Genetics - Quillette

Razib Khan Answers My Most Controversial Questions About Genetics: Quillette Cetera Episode 30

A conversation with geneticist and writer Razib Khan.

Zoe Booth / Razib Khan

23 Feb 2024 · 1 min read

As a Hereditarian, I Strongly Support Economic Redistribution

A recognition that genetic influences on social outcomes are important will potentially influence the kind of help that society offers poorer individuals. But it does not in any way compel an absence of help, or a casual indifference.

Gregory Clark

21 Aug 2023 · 7 min read

And Yet it May (Or May Not) Move

If we allow ideological campaigns to discourage controversial research, we will be making a terrible mistake.

Bryan J. Pesta

16 Dec 2022 · 21 min read

Svante Pääbo and the Human Story

Not so long ago, he taught us, there were at least three distinct hominin lineages roaming large parts of the planet.

The Quillette Editorial Board

6 Oct 2022 · 4 min read

Learning to Forgive the Father I Never Met—and the Mother He Seduced

My mother could always sense the difference, the alienation, between me and my father. It’s not that we didn’t get along. It’s just that there was almost nothing there—nothing in common. He was American football, girls, tailgating, hunting, the Air Force, that one story about being

Nick Comilla

28 Feb 2022 · 18 min read

The Culture War is Coming for Your Genes

The truth is we can never hope for a perfect alignment between moral desert and material reward because we each have competing definitions of what constitutes merit.

Damien Morris

30 Sep 2021 · 12 min read

'The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality'—A Review

The scientific idea that one’s genes affect one’s life outcomes isn’t novel.

Robert VerBruggen

8 Sep 2021 · 10 min read

What Would It Take to Run a 1:50 Marathon?

Hope had been expressed during the early part of this century that DNA testing might be used to identify individuals with exceptional athletic ability.

Michael Joyner

23 Nov 2019 · 6 min read

There is No ‘Gay Gene,’ but Sexuality is Affected by Many Genes of Small Effect

Day by day, as genetic science advances, it becomes ever clearer that all psychological traits are genetically influenced.

Jerry Barnett

14 Sep 2019 · 4 min read

'The Guarded Gate' Review: Elites and Their Eugenics Projects

The sordid and shameful history of eugenics in the U.S. should be better known, as should the role of another prominent American institution that was central to the development of eugenics ideology.

Jack B. Nimble

17 Jun 2019 · 15 min read

Genes, Environment, and Luck: What We Can and Cannot Control

Michael Shermer

6 Jan 2019 · 14 min read

Should We Use Genetic Technology to Boost Human Intelligence?

Instead of using the label “eugenics” to discredit advocates of genetic enhancement, it would be more productive to ask what precisely we deem unacceptable and why.

Julien Delhez

5 Jan 2019 · 12 min read

What Does Genetic Research Tell Us About Equal Opportunity and Meritocracy?

Are genetic castes inevitable?

Robert Plomin

15 Oct 2018 · 18 min read

Photo by Sangharsh Lohakare on Unsplash.

Is Sociogenomics Racist?

Those scientists who want to draw attention to the racial bias in genetic research but who don’t want to acknowledge the scientific validity of race are in a tricky position.

Toby Young

15 Oct 2018 · 22 min read

Forget Nature Versus Nurture. Nature Has Won

Plomin tries to present this cascade of new information about the genetic influence on human behavior in a way that will positively affect human behavior – but his own work suggests the impact of such arguments will be limited.

Gregory Cochran

25 Sep 2018 · 7 min read