Kristján Moore (Kris)🔸
@kristjanmoore.bsky.social
Research at deCODE genetics: genomic ancestry, ancient DNA, and whatever else needs doing. Trying to have true beliefs. 🇬🇧🇮🇸
This Kallmann diagnosis seems deeply implausible. For one thing he (famously!) was able to grow facial hair. And there's no indication that this intensely documented person had severely impaired smell, a distinctive feature of Kallmann. In fact, a little Googling specifically indicates the opposite:
November 13, 2025 at 12:26 PM
This Kallmann diagnosis seems deeply implausible. For one thing he (famously!) was able to grow facial hair. And there's no indication that this intensely documented person had severely impaired smell, a distinctive feature of Kallmann. In fact, a little Googling specifically indicates the opposite:
Something deeply strange happened to the ADMIXTURE run here! The American component, and to some extent the European one, seem to have been co-opted to describe Arab variation. Very little real indigenous American ancestry here, as indicated by e.g. mitochondrial haplogroup counts.
September 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Something deeply strange happened to the ADMIXTURE run here! The American component, and to some extent the European one, seem to have been co-opted to describe Arab variation. Very little real indigenous American ancestry here, as indicated by e.g. mitochondrial haplogroup counts.
Sent a cold email in March to a young researcher and entrepreneur warning him that the "short-sleep gene" studies he was basing his work on were bogus.
Very relieved that it eventually had the intended result. Shocking amounts of time and resources are still being wasted on candidate gene results.
Very relieved that it eventually had the intended result. Shocking amounts of time and resources are still being wasted on candidate gene results.
July 3, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Sent a cold email in March to a young researcher and entrepreneur warning him that the "short-sleep gene" studies he was basing his work on were bogus.
Very relieved that it eventually had the intended result. Shocking amounts of time and resources are still being wasted on candidate gene results.
Very relieved that it eventually had the intended result. Shocking amounts of time and resources are still being wasted on candidate gene results.
Medieval samples from around there!), but some present-day French also have it, as well as a Medieval Brittany sample. While those observations might be explained by migrating Britons/Bretons, it's notable that an especially clear example is labelled Normandy pre-Roman IA and also carries R-L21.
May 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Medieval samples from around there!), but some present-day French also have it, as well as a Medieval Brittany sample. While those observations might be explained by migrating Britons/Bretons, it's notable that an especially clear example is labelled Normandy pre-Roman IA and also carries R-L21.
Interesting to see the Irish/Scottish-like outliers! Though I think there are other places they could be from. Many Bronze and Iron Age samples around Belgium also show this Irish-like drift. I'm not sure how long this kind of ancestry persisted in the region (would be great to get more Iron to
May 20, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Interesting to see the Irish/Scottish-like outliers! Though I think there are other places they could be from. Many Bronze and Iron Age samples around Belgium also show this Irish-like drift. I'm not sure how long this kind of ancestry persisted in the region (would be great to get more Iron to
And carefully evaluating so many protocols should help us get even better palaeoproteomic results in the future. Very excited to see how the method develops and what it will tell us about all those fascinating hominin bones of uncertain affinity that we can't realistically get DNA from.
April 11, 2025 at 11:39 AM
And carefully evaluating so many protocols should help us get even better palaeoproteomic results in the future. Very excited to see how the method develops and what it will tell us about all those fascinating hominin bones of uncertain affinity that we can't realistically get DNA from.
World collide: a Silicon Valley-sphere roadmap for genetically editing high-IQ "superbabies" uses as a supporting citation the same deeply flawed aDNA paper I compained about earlier today.
www.lesswrong.com/posts/DfrSZa...
www.lesswrong.com/posts/DfrSZa...
February 20, 2025 at 5:23 PM
World collide: a Silicon Valley-sphere roadmap for genetically editing high-IQ "superbabies" uses as a supporting citation the same deeply flawed aDNA paper I compained about earlier today.
www.lesswrong.com/posts/DfrSZa...
www.lesswrong.com/posts/DfrSZa...
Despite the presence of such elementary errors as incorrect calculation of allele frequencies, the original paper is *not* being retracted.
And it will probably continue to get naively cited by authors outside ancient DNA, many of whom will never learn about the rebuttal: 2/2
And it will probably continue to get naively cited by authors outside ancient DNA, many of whom will never learn about the rebuttal: 2/2
February 20, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Despite the presence of such elementary errors as incorrect calculation of allele frequencies, the original paper is *not* being retracted.
