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Tidbits - August 21, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments - We need a special prosecutor ((Cornell William Brooks, NAACP); Ferguson, Racism, Economic Inequality, Michael Brown, Police Militarization; Racism and Misuse of Genetics; Rosetta Comet; Jewish Resources for Resisting Nationalism; Robin Williams; Israel, Gaza and Hamas; NFL's New Low - Asks Performers to Pay to Play at Super Bowl; Today in History - Nat Turner's Rebellion; Tomorrow - Fannie Lou Hamer & the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Racism, the Misuse of Genetics and a Huge Scientific Protest

Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times
Perhaps unwittingly, perhaps deliberately, Wade has blurred "the distinction between storytelling and science," writes Eisen. The blurring of that line is infecting scientific discussions that have great public implications--it's visible, for example, in the political attack on climate science, the promotion of creationism, and the marketing of California's multibillion-dollar stem cell program.

How A Troublesome Inheritance Gets Human Genetics Wrong

Jeremy Yoder The Molecular Ecologist
Time and again, data that refutes Nicholas Wade's arguments in A Troublesome Inheritance is not only available and widely cited in the population genetics literature—it is often in the text of the papers listed in his endnotes.

Do You Know Genetics?

Courtney Chow Public Library of Science
There is a huge disparity between what scientists and genetics professionals know and what the general public understands about breakthroughs in the field of genetics and the ethical problems it presents. To address this disparity students at the University of San Diego have created a website to educate the public and bridge the gap between scientific literature and the general public.
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