Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

[ScottSA]

Alas...I feel a spell o' gasoline comin' oon.

[M.Dancer]

Alas...I feel a spell o' gasoline comin' oon.

Ah, woe is me, my Mother dear!

A man of strife ye've born me:

For sair contention I maun bear;

They hate, revile, and scorn me.

I ne'er could lend on bill or band,

That five per cent. might blest me;

And borrowing, on the tither hand,

The deil a ane wad trust me.

Yet I, a coin-denyed wight,

By Fortune quite discarded,

Ye see how I am day and night

By lad and lass blackguarded

[jennie]

Yes. It involves kilts, oatmeal, sheep's intestines, and loud discordant moose calls out of the back end of a sheep's bladder. Somehow I managed not to bludgeon my parents to death or sniff gasoline as a result of being "deprived" of it.

Well I guess that explains it perhaps? With such 'respect' for your own - and I also admit to a revulsion for oatmeal and intestines - you believe others should likewise divest themselves of their heritage? Is that it?

I say this with no disrespect, as ... 'orange' Irish is a heritage I don't revere in some respects, though I honour a tradition of survival, adaptation, laughter and country days and slightly orange hair.

Edited October 5, 2007 by jennie

[jennie]

Alas...I feel a spell o' gasoline comin' oon.

:lol:

[DarkAngel_]

ok... this post is messed up suddenly, ive following it and you all are as crazy as i am. congrats!

as well, skin color change is not all that signifigant in genetics... physical mutations from proteins are...

like our almost uncanny resemblance in dna to chimps, yet our maturaty being so much diffrent as well as us having a complex cerebrum.

[Higgly]

Genetic mutation is responsible for evolution. It's why every living thing is no longer a single celled creature. Natural selection decides who gets to stick around.

An interesting article, but only in a scientific sense, IMHO.

[ScottSA]

Genetic mutation is responsible for evolution. It's why every living thing is no longer a single celled creature. Natural selection decides who gets to stick around.

Wow, that's seminal stuff Higgly. You should try to get it published or something. Maybe you could call it: "Evolution of the Species II" or maybe "I'm only a century and a half behind, but I've got big news!"

[Higgly]

...maybe I'm only a century and a half behind...

Heh heh...

[kengs333]

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A01

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.

Biotechnology

Researchers and regulators are reshaping the landscape of science, medicine and health, engendering hope -- and disquiet -- for the future of humanity.

Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpreting the finding as a discovery of "the race gene." Race is a vaguely defined biological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is only part of what race is -- and is not.

In fact, several scientists said, the new work shows just how small a biological difference is reflected by skin color. The newly found mutation involves a change of just one letter of DNA code out of the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome -- the complete instructions for making a human being.

"It's a major finding in a very sensitive area," said Stephen Oppenheimer, an expert in anthropological genetics at Oxford University, who was not involved in the work. "Almost all the differences used to differentiate populations from around the world really are skin deep."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5121501728.html

........................................

Interesting, not surprising, minor genetic mutations account for many normal human differences.

There is an NFB short animated film called "Evolution" that follows some possible courses of combinations of genetic mutation/selection/adaptation to environmental changes ... mutant and socially rejected web-footed fowl survive the floods and become ducks, for example. Cute stuff, good for kids and adults... if I could only find it.

I am not really trying to be controversial (who put this link in my google?! I think it is out of my control.).

I respect that this is not a topic of interest to some people, but it is to others.

It affected me to read that the genetic source of my race had been found, though it has been defended for some time that we all came from Africa, it is still nice to know where the paths diverged ... but what the hell were they thinking going north?? Probably it was warm then. Vitamin D absorption, our genetic mutation that may have allowed us to adapt to the north.

We are all a human family, and I understand better the Haudenosaunee sign off:

"all my relations"

... it does mean me too.

You seem to be really obsessed with the concept of race, and from what I can gather you are more prone to judge people based solely on race than most of the rest of us. And who here, aside from perhaps Posit (who after his temporary absence is now keeping a low profile), always seems to be crying "racist"?