Tag: Richard Lewontin

  • One of [Richard] Lewontin’s pathbreaking works was to find out how much genetic diversity exists within species. This was at a time when we did not know how many genes humans had. Lewontin’s inspired guess was 20,000, far smaller than what most biologists thought then and remarkably close to what is known today. Most biologists…

  • The great scientific crusader who debunked the biological myths about race AlterNet 2021-08-05 Prabir Purkayastha/Globetrotter On July 4, Richard Lewontin, the dialectical biologist, Marxist and activist, died at the age of 92, just three days after the death of his wife of more than 70 years, Mary Jane. He was one of the founders of…

  • I have deep sympathy for the concern that genetic discoveries could be misused to justify racism. But as a geneticist I also know that it is simply no longer possible to ignore average genetic differences among “races.”

  • Race Finished: Book Review American Scientist April-May, 2012 Jan Sapp, Professor of Biology and History York University, Toronto Race?: Debunking a Scientific Myth. Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle. xviii + 226 pp. Texas A&M University Press, 2011. Race and the Genetic Revolution: Science, Myth, and Culture. Edited by Sheldon Krimsky and Kathleen Sloan. xiv +…

  • Multiracial Americans Ready To Claim Their Own Identity The New York Times 1996-07-20 Michel Marriott For Alison Perry, being multiracial has meant moving through life as if she had a giant question mark drawn on her forehead. Strangers frequently approach and begin a vexing guessing game: “Are you Israeli?” “Are you a Latina?” “Where are…

  • How medicine is advancing beyond race CNN.com 2011-07-08 Elizabeth Landau, CNN.com Health Writer/Producer (CNN)—No matter what race you consider yourself to be, you have a unique genetic makeup. That’s why, as technology improves and researchers explore new implications of the human genome, medicine is going to become more individually tailored in a model called personalized…

  • “I am an African American,” says Duana Fullwiley, “but in parts of Africa, I am white.” To do fieldwork as a medical anthropologist in Senegal, she says, “I take a plane to France, a seven- to eight-hour ride. My race changes as I cross the Atlantic. There, I say, ‘Je suis noire,’ and they say,…