Dornsife media issued a press release to summarize a new publication in Nature Genetics, about Daniel Benjamin's massive undertaking with the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium (link to article FAQs here) to try to find which genes affect educational attainment. Carl Zimmer of The New York Times and Ed Yong of The Atlantic both wrote excellent summaries of their takeaways from the paper.
The Scientist also featured research by Daniel Benjamin of the USC Dornsife College's Center for Economic and Social Research on genetic markers that may predict educational attainment. Although the roughly 1,300 genes identified served as a reliable predictor for some demographics, the conclusions did not hold true for all Americans. Benjamin hopes to grow the study to more than 2 million people and expects to find thousands more genes linked to education. Slate, ABC News (Australia), IANS and Press Trust of India highlighted the study's findings.