This paper presents comments on an article by R. L. Sternberg, E. L. Grigorenko, and K. K. Kidd and another article by H. Tang, T. Quertermous, B. Rodriguez, S. L. Kardia, X. Zhu, X., A. Brown, et al. (2005). On the day that the author of this paper reads Sternberg, Grigorenko, and Kidd's (January 2005) article on race, an article from the…

We estimate the relative effect sizes of genetic and environmental influences on both higher and lower levels of depressive symptoms with attention to persistence over a 1-year period in the genetically informative subsample of adolescents participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Shared environmental…

The genetically-modified-organism (GMO) experience has been prominent in motivating science, industry, and regulatory communities to address the social and ethical dimensions of nanotechnology. However, there are some significant problems with the GMO-nanotech analogy. First, it overstates the likelihood of a GMO-like backlash against…

Using an adaptation of the Attentional Networks Test, we investigated aspects of executive control in children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (DS22q11.2), a common but not well understood disorder that produces non-verbal cognitive deficits and a marked incidence of psychopathology. The data revealed that children with DS22q11.2…

We have carried out a global survey of age-related changes in mRNA levels in the 57BL/6NIA mouse hippocampus and found a difference in the hippocampal gene expression profile between 2-month-old young mice and 15-month-old middle-aged mice correlated with an age-related cognitive deficit in hippocampal-based explicit memory formation. Middle-aged…

Nonreinforced retrieval can cause extinction and/or reconsolidation, two processes that affect subsequent retrieval in opposite ways. Using the Morris water maze task we show that, in the rat, repeated nonreinforced expression of spatial memory causes extinction, which is unaffected by inhibition of protein synthesis within the CA1 region of the…

Synapsins are evolutionarily conserved, highly abundant vesicular phosphoproteins in presynaptic terminals. They are thought to regulate the recruitment of synaptic vesicles from the reserve pool to the readily-releasable pool, in particular when vesicle release is to be maintained at high spiking rates. As regulation of transmitter release is a…

This study of 4-year-old twins investigated the genetic and environmental origins of comorbidity between language impairment and nonverbal ability by testing the extent to which language impairment in one twin predicted nonverbal ability in the co-twin. Impairment of language ability was defined as scores below the 15th percentile on a general…

As a teacher, the author is always interested in novel pedagogical methods for presenting complex concepts and material in genetics that interest and engage the students, while helping them understand and recall the lesson. In this article, she describes sock and yarn models that allow students the opportunity to examine the meiotic process in a…

Persons with Prader-Willi syndrome have been known to have a high mortality rate. However, intellectual disability, which usually accompanies Prader-Willi syndrome, is also associated with a higher mortality rate than in the general population. In this study, the death rates in a longitudinal cohort of people with Prader-Willi syndrome are…

This article describes how case studies have been successfully implemented in an introductory biology course of 300+ students using available technologies ranging from WebCT, used to assign students to permanent small groups (as well as assign groups to regions of a large lecture hall), to hand-held response systems (aka "clickers"), which…

We developed educational software to show graduate students how to plan molecular marker experiments. These computer simulations give the students feedback on the precision of their experiments. The objective of the software was to show students using a hands-on approach how: (1) environmental variation influences the range of the estimates of the…

Field investigations are not characterized by randomized and manipulated control group experiments; however, most school science and high-stakes tests recognize only this paradigm of investigation. Scientists in astronomy, genetics, field biology, oceanography, geology, and meteorology routinely select naturally occurring events and conditions and…

This paper discusses some traditional approaches to the teaching of evolutionary theory at pre-university level, criticising in particular some of the more commonly used models and exemplars. Curricular demands are described and an alternative approach is suggested, using the emerging story of human evolution. Recent discoveries help to illustrate…

Background: Individual differences in conduct problems arise in part from proneness to anger/frustration and poor self-regulation of behavior. However, the genetic and environmental etiology of these connections is not known. Method: Using a twin design, we examined genetic and environmental covariation underlying the well-documented correlations…