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Ape-Human DNA Split
M. Boss writes "CNN is running a story about a gene split between humans and the apes. This is the second major DNA article regarding human evolution published in the last month (the first being about the FOXP2 gene, possibly responsible for human speech and comprehension). This second story is about a gene missing in humans that is responsible for production of a sugar acid, and possibly human brain expansion."
I am normally not a proponent of censorship, but in this situation, I think it would have been a good idea for the scientists involved to keep this under their hats. The next obvious step of experimentation will be trying to activate this gene in apes, which may well produce apes of human intelligence. Hm, I think I've seen a movie about that... Whatever happened to the notion of personal responsibility in Science? These guys will be happy to condemn humanity to slavery under superintelligent apes, as long as they get their Nobel Prize. What would Einstein say?
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
"Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!"
>
Maybe I'll get a file at the FBI or CIA now.
Note: subject unusually fond of cows.
-Yarn - Rio Karma: Excellent
Here is a site about the pathway sialic acid took through human cells. Its a bit confusing, but informative never-the-less. And here is a PDF of the basic functions of sialic acid. It also has a bit on directed evolution.
I once shot a man who posted too many, "Imagine a beowulf cluster of these"
Does this mean we split the Darwinism Award for our cousins?
I can't imagine what the apes can do that us human frequently and stupidly do?
Amen, brother.
Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape
al copone?
sam spade?
if you're using a fridge to ward off trichinosis, be ready for a suprise... using a fridge to sterilise your food is not such a good idea, for the most part it just slows down whatever you're trying to keep out of you.
heat, you want big heat until you're just about eating cinders. ahh. now we're safe. well, safe from anything heat-soluble. some toxins aren't.
and they want to stop irradiating meat.
have a nice burger!
Morris Goodman, a professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, says that Varki's findings do point to some role for sialic acid in brain development. However, he cautions, "to say the mutation that caused humans to lose Gc may have resulted in our unique brain evolution may be putting the cart before the horse."
The anti-carnivore taboo isn't nearly as universal as you think it is. Dogs are a part of many Asian cuisines, and there doesn't seem to be any associated health problem -- other than PETA death threats. Some popular food animals (inlcuding a couple you cite) are thought of as herbivores but are actually carnivores or ominvores -- Salmon, pigs.
Many Asian cultures seem to have a taboo, or at least some aversion, to eating draft animals. No obvious answer for that one. Then there's horsemeat -- popular in continental Europe, gross in English-speaking countries. Cuteness factor?
Health issues are often cited as a source of taboo, but that's hard to justify. The usual example is the tricinosis spread by pigs. But there are easier ways to prevent this disease -- like cooking thoroughly. Every animal food, even eggs, spreads diseases that can be controlled by cooking.
(Incidentally, the fact that pigs spread trich has more to do with the similarity between human and porcine physiology. It's quite striking. Pig embryoes are sometimes used in human anatomy classes. One 16th century scientist even though that humans evolved from pigs. I'd tell you his name, but I'd stand accused of a gratuitous pun.)
Taboos have a lot more to do with defining your cultural identity, and separating your own culture from others. Jewish culture (my own heritage) is full of bizarre prohibitions. No mixing meat and milk -- you even have to have separate containers and utensils for them. (Though somehow fish is not considered a meat!) No flicking a light switch on the sabbath. (Electricity is a kind of fire, and you can't light or douse a fire on the sabbath.) No consumption of any non-scaly aquatic life. (Salmon is OK, even though they're carnivores, but sturgeon is not.) It goes on and on.
My own pet theory about the pork taboo goes like this: many, many years ago, the ancestors of todays Jews and Arabs were nomadic peoples who had a free open life in the deserts and hills. They looked down upon (and occassionally conquered or pillaged) the agricultural peoples who spent their life mucking out a living in the various river basins. Clean noble nomads raise herd animals. Filthy peasants raise disgusting dirty pigs. And a taboo is born. Just a theory!