Tag Archives: genetics

Making Absence Findable Without Making Fabrication Admissible: Institutional Design for the Recovery of Unnamed Maternity

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The four preceding papers in this series established an evidentiary typology for founding-era paternity claims, demonstrated that the standard applied to the Jefferson–Hemings case was anomalously strict relative to like claims, proposed a genetic-genealogical program for identifying the mother … Continue reading →

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The Unasked Question: Historiographical Incuriosity Toward the Mothers of Acknowledged Illegitimate Children, and a Program for Genetic Resolution

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract American historical writing exhibits a consistent and underexamined pattern: where a prominent man acknowledged an illegitimate child, the acknowledgment closed the biographical question, and the mother’s identity ceased to be treated as a research problem. This paper documents the … Continue reading →

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Identifying the Mother of William Franklin: A Proposal for a Genetic-Genealogical and Documentary Research Program

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The maternity of William Franklin (c. 1730–1813), illegitimate son of Benjamin Franklin and royal governor of New Jersey, has never been resolved. No contemporary document names the woman; no family tradition survives naming her; the historiography has produced candidates … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Genetic Mechanisms Behind Mixed Hair Pigmentation: Blonde Hair, Red Beards, and Multicolored Eyelashes

Posted on December 21, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary The coexistence of light (blonde/sandy) scalp hair, reddish facial hair, and mixed-pigment eyelashes is a well-documented and genetically coherent phenomenon. It results from: Polygenic control of pigmentation (multiple genes influencing melanin type and amount). Regional variation in gene … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Central Role of Comparative Reference Frameworks in Online DNA Ancestry Testing

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Online DNA ancestry testing services present themselves as tools for uncovering personal heritage through genetic analysis. However, the ancestry results they provide are not direct readings of genetic “origin” in any absolute sense. Rather, they are comparative inferences, … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Biblical “Giants” and Contemporary Genetics: Text, Physiology, Population Variation, and Myth

Posted on October 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive summary Biblical texts refer to unusually large people and peoples—Nephilim, Rephaim, Anakim, and individual figures like Goliath and Og. Careful textual analysis suggests the Bible depicts exceptional but human-scale tallness, not fantasy-scale beings. Modern science explains unusual height through … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Tools and Technologies for Personalized Health and Nutrition

Posted on September 28, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Personalized health and nutrition represents a paradigm shift from generalized dietary guidelines toward individualized interventions informed by genetic, epigenetic, and microbiome data. This paper explores the tests, applications, and equipment necessary to operationalize such precision nutrition, providing a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Diabetes (Genes & Disease)

Posted on July 24, 2024 by nathanalbright

Diabetes (Genes & Disease), by Toney Allman When one deals with health in the contemporary world, it is natural ponder the relationship between genes and disease. In the case of Diabetes, there is a bit of contradictory information regarding the … Continue reading →

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Book Review: The Social Life Of DNA

Posted on March 9, 2024 by nathanalbright

The Social Life Of DNA: Race, Reparations, And Reconciliation After The Genome, by Alondra Nelson It would not be hard to think of ways for this book to be appealing to someone like me, nor to think of audiences (not … Continue reading →

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Book Review: A Short History Of Humanity

Posted on February 5, 2024 by nathanalbright

A Short History Of Humanity: A New History Of Old Europe, by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe, translated by Caroline Waight About the only thing to fault this book on, and that probably isn’t the fault of the authors, who appear … Continue reading →

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