Some readings from around the web to start the week…
Estimating the rate of mutation and the human evolutionary clock
This is a big , complex and unfolding story that I have been meaning to comment on and still hope to in the near future. Basically, over the past several years studies that employ genomic approaches towards directly estimating the mutation rate in humans have been coming up with estimates considerably slower than previously thought. This, if true, has significant ramifications for the estimated timing of key human evolutionary events (e.g. the human-Pan last common ancestor, the human-Neandertal divergence). As I say though, the issue is complex, with significant assumptions across the varying interpretations. As some initial reading…
Ann Gibbons has a piece discussing this issue in Science:
Turning Back the Clock: Slowing the Pace of Prehistory
Matthew Cobb has a piece up at Why Evolution is True:
Putting our DNA clocks back
There are other significant commentaries on this issue that I’ll link to in my own comments…hopefully later this week.
Sex and Gender in the osteological record
Debating Biology and Culture at Bones Don’t Lie
Examining the culture of science
Anne Buchanan at The Mermaid’s Tale tell us that Science denial — it may be closer than you think
People with whom we’d probably share a lot in terms of our outlook on the world, on science, most of our understanding of the foundation of genetics and so on. But not on the quality of the evidence in this instance, and thus on whether direct-to-consumer companies are shilling, or should be selling what they are. This of course doesn’t make us right and everyone else wrong. It just means we’re either evaluating the same evidence differently or considering different pieces of evidence.
Connecting the personal and social in medicine
Daniel Lende, writing that Personalized Medicine Is Social Medicine
In other words, “personalized medicine” cannot be disembodied medicine, forgetting the reciprocal interactions between the person’s nervous system and the developmental and social processes that help define who that person is, not just in the sense of identity but also at the level of basic neurological function. Personalized inevitably is social; personalized medicine should be too.
The election and Anthropology
Politics & Anthropology in Election Year – 2012 Obama Romney
The limits and realities of human nature and inequality
Is inequality natural – Agustin Fuentes
Scientific retractions
Carl Zimmer, writing in the New York Times, talks about the growing issue of scientific retractions: Misconduct Widespread in Retracted Science Papers, Study Finds
Sushi…mmm
Finally, for my Anthropology of Food students, Keith Law reviews Jiro Dreams of Sushi