And it will probably continue to get naively cited by authors outside ancient DNA, many of whom will never learn about the rebuttal: 2/2
And it will probably continue to get naively cited by authors outside ancient DNA, many of whom will never learn about the rebuttal: 2/2
Still adding to the gallery after all these years.
February 13, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Still adding to the gallery after all these years.
Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna are essentially the biggest funders of EA causes. Take a look at his Bluesky timeline:
February 6, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna are essentially the biggest funders of EA causes. Take a look at his Bluesky timeline:
Effective altruists as a group spend huge amounts of time criticising their philosophy and their own attempts at implementing it.
The EA Forum has a whole section on "criticism of effective altruism" with many well-read and up-voted posts.
The EA Forum has a whole section on "criticism of effective altruism" with many well-read and up-voted posts.
February 6, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Effective altruists as a group spend huge amounts of time criticising their philosophy and their own attempts at implementing it.
The EA Forum has a whole section on "criticism of effective altruism" with many well-read and up-voted posts.
The EA Forum has a whole section on "criticism of effective altruism" with many well-read and up-voted posts.
Pretty similar to the numbers from the UK, Germany, and Italy.
February 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Pretty similar to the numbers from the UK, Germany, and Italy.
I can't help but feel that this wagon-circling and fact-massaging reflects a pattern of behaviour by the leadership of Science - of treating the science world as a kind of guild whose interests must be advanced, of explicitly leveraging the institution to promote certain political views as truth.
January 18, 2025 at 11:30 AM
I can't help but feel that this wagon-circling and fact-massaging reflects a pattern of behaviour by the leadership of Science - of treating the science world as a kind of guild whose interests must be advanced, of explicitly leveraging the institution to promote certain political views as truth.
Last image above shows that some are doing embryo selection. Heliospect does seem to be specifically offering analysis of cognitive traits. I would guess that some are going for cognitive traits formally or informally. Editing hopefully farther off, but there is clearly enthusiasm for it:
December 23, 2024 at 2:03 PM
Last image above shows that some are doing embryo selection. Heliospect does seem to be specifically offering analysis of cognitive traits. I would guess that some are going for cognitive traits formally or informally. Editing hopefully farther off, but there is clearly enthusiasm for it:
Silicon Valley has lost its mind about genetics.
Huge interest in short-sleep etc variants (candidate gene nonsense), embryo selection for cognitive traits (extremely low real-life predictive ability), and Jiankui He (charlatan whose human gene editing totally failed AND made many off-target edits)
Huge interest in short-sleep etc variants (candidate gene nonsense), embryo selection for cognitive traits (extremely low real-life predictive ability), and Jiankui He (charlatan whose human gene editing totally failed AND made many off-target edits)
December 22, 2024 at 11:44 PM
Silicon Valley has lost its mind about genetics.
Huge interest in short-sleep etc variants (candidate gene nonsense), embryo selection for cognitive traits (extremely low real-life predictive ability), and Jiankui He (charlatan whose human gene editing totally failed AND made many off-target edits)
Huge interest in short-sleep etc variants (candidate gene nonsense), embryo selection for cognitive traits (extremely low real-life predictive ability), and Jiankui He (charlatan whose human gene editing totally failed AND made many off-target edits)
My sense is that Iceland was indeed poor compared to other (Western) European countries until the early-mid 1900s. No urbanisation until the 1800s, economy based on subsistence and some fishing till late. Post-WWII US influence via e.g. military base and Marshall Plan investment was fairly important
December 19, 2024 at 1:36 PM
My sense is that Iceland was indeed poor compared to other (Western) European countries until the early-mid 1900s. No urbanisation until the 1800s, economy based on subsistence and some fishing till late. Post-WWII US influence via e.g. military base and Marshall Plan investment was fairly important
Doctors in England can record a greater number of medical conditions at inpatient visits than doctors in Wales and in Scotland. This may be why the prevalences of certain conditions as recorded in UK Biobank are surprisingly different across the countries.
December 15, 2024 at 1:50 PM
Doctors in England can record a greater number of medical conditions at inpatient visits than doctors in Wales and in Scotland. This may be why the prevalences of certain conditions as recorded in UK Biobank are surprisingly different across the countries.
"Location: San Francisco, CA", longevity start-up co-founder. Of course. And this guy actually has a PhD in molecular genetics! Still couldn't stop himself from getting bewitched by these old candidate gene results.
