Nature: The Promise and Perils of Social Genomics

I’m sure we will be finding out quite a bit more about this in the 2020s due to the superhuman ability of narrow AI to recognize patterns from large amounts of data.

Nature:

“For decades, geneticists assumed that most traits were governed by just a handful of genes — whether it was a relatively simple one such as height, or something as complex as antisocial behaviour. But as the sample sizes swelled, researchers began to find hundreds of variants that each have a relatively small effect on a trait. These projects — known as genome-wide association studies (GWAS) — build up a picture of which DNA letters vary from person to person (called single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs), which variants are most common in people with a given trait and how much of the difference between individuals these SNP patterns represent.

Adding up the contributions made by all these spots on the genome gives researchers a measure of the importance of genetics to a trait, known as a polygenic score. For height, which is known to have a strong genetic influence, GWAS show that variants can together account for 20% of the variation.

As studies into physiology and disease piled up, scientists began to wonder whether the methods would work on social and psychological attributes. …”

Get ready for Geno-Economics too.

Paleogenomics will tell us all kinds of interesting things about the human past which will be highly problematic for the woke crowd.

BBC:

“Traces of ancient “glue” on a stone tool from 50,000 years ago points to complex thinking by Neanderthals, experts say.

The glue was made from birch tar in a process that required forward planning and involved several different steps.

It adds to mounting evidence that we have underestimated the capabilities of our evolutionary cousins.

Only a handful of Neanderthal tools bear signs of adhesive, but experts say the process could have been widespread.

The tool, found in the Netherlands, has spent the last 50,000 years under the North Sea. This may have helped preserve the tar adhesive. …”

How smart were the Neanderthals?

Why did the Neanderthals even go extinct? Were they just overwhelmed by more aggressive Homo sapiens who invaded their territory?