michael Cook | 10 December 2010 |
Scientists claim to have discovered a gene for infidelity
Celebration of human genome anniversary muted by slow progress
Michael Cook | 25 June 2010 |
Still not much progress for human health
A decade later, human genome yields little success for medicine
Jared Yee | 17 June 2010 |
Few cures result from genetic map
Free will an illusion, says noted US biologist
Michael Cook | 15 February 2010 |
Reform of criminal law will be needed
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| michael@bioedge.org