sometime ago now (the night of 9th/10th May to be precise) I dreamt I was explaining this theory to Ailsa; that individuals who are at extremes on some measure of population variability would show greater variability in other independent(?) measures.
Not sure if this theory exists or if it is true or the exact opposite of true (other measures are less variable) or merely false (measures are effectively independent.)
is it even a well posed question? do I mean genetic variability or phenotypic variability? why should it be the case (or not)? perhaps this is the definition of trait independence?
I haven’t a clue where to begin. Here maybe? Genetics [Wikipedia] That seems to throw up more questions than answers, I’m going to need to know about Quantitative Trait Loci and Phenotypic Variation. Then run some Population Genetics Simulations. What a nightmare!
This dream has awoken me to my ignorance and a quick scan of the internet has revealed that biology is much more difficult than I ever dreamt.