Quant blogger Half Sigma and GNXP's Jason Malloy are quoted in a
New York Times article by Amy Harmon entitled "In DNA Era, New
Worries About Prejudice" about what's happening now that
"genetic information is slipping out of the laboratory and into
everyday life, carrying with it the inescapable message that
people of different races have different DNA." In case you are
wondering, this article isn't written by Nicholas Wade, who I
imagine has been put on heavy sedation by the NYT editors ever
since the Watson Show Trial. When scientists first decoded the
human genome in 2000, they were quick to portray it as proof of
humankind’s remarkable similarity. The DNA of any two people,
they emphasized, is at least 99 percent identical. But new
research is exploring the remaining fraction to explain
differences between people of different continental origins.
Scientists, for instance, have recently identified small changes
in DNA that account for the pale skin of Europeans, the tendency
of Asians to sweat less and Wes