December 11, 2024 at 11:35 PM
"Location: San Francisco, CA", longevity start-up co-founder. Of course. And this guy actually has a PhD in molecular genetics! Still couldn't stop himself from getting bewitched by these old candidate gene results.
It just never ends! Why don't you gene edit your children for "depression-resistant" 5-HTTLPR alleles while you're at it.
December 11, 2024 at 6:11 PM
It just never ends! Why don't you gene edit your children for "depression-resistant" 5-HTTLPR alleles while you're at it.
I now prefer B___sky for keeping up with science.
Was quiet for a while but there's now a lot of activity and discussion – probably more than what remains on here. Recommend making the jump if you haven't already!
Image via @salonium includes some tools to help you start:
Was quiet for a while but there's now a lot of activity and discussion – probably more than what remains on here. Recommend making the jump if you haven't already!
Image via @salonium includes some tools to help you start:
January 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I now prefer B___sky for keeping up with science.
Was quiet for a while but there's now a lot of activity and discussion – probably more than what remains on here. Recommend making the jump if you haven't already!
Image via @salonium includes some tools to help you start:
Was quiet for a while but there's now a lot of activity and discussion – probably more than what remains on here. Recommend making the jump if you haven't already!
Image via @salonium includes some tools to help you start:
We have made a large update to HaploGrouper, our haplogroup assignment program.
A notable addition is a fork of the ISOGG 2019 tree in which we correct the placement of 4k mutations by analysing 300k Y chromosomes.
Repo in reply - see my thread on "the other place" for details:
A notable addition is a fork of the ISOGG 2019 tree in which we correct the placement of 4k mutations by analysing 300k Y chromosomes.
Repo in reply - see my thread on "the other place" for details:
January 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
We have made a large update to HaploGrouper, our haplogroup assignment program.
A notable addition is a fork of the ISOGG 2019 tree in which we correct the placement of 4k mutations by analysing 300k Y chromosomes.
Repo in reply - see my thread on "the other place" for details:
A notable addition is a fork of the ISOGG 2019 tree in which we correct the placement of 4k mutations by analysing 300k Y chromosomes.
Repo in reply - see my thread on "the other place" for details:
I confirmed that I could use the data to recreate the original networks with the strong Iceland divergence. (At least in broad strokes - I have no prior experience with this kind of analysis.)
After amending the DYS389i issue, Icelandic haplotypes become integrated with the rest of the network. 3/4
After amending the DYS389i issue, Icelandic haplotypes become integrated with the rest of the network. 3/4
November 27, 2024 at 4:33 PM
I confirmed that I could use the data to recreate the original networks with the strong Iceland divergence. (At least in broad strokes - I have no prior experience with this kind of analysis.)
After amending the DYS389i issue, Icelandic haplotypes become integrated with the rest of the network. 3/4
After amending the DYS389i issue, Icelandic haplotypes become integrated with the rest of the network. 3/4
Why? Notably, the definition of DYS389i was changed at some point to add 3 to the count: strbase-archive.nist.gov/str_y389.htm 2/4
November 27, 2024 at 4:33 PM
Why? Notably, the definition of DYS389i was changed at some point to add 3 to the count: strbase-archive.nist.gov/str_y389.htm 2/4
I believe I have found an error in the data underlying this paper. Correcting this causes the central finding - no overlap between Icelandic and Faroese Y haplotypes - to disappear. Explanation:
The repeat counts for the DYS389i STR (and thus DYS389ii) seem deflated by 3 for Icelandic samples. 1/4
The repeat counts for the DYS389i STR (and thus DYS389ii) seem deflated by 3 for Icelandic samples. 1/4
November 27, 2024 at 4:33 PM
I believe I have found an error in the data underlying this paper. Correcting this causes the central finding - no overlap between Icelandic and Faroese Y haplotypes - to disappear. Explanation:
The repeat counts for the DYS389i STR (and thus DYS389ii) seem deflated by 3 for Icelandic samples. 1/4
The repeat counts for the DYS389i STR (and thus DYS389ii) seem deflated by 3 for Icelandic samples. 1/4
Can only make limited inferences here - ideally would know the MRCA of these haplogroups - but perhaps telling that there are finely resolved haplogroups that are (sometimes significantly) more common in both Iceland and the Faroes than in the modern representatives of the settlers' source regions.
November 26, 2024 at 6:18 PM
Can only make limited inferences here - ideally would know the MRCA of these haplogroups - but perhaps telling that there are finely resolved haplogroups that are (sometimes significantly) more common in both Iceland and the Faroes than in the modern representatives of the settlers' source regions.