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'Sea Nomads' Are First Known Humans Genetically Adapted To Diving (nationalgeographic.com)
schwit1 shares a report from National Geographic: Most people can hold their breath underwater for a few seconds, some for a few minutes. But a group of people called the Bajau takes free diving to the extreme, staying underwater for as long as 13 minutes at depths of around 200 feet. These nomadic people live in waters winding through the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, where they dive to hunt for fish or search for natural elements that can be used in crafts. Now, a study in the journal Cell offers the first clues that a DNA mutation for larger spleens gives the Bajau a genetic advantage for life in the deep.
Hazen Audel dove with these people on season 3 episode 1 called "Trial by Ocean". And, they're not really Nomads. Pretty interesting watch.
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Pretty sure the Bajau are not all men. Unless there are other genetic mutations the article is not telling us about.
From TFA: When you go hold your breath and are surrounded by water you have a bunch of physiological responses that happen automatically. One major one is that your spleen contracts delivering more red blood cells to your arteries. Since they have larger spleens, there's a larger reservoir of red blood cells ready to get pushed out when necessary.
Maybe after a few thousands years of living in space in the future, our species evolves the mutations necessary to combat the ill effects of micro gravity and radiation.
I don't think so. Genetic engineering is making rapid progress. Future changes to humanity will be by design, not through random mutations.
not "First Known Humans Genetically Adapted to xx". And it's a direct copy of the National Geographic headline. I guess they too have no editors.
The world record holder for underwater breath-holding is German. I guess they have these spleens too. Who knew?
He did it by breathing pure oxygen for 20 minutes before his attempt.
The longest known breath-hold without supplemental O2 is about 11 minutes. That was someone passively holding their breath. Someone actively consuming oxygen by swimming deep would have less time. So the 13 minutes claimed in TFA is likely BS.
The world record holder for underwater breath-holding is German.
Maybe the Bajau are under-represented entrants in the contest.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Bajau takes free diving to the extreme, staying underwater for as long as 13 minutes at depths of around 200 feet.
Kevin Costner scoffs at the Bajau pathetic diving abilities.
No they simply use science and technology to achieve what the Bajau have naturally evolved to do. The german achieved this in a highly relaxed and controlled environment with carefully controlled water temp and first flooding his lungs with pure oxygen to significantly increase the amount he could stay underwater (the pure oxygen alone is estimated to have added at least 10 mins to the time). The Bajau do theirs on normal air, in the ocean while swimming not relaxing.
A genetic "failure" doesn't mean die, or even fail to reproduce. It can mean goes off to find a more suitable environment. It could also mean creating an environment more suitable to live in. Humans adapting to space will likely be a bit of all the above.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
and not heavy training from a young age?
RTF Study summary:
Using a comparative genomic study, we show that natural selection on genetic variants in the PDE10A gene have increased spleen size in the Bajau, providing them with a larger reservoir of oxygenated red blood cells. We also find evidence of strong selection specific to the Bajau on BDKRB2, a gene affecting the human diving reflex.
So yes, there is a genetic basis for part of the different abilities between races, and we are starting to find it.
I wonder if National Geographic will one day be apologising for how racist they were to print this?
https://www.nationalgeographic...
Hyperventilating is dangerous and is specifically advised against during freediving courses. The reason is twofold.
First, our urge to breathe is controlled by high CO2, not low O2, and hyperventