National Institutes of Health blocking researchers from access to key database for studies of genetics and intelligence

American Thinker ^ | 24 Oct, 2022 | Thomas Lifson

[MtnClimber]

Bureaucrats' fears of "stigmatizing" groups obstruct the search for valuable knowledge.

James Lee, writing in City Journal, describes an outrageous limitation on scientific research being imposed by anonymous bureaucrats at the National Institutes of Health, which is receiving $45 billion in taxpayer funding this year. Apparently, some researchers whose work might lead to results that could “stigmatize” certain groups, or which otherwise would challenge the personal values of the bureaucrats, are being denied access to a key database that taxpayers have paid to assemble.

A policy of deliberate ignorance has corrupted top scientific institutions in the West. It’s been an open secret for years that prestigious journals will often reject submissions that offend prevailing political orthodoxies—especially if they involve controversial aspects of human biology and behavior—no matter how scientifically sound the work might be. The leading journal Nature Human Behaviour recently made this practice official in an editorial effectively announcing that it will not publish studies that show the wrong kind of differences between human groups.

American geneticists now face an even more drastic form of censorship: exclusion from access to the data necessary to conduct analyses, let alone publish results. Case in point: the National Institutes of Health now withholds access to an important database if it thinks a scientist’s research may wander into forbidden territory. The source at issue, the Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP), is an exceptional tool, combining genome scans of several million individuals with extensive data about health, education, occupation, and income. It is indispensable for research on how genes and environments combine to affect human traits. No other widely accessible American database comes close in terms of scientific utility. (snip)

Apparently, NIH is clamping down on a broad range of attempts to explore the relationship between genetics and intelligence.

[MtnClimber]

Anyone can do an internet search for “Average IQ by country” to get the basic information that the NIH is trying to cover up.

[ckilmer]

Genetics is not everything. A lot of how well students do in school is a function of their culture. I think I’ve seen studies that show that persistant hard study over years can boost intelligence test scores by a standard deviation.

As well, this increase in IQ is heritable.

Genetics is the base stock of what a person has to work with.

You can make a great basketball player out of guy who is 5’8” but a guy who is 6’8” comes with built in advantages if he is trained to the same degree as a guy who is 5’8”

Having said that people can be really smart but just not wise. That’s what today’s universities teach. No wisdom. No wisdom at all.

As well,