Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Violent? (Score 5, Informative) 205

Of course I only read the summary, but why use the word violent? It sounds like this has nothing to do with violence but fast paced complex spatial reaction.

Because /. has an ax to grind with people who make dubious claims about the harm caused by violence in video games. What better way to combat them than to implicitly make dubious claims about the benefits of violence in video games? (Though, to be fair, TFA is actually titled "Playing violent computer games 'can improve vision'".)

Comment Re:yet another argument for universal health care. (Score 1) 203

Funny how some forms of discrimination are allowed, but not based on genetic tests.. OH WAIT, IT IS ALLOWED, they can examine your records, determine tests showed genetic predisposition, deny coverage.

No, that is not allowed, unless GINA completely fails to do what essentially every description of the law describes it as doing.

Comment Re:If the prevalence in India is 4 in 100 (Score 5, Interesting) 203

I did a quick read of the Nature Genetics letter and, as far as I can tell, it makes no claims as to the worldwide frequency of the allele (actually a micro-deletion). Accurately measuring allele frequencies for the world's population is not something that most studies are adequately designed for, so it's not surprising that they don't provide an estimate. Here's what they have to say about the deletion's frequency outside of India.

The presence of this deletion in many Indian populations with varied geographical and ancestral backgrounds raises the question of how geographically widespread it is outside India. We therefore also analyzed 63 world population samples, comprising 2,085 indigenous individuals from 26 countries including all five continents. The 25-bp deletion was observed in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, (all heterozygotes) but was absent from other samples. Thus, the deletion is a common variant in individuals from South Asia, present in Southeast Asia, but undetectable elsewhere (Fig. 3 and Supplementary Table 5 online).

The supplementary materials give the sample sizes for each of the ethnic groups that were sampled and the number of deletion carriers. Most of the individual samples are small, but in the aggregate they do strongly suggest that the deletion is practically non-existent outside of South Asia and a few neighboring areas.

This does raise the question of how the media got this 1% prevalence estimate, unless I completely missed it in the article. In general, media outlets don't report the contents of peer-reviewed articles, they report the contents of press releases that accompany (or precede) the articles.

Slashdot Top Deals

If imprinted foil seal under cap is broken or missing when purchased, do not use.

Working...