[lit-ideas] Re: Sapient Hominids. . . Just forget about it?
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 00:02:56 -0400
They themselves say the findings are controversial and far from clear ...
To answer your question, yes, forget about it.
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 9/8/2005 11:52:37 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Sapient Hominids. . . Just forget about it?
>
>
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050909/ap_on_sc/brain_evolutio
n
>
> Genes Show Signs Brain Still Evolving
>
> By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago
>
> WASHINGTON - The human brain may still be evolving. So suggests new
> research that tracked changes in two genes thought to help regulate
> brain growth, changes that appeared well after the rise of modern
> humans 200,000 years ago.
>
> That the defining feature of humans ? our large brains ? continued
> to evolve as recently as 5,800 years ago, and may be doing so today,
> promises to surprise the average person, if not biologists.
>
> "We, including scientists, have considered ourselves as sort of the
> pinnacle of evolution," noted lead researcher Bruce Lahn, a
> University of Chicago geneticist whose studies appear in Friday's
> edition of the journal Science.
>
> "There's a sense we as humans have kind of peaked," agreed Greg
> Wray, director of Duke University's Center for Evolutionary
> Genomics. "A different way to look at is it's almost impossible for
> evolution not to happen."
>
> Still, the findings also are controversial, because it's far from
> clear what effect the genetic changes had or if they arose when
> Lahn's "molecular clock" suggests ? at roughly the same time period
> as some cultural achievements, including written language and the
> development of cities.
>
> Lahn and colleagues examined two genes, named microcephalin and
> ASPM, that are connected to brain size. If those genes don't work,
> babies are born with severely small brains, called microcephaly.
>
> Using DNA samples from ethnically diverse populations, they
> identified a collection of variations in each gene that occurred
> with unusually high frequency. In fact, the variations were so
> common they couldn't be accidental mutations but instead were
> probably due to natural selection, where genetic changes that are
> favorable to a species quickly gain a foothold and begin to spread,
> the researchers report.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
