“I am worried,” writes Harvard geneticist David Reich in the New York Times, “that well-meaning people who deny the possibility of substantial biological differences among human populations are digging themselves into an indefensible position, one that will not survive the onslaught of science.”

Reich was responding to anticipated resistance to his forthcoming book, “Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.” The “well-meaning people” Reich references here are those who argue that race is a “social construct,” that there are no significant genetic differences between people of different racial ancestry. Maybe in appearance and other physical traits, but not, definitely not, in intelligence.