Scientist's Study Of Brain Genes Sparks a Backlash

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 16, 2006 | Antonio Regalado

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

CHICAGO -- Last September, Bruce Lahn, a professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, stood before a packed lecture hall and reported the results of a new DNA analysis: He had found signs of recent evolution in the brains of some people, but not of others.

It was a triumphant moment for the young scientist. He was up for tenure and his research was being featured in back-to-back articles in the country's most prestigious science journal. Yet today, Dr. Lahn says he is moving away from the research. "It's getting too controversial," he says.

Dr. Lahn had touched a raw nerve in science: race and intelligence.

What Dr. Lahn told his audience was that genetic changes over the past several thousand years might be linked to brain size and intelligence. He flashed maps that showed the changes had taken hold and spread widely in Europe, Asia and the Americas, but weren't common in sub-Saharan Africa.

Web sites and magazines promoting white "racialism" quickly seized on Dr. Lahn's suggestive scientific snapshot. One magazine that blames black and Hispanic people for social ills hailed his discovery as "the moment the antiracists and egalitarians have dreaded."

Dr. Lahn has drawn sharp fire from other leading genetics researchers. They say the genetic differences he found may not signify any recent evolution -- and even if they do, it is too big a leap to suggest any link to intelligence. "This is not the place you want to report a weak association that might or might not stand up," says Francis Collins, director of the genome program at the National Institutes of Health.

[cvq3842]

I have seen that! Interesting.

Nothing is as simple as it seems in this area. I think human understanding of scientific matters is still in its infancy, ralatively speaking. I'd love to see a basic science text from the year 3006, or 1,2006!

[Fishrrman]

re your posting:
Long response written and not posted.

I'll bet it was a good one, too.

Seems you're of the logical mind on this subject.

There are some truths that simply cannot be posted on FreeRepublic - "image", you know....

- John