Genetic variants that aren't written on our faces, but that can be detected
only in the genome, show similar correlations. It is these correlations that
Dr. Lewontin seems to have ignored. In essence, he looked at one gene at a time
and failed to see races. But if many—a few hundred—variable genes are
considered simultaneously, then it is very easy to do so. Indeed, a 2002 study
by scientists at the University of Southern California and Stanford showed that
if a sample of people from around the world are sorted by computer into five
groups on the basis of genetic similarity, the groups that emerge are native to
Europe, East Asia, Africa, America and Australasia—more or less the major races
of traditional anthropology.