Archive - PifferPilfer

Intelligence and inequality: what ancient graves reveal

Fluid-intelligence genetics and burial richness within cemeteries

4 hrs ago • Davide Piffer

We finally have a new IQ GWAS: does it have higher predictive accuracy?

After years of waiting, the drought is finally over: we have a new intelligence GWAS!

Oct 6 • Davide Piffer

Did Confucian institutions leave a trace in ancient DNA?

A Tang official’s tombstone might tell you where his family came from, what his father did, and how he rose through government.

Oct 5 • Davide Piffer

Digging the elite: richer graves, lighter skin?

Grave goods, pigmentation and education scores within ancient cemeteries.

Oct 3 • Davide Piffer

The ingredients of light skin genetics: farming, low UV and ancestry

What ancient genomes reveal about farming, sunlight and European pigmentation

Oct 1 • Davide Piffer

September 2026

Solving the Aryan paradox: Why northern Europeans have fair skin but their ancestors were not pale

A lighter-direction skin score appears within WSH-labelled chromosome segments. Its rate relative to the whole genome remains uncertain.

Sep 30 • Davide Piffer

Could Ancient DNA Predict What Went Into the Grave?

A direct test of an ancient education score against the objects buried with the same people.

Sep 28 • Davide Piffer

How climate shaped our genes

A fresh look at personality, height and educational attainment

Sep 26 • Davide Piffer

Can we predict population skin color with polygenic scores?

A 587-variant score tracks broad pigmentation differences, with a correlation of 0.79 in magnitude across 29 populations.

Sep 24 • Davide Piffer

A New Study of Education’s Genetics Confirms and Surprises

A new sample of more than 120,000 adults gives us a fresh test of the genetics of education.

Sep 22 • Davide Piffer

Did Ancient Warming Push Societies Backward?

A climate signal survives better controls for ancestry and archaeological site

Sep 21 • Davide Piffer

Rome and the Northern Catch Up Reanalysed

A much larger European sample tests the Iron Age Italian lead and later northern convergence

Sep 19 • Davide Piffer

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