Some Tipsters may find an article by David Freedman in the November 2010 "The Atlantic" website of interest; see: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269
It is about "meta-research", that is, the use of meta-analysis to confirm whether research results are stable or refuted by subsequent research. For fans of genetic explanations, one might take a look at another Freedman article "The Gene Bubble"; see: http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1400883/print Quoting from the Gene Bubble: |"Gattaca got it totally wrong," says Bryan Walser, CEO of |gene-discovery company Perlegen Sciences, in Mountain View, |California. "In the movie, genes have 100% penetration," meaning |that if you have a flawed gene, it's certain you'll get the disease |it's associated with. For most major common diseases, he explains, |specific genes are almost never associated with more than a |20% to 30% increased chance of getting sick. Indeed, the notion |that a small number of genes represents a large component of the |risk for a particular disorder has simply turned out to be untrue for |almost all major illnesses. And the weakness of these correlations |extends to other attributes as well. The gene most strongly linked |to intelligence accounts for less than 0.4% of the observed variation, |while the top six intelligence genes together predict 1% of the variation. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5786 or send a blank email to leave-5786-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
