Reading Genetic Tea Leaves

Natural populations harbor extensive genetic diversity. In humans, these genetic differences are being used to predict some individual traits, such as height, cancer risk, and even educational attainment. In this free hybrid lecture on Thursday, May 2, population geneticist Molly Przeworski will introduce the idea behind these predictions and highlight some of their pitfalls, notably the difficulty of disentangling genetic and environmental effects. She will also discuss how similar approaches can be used to predict the response of non-model organisms to strong selection pressures from climate change, with an example from corals. Register for the in-person or online session. The John M. Prather Lecture Series is presented by Harvard Museum of Natural History and Harvard Museums of Science & Culture, in collaboration with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.