Agency and Adaptation
Humans have not merely been shaped by evolution—we have shaped it too, through the environments we chose to inhabit and the lives we chose to lead.
Tristan S. Rapp
· 8 min read
Genetics
A collection of 27 posts
Selective Pressure, Selective Silence
David Reich and the politics of recent human evolution.
Jon Entine, Patrick Whittle
· 14 min read
Cousin Marriage and Inbreeding: A Genetic History
What large-scale genomic data reveals about consanguinity, inherited disease, and the uneasy politics of discussing biological risk.
Zoe Sankey, Francisco Ceballos
· 7 min read
Bodies of Evidence
When combined thoughtfully with traditional historical methods, analysis of ancient DNA can illuminate the lives, characters, and motivations of people long dead.
Patrick Whittle
· 11 min read
A Brief History of Inbreeding
How kinship, culture, and genetics shaped one of humanity’s oldest taboos.
Francisco Ceballos
· 12 min read
Embryo Selection: A Guide for the Curious
A look at the process, history, and ethics of a potentially revolutionary new technology.
Rosalind Arden
· 22 min read
Education’s Elephant in the Room
We devote a lot of resources to trying to equalise student outcomes, but under ideal learning conditions, individual differences in student achievement widen.
Russell T. Warne
· 21 min read
Ancient DNA and the Return of a Disgraced Theory
This is a story of some of the greatest findings in modern research, and of the dismal narrow-mindedness and motivated reasoning displayed by scholars who ought to know better.
Tristan S. Rapp
· 14 min read
Why There Will Not Be a Beige Future
Skin colour, genetics, race, and racism.
Razib Khan
· 5 min read
Evolved Brains in Evolved Bodies
Human populations differ in psychological as well as physical traits.
Patrick Whittle
· 10 min read
Razib Khan Answers My Most Controversial Questions About Genetics: Quillette Cetera Episode 30
A conversation with geneticist and writer Razib Khan.
Zoe Sankey, Razib Khan
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 18 min read