Ask the Scholars

The way the question is phrased really embodies the key issue of scientific discourse: What's the relationship between a body of data and the conclusions one can draw from the data? I think we have to start off first by asking exactly what do we mean by athleticism. Because obviously a lot of diverse characteristics go into that - strength, flexibility, coordination, eyesight, endurance, just to name a few. But, obviously, very different kinds of talents are required in athletes. I happe...

I'd love to do a count of, for instance, the proportion of Norwegians that won medals in the winter Olympics versus people from the Congo. Or even the number of Finns that have won middle distance races compared to the population size of Finns. My guess is, if we were focused on looking at, say, Scandinavian excellence in athletics, you could come up with the same set of questions being asked. What is it genetically about people in those cold countries and that Norwegian success in the w...