January 2, 2006

Calling Nicholas Wade

The indispensable role of the New York Times' genetics reporter in the global intellectual ecosystem has been underscored, in the absence of anything from Wade, by the remarkable lack of attention given Eric Wang, Bob Moyzis, et al's hugely important paper listing 1,800 genes that have been under different Darwinian selection pressures in different parts of the world over the last 50,000 or fewer years, according to the HapMap of the DNA of blacks in West Africa, whites in Europe, and East Asians in China and Japan. In other words, race isn't just skin deep.

By any objective standard, this paper is big news, but, according to Google News, the only English-language newspaper in the world that appears to have carried any mention of the study so far is New Kerala in southwest India.

In the vaunted blogosphere, mention of the significance of the paper was largely restricted to what I sometimes unhumbly think of as the Steveosphere. Outside of sites in my Links (near the top of the left column), there are only a handful of comments, mostly to the (boring) effect that this paper sticks one in the eye of Intelligent Design.

Granted, it's Christmas, but still, it shows, despite all the self-adulation about the freedom of thought made possible by the Internet, just how PC-whipped most supposed intellectuals are, and just how much we are dependent on a few crucial individuals having the financial wherewithal to be able to carry on their careers.


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

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