Last week I had the pleasure of hearing Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, speak about recent work in her laboratory on the genetics of skin color in the zebrafish Danio rerio,1 and I got thinking about one of her ex-postdocs I met years ago as a grad student, whom my friend and I nicknamed “God”, and about how much I detest excessive hype. And about ( Read more... )

We are reminded all too often that computers are much, much faster than the human brain at certain tasks. One thing that learning a computer language quickly teaches you, however, is that what the brain lacks in speed, it more than makes up for in flexibility. A simple pattern-recognition task you could do instantly in your head may require a ( Read more... )

It's been over a month since I last posted an entry, mostly on account of a secret research project I've been doing in my spare time. (I may get a primary-author book chapter out of it, so I'm quite motivated to complete the project, which has at least another six weeks to go before the deadline for contrubutions.) In the meantime, I've slowly ( Read more... )

(Edited 26 Nov 2006 to add the anaconda-spare-ribs dinner)

I've just recovered from one of the more surreal weeks I've ever experienced: half idyllic beach vacation, half high-pressure stress-fest. About half my department flew down to Tampa, Florida for back-to-back scientific meetings at the TradeWinds Resort on St. Pete's Beach (27° 43' 46.4 ( Read more... )

Genetic testing has, in recent years, vastly popularized the science of genetics. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Joes and Janes, who previously didn't know guano from guanosine, have taken up population genetics as a hobby. Genealogical genetic testing, though not infallible, is mostly harmless, and as a general rule, I'm delighted whenever ( Read more... )

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...when first we practice to conceive!

Sorry about that. You know, for a professional geneticist, I sure don't talk much about genetics in here. Not surprising, really-it's too much like work. But I've been dying to use that title for months now....

I got to thinking about my ethnic heritage after watching a scene in the movie Porco Rosso, in ( Read more... )