Gregory Cochran
Encyclopedia
Gregory M. Cochran is a physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 and adjunct professor of anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...

 who has developed some new ideas in evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine
Evolutionary medicine or Darwinian medicine is the application of modern evolutionary theory to understanding health and disease. It provides a complementary scientific approach to the present mechanistic explanations that dominate medical science, and particularly modern medical education...

 and genetic anthropology
Genetic anthropology
Genetic anthropology is a new branch of scientific study which deals with combining DNA data with available physical evidence and past histories of civilizations. This would enable scientists to glean through available genetic information that would go a long way in explaining how the modern day...

. Cochran is known for several controversial theories.

Cochran is an occasional contributor to the genetics blog Gene Expression. He is also the co-author of the book The 10,000 Year Explosion
The 10,000 Year Explosion
The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution is a 2009 book by anthropologists Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending...

, which was released in January 2009.

Pathogen theories

Many of Cochran's theories are pathogenic theories of disease—they revolve around the idea that many common disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...

s are caused by pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...

s instead of genetics or other environmental factors. One example is that peptic ulcers once was thought to occur because of stress
Stress (medicine)
Stress is a term in psychology and biology, borrowed from physics and engineering and first used in the biological context in the 1930s, which has in more recent decades become commonly used in popular parlance...

 by chance or because of genetic considerations. However, there is a great deal of evidence which strongly suggests that some peptic ulcers are caused by the pathogenic bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 Helicobacter pylori
Helicobacter pylori
Helicobacter pylori , previously named Campylobacter pyloridis, is a Gram-negative, microaerophilic bacterium found in the stomach. It was identified in 1982 by Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who found that it was present in patients with chronic gastritis and gastric ulcers, conditions that were...

. As well, cervical cancer is now thought to be strongly due to the presence of the human papilloma virus.

In 2005, the American Academy of Microbiology endorsed liberalizing Koch's postulates
Koch's postulates
Koch's postulates are four criteria designed to establish a causal relationship between a causative microbe and a disease. The postulates were formulated by Robert Koch and Friedrich Loeffler in 1884 and refined and published by Koch in 1890...

, which have been the basis for determining if a disease is infectious since the 19th century, along the lines Cochran and Ewald proposed.http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/05/gregory-cochrans-new-germ-theory.html

Pathogenic theory of homosexuality

The Pathogenic theory of homosexuality (informally, the gay germ theory) is controversial speculation that, because homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...

 reduces significantly the number of resulting offspring, genetics would not have bred any gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

s responsible for homosexuality — which implies that the proximal cause is environmental, specifically in the form of a hypothesized
Hypothesis
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. The term derives from the Greek, ὑποτιθέναι – hypotithenai meaning "to put under" or "to suppose". For a hypothesis to be put forward as a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it...

 pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...

 (bacteria
Bacteria
Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 or virus
Virus
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of organisms. Viruses infect all types of organisms, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea...

).

Natural history of Ashkenazi intelligence

Cochran and co-authors Jason Hardy and Henry Harpending
Henry Harpending
Henry C. Harpending is an anthropologist and population geneticist at the University of Utah, where he is a distinguished professor...

 suggest that the widely observed high average IQ of Ashkenazi Jews may be attributed to the history of that particular subgroup of the Jewish people, including its emphasis on jobs with a high demand on intellectual capacities and low rate of genetic inflow. Cochran et al. hypothesise that this may have evolutionarily selected the very intelligent, and that this may explain the high rate of hereditary neurological disorders in this group. The paper was covered in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

and The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

, and was controversial due to its linking of race and intelligence
Race and intelligence
The connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...

.

External links

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