Nicholas Wade#A Troublesome Inheritance

Wade was born in Aylesbury, England and educated at Eton College.{{Cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/node/15124974 |title=Spirit level |date=17 December 2009 |newspaper=The Economist |access-date=2018-02-14 |issn=1476-8860 |url-access=limited |archive-date=14 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180214142142/http://www.economist.com/node/15124974 |url-status=live }} He is a grandson of Lawrence Beesley, a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic.{{cite news|title= 'Titanic 2': Love Over A Ouija Board|work= The Canberra Times|date= January 4, 1998|via= NewsBank|url= https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news%2F148A8CECDBC826F0|access-date= 14 March 2023|archive-date= 14 March 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230314155105/https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/user/login?destination=document-view%3Fp%3DAWNB%26docref%3Dnews/148A8CECDBC826F0|url-status= live}}{{cite news |last1=Wade |first1=Nicholas |title=As Hundreds of Men Perished, One Ignored a Rumor to Survive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/science/beating-the-odds-to-survive-the-titanics-sinking.html |work=The New York Times |date=9 April 2012 |access-date=21 May 2022 |archive-date=9 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709231904/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/10/science/beating-the-odds-to-survive-the-titanics-sinking.html |url-status=live }} He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences from King's College, Cambridge in 1964, and immigrated to the United States in 1970.

Wade was a science writer and editor for the journals Nature from 1967 to 1971, and Science from 1972 to 1982.{{Cite web|url=https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/nicholas-wade|title=Nicholas Wade: Journalist & Science Author, Speaker {{!}} PRH Speakers Bureau|website=www.prhspeakers.com|language=en-US|access-date=2017-12-09|archive-date=30 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630111755/https://www.prhspeakers.com/speaker/nicholas-wade|url-status=live}} In a 1976 article in Science, Wade documented the controversy surrounding E. O. Wilson's book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis:{{cite journal |last1=Wade |first1=Nicholas |title=Sociobiology: troubled birth for new discipline |journal=Science |date=1976-03-19 |volume=191 |issue=4232 |pages=1151–1155 |doi=10.1126/science.11643305|pmid=11643305 |bibcode=1976Sci...191.1151W }} portraying Wilson in a sympathetic light, and the opposing Sociobiology Study Group more critically.{{cite magazine|last1=Currier |first1=Richard |title=Sociobiology: The New Heresy |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_human-behavior_1976-11_5_11/page/18/mode/2up |magazine=Human Behavior: The Newsmagazine of the Social Sciences |volume=5|issue=11 |date=November 1976 |pages=16–22|language=English}}

Wade's 1977 book, The Ultimate Experiment: Man-Made Evolution, covered the then new and controversial field of gene splicing.{{Cite web|last=Shechter|first=Yaakou|date=1977|title=The Ultimate Experiment: Man-Made Evolution|url=https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-ultimate-experiment-man-made-evolution|access-date=2021-06-25|website=American Scientist|language=en|archive-date=17 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210817141859/https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-ultimate-experiment-man-made-evolution|url-status=live}} His 1981 book, The Nobel Duel: Two Scientists' 21-Year Race to Win the World's Most Coveted Research Prize, described the competition between Andrew Schally and Roger Guillemin, whose discoveries regarding the peptide hormone led to them sharing the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science (1982), co-authored with William J. Broad, discusses historical and contemporary examples of scientific fraud. Wade joined The New York Times in 1982 as a staff and editorial writer, was appointed science and health editor in 1990;{{cite news |title=Times Appoints a Science Editor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/times-appoints-a-science-editor.html |work=The New York Times |date=18 September 1990 |access-date=6 November 2021 |archive-date=6 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106230352/https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/18/science/times-appoints-a-science-editor.html |url-status=live }} he left the Times in 2012.{{cite web |title=Oral History |url=https://www.cshl.edu/archives/institutional-collections/oral-history/ |website=Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627225753/https://www.cshl.edu/archives/institutional-collections/oral-history/|archive-date=27 June 2021}}

In the 2000s, Wade's books began to focus on human evolution. He released Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors in 2006, which is about what Wade referred to as "two vanished periods" in human development, and The Faith Instinct in 2009, about the evolution of religious behaviour.{{Cite book|last=Salevouris|first=Michael J.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/885229353|title=The methods and skills of history : a practical guide|date=2015|others=Conal Furay|isbn=978-1-118-74544-1|edition=4|location=Chichester, West Sussex, UK|pages=273|oclc=885229353|access-date=15 May 2021|archive-date=14 March 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314155151/https://www.worldcat.org/title/885229353|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=Shulevitz|first=Judith|date=2009-12-24|title=The God Gene|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books/review/Shulevitz-t.html|access-date=2021-05-15|issn=0362-4331|url-access=limited|archive-date=5 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505122136/https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/27/books/review/Shulevitz-t.html|url-status=live}} In 2007, Before the Dawn received a Science in Society Journalism Award from the National Association of Science Writers.{{Cite web|date=September 13, 2007|title=Science-in-Society Journalism Award winners|url=https://www.nasw.org/article/science-society-journalism-award-winners|access-date=2021-06-25|website=National Association of Science Writers|archive-date=26 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210626001509/https://www.nasw.org/article/science-society-journalism-award-winners|url-status=live}}

In 2014, Wade released A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History, in which he argued that human evolution has been "recent, copious, and regional" and that genes may have influenced a variety of behaviours that underpin differing forms of human society.{{Cite book|last=Wade|first=Nicholas|title=A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History|publisher=Penguin Publishing Group|year=2014|isbn=978-0698163799|location=New York}}{{Page needed|date=July 2021}} The book has been widely denounced by scientists, including many of those upon whose work the book was based.{{cite web |last1=Coop |first1=Graham |last2=Eisen |first2=Michael |last3=Nielsen |first3=Rasmus |last4=Przeworski |first4=Molly |last5=Rosenberg |first5=Noah |title=Letters: 'A Troublesome Inheritance' |work=The New York Times Book Review |date=8 August 2014 |url=http://cehg.stanford.edu/letter-from-population-geneticists/ |access-date=25 September 2014 |quote=We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade's conjectures. |via=Center for Computational, Evolutionary and Human Genomics, Stanford University |archive-date=16 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016000438/http://cehg.stanford.edu/letter-from-population-geneticists/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Balter |first1=Michael |title=Geneticists decry book on race and evolution |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/geneticists-decry-book-race-and-evolution-rev2 |work=Science |date=8 August 2014 |access-date=30 June 2022 |archive-date=6 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806174908/https://www.science.org/content/article/geneticists-decry-book-race-and-evolution-rev2 |url-status=live }}

On 8 August 2014, The New York Times Book Review published an open letter signed by 139 senior faculty members in population genetics and evolutionary biology which read:

{{blockquote |Wade juxtaposes an incomplete and inaccurate account of our research on human genetic differences with speculation that recent natural selection has led to worldwide differences in I.Q. test results, political institutions and economic development. We reject Wade's implication that our findings substantiate his guesswork. They do not. We are in full agreement that there is no support from the field of population genetics for Wade's conjectures.}}

After publication, the letter was signed by four more faculty members. In response to the letter, Wade said these scientists had misunderstood his intent.

The book was further criticised in a series of five reviews by Agustín Fuentes, Jonathan M. Marks, Jennifer Raff, Charles C. Roseman and Laura R. Stein, which were published together in the scientific journal Human Biology.{{cite journal | editor-last1=Malhi | editor-first1=Ripan S. | editor-last2=Kemp | editor-first2=Brian M. | title=A Troublesome Inheritance | work=Human Biology: International Journal of Population Genetics and Anthropology | volume=86 | issue=3 | date=Summer 2014 | url=https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol86/iss3/ | jstor=10.13110/humanbiology.86.issue-3}} Marks, for instance, described the book as "entirely derivative, an argument made from selective citations, misrepresentations, and speculative pseudoscience."{{cite journal |last=Marks |first=Jonathan |date=2014 |title=Review of A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade |url=https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol86/iss3/6 |journal=Human Biology |volume=86 |issue=3 |pages=221–226 |doi=10.13110/humanbiology.86.3.0221 |doi-access= |access-date=25 July 2021 |archive-date=24 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210724011655/https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol86/iss3/6/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Biologist H. Allen Orr called the book "lively and generally serviceable", but said it was "not [...] without error", stating that Wade had overstated the evidence for recent natural selection in the human genome.{{cite journal |last=Orr |first=H. Allen |date=5 June 2014 |title=Stretch Genes |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/stretch-genes/ |journal=New York Review of Books |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=18 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518222825/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/jun/05/stretch-genes/ |url-status=live }}

{{further|COVID-19 lab leak theory}}

In May 2021, Wade published a 10,000-word article on Medium and later in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists titled "The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?" in which he argued that the possibility that the novel coronavirus was bioengineered and had leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, couldn’t be dismissed.{{cite web |last1=Wade |first1=Nicolas |date=2021-05-05 |title=The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora's box at Wuhan? |url=https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220105230734/https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-origin-of-covid-did-people-or-nature-open-pandoras-box-at-wuhan/ |archive-date=5 January 2022 |access-date=25 May 2021 |website=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists}}{{cite news|last1=Mukunth|first1=Vasudevan|date=2021-05-12|title=In COVID Origins Storm, Fauci Denies US Funded Controversial Study in Wuhan|work=The Wire Science|url=https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/in-covid-origins-storm-fauci-denies-us-funded-controversial-study-in-wuhan/|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=31 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531014355/https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/in-covid-origins-storm-fauci-denies-us-funded-controversial-study-in-wuhan/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Eban|first=Katherine|date=3 June 2021|title=The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19's Origins|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210606201656/https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/06/the-lab-leak-theory-inside-the-fight-to-uncover-covid-19s-origins|archive-date=6 June 2021|access-date=19 July 2021|work=Vanity Fair|author-link=Katherine Eban}} Wade's article fuelled the controversy around the origins of the virus, and has become one of the most-cited pieces in support of the lab leak hypothesis.{{Cite web|date=2021-06-08|first=Michael|last=Hiltzik|author-link=Michael Hiltzik|title=Column: A Nobel laureate backs off from claiming a 'smoking gun' for the COVID-19 lab-leak theory|url=https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-08/nobel-laureate-baltimore-smoking-gun-for-the-covid-lab-leak-theory|access-date=2021-06-23|website=Los Angeles Times|url-access=limited|archive-date=23 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623134939/https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-06-08/nobel-laureate-baltimore-smoking-gun-for-the-covid-lab-leak-theory|url-status=live}} Wade's argument is at odds with the prevailing view among scientists that the virus most likely has a zoonotic origin. While some experts have supported taking the lab leak possibility seriously, the majority consider it very unlikely, unsupported by available evidence and bordering on speculation.{{Cite web |last1=Ward |first1=Myah |last2=Rayasam |first2=Renuka |date=19 May 2021 |title=Experts weigh in on the Wuhan lab leak hypothesis |url=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/05/19/experts-weigh-in-on-the-wuhan-lab-leak-hypothesis-492915 |access-date=2021-06-23 |website=Politico |department=Politico Nightly (newsletter) |archive-date=18 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718011417/https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2021/05/19/experts-weigh-in-on-the-wuhan-lab-leak-hypothesis-492915 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Ling |first=Justin |date=15 June 2021 |title=The Lab Leak Theory Doesn't Hold Up |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/15/lab-leak-theory-doesnt-hold-up-covid-china/ |access-date=2021-06-23 |website=Foreign Policy |url-access=limited |archive-date=1 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210701220552/https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/15/lab-leak-theory-doesnt-hold-up-covid-china/ |url-status=live }}{{cite journal|last1=Holmes|first1=Edward C.|last2=Goldstein|first2=Stephen A.|last3=Rasmussen|first3=Angela L.|last4=Robertson|first4=David L.|last5=Crits-Christoph|first5=Alexander|last6=Wertheim|first6=Joel O.|last7=Anthony|first7=Simon J.|last8=Barclay|first8=Wendy S.|last9=Boni|first9=Maciej F.|last10=Doherty|first10=Peter C.|last11=Farrar|first11=Jeremy|date=September 2021|title=The origins of SARS-CoV-2: A critical review|journal=Cell|volume=184|issue=19|pages=4848–4856|doi=10.1016/j.cell.2021.08.017|last13=Jiang|last20=Garry|last12=Geoghegan|first12=Jemma L.|first21=Andrew|last21=Rambaut|first20=Robert F.|first19=Kristian G.|last14=Leibowitz|last19=Andersen|first18=Michael|last18=Worobey|first17=Susan R.|last17=Weiss|first16=Tim|last16=Skern|first15=Stuart J.D.|last15=Neil|first14=Julian L.|first13=Xiaowei|pmid=34480864 |pmc=8373617 }} David Gorski of Science-Based Medicine described Wade's argument as a conspiracy theory.{{Cite web |first=David |last=Gorski |date=2021-05-31 |title=The origin of SARS-CoV-2, revisited |website=Science-Based Medicine |url=https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-origin-of-sars-cov-2-revisited/ |access-date=2021-06-23 |archive-date=1 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210601072923/https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/the-origin-of-sars-cov-2-revisited/ |url-status=live }}

• COVID-19 misinformation

{{reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://www.nytimes.com/by/nicholas-wade Archived articles] at The New York Times
• {{Charlie Rose guest|2277}}
• [http://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/speaker/nicholas-wade/ Nicholas Wade Oral History Collection] at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
• {{C-SPAN|136392}}

{{Nicholas Wade}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade, Nicholas}}

Category:1942 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century British journalists

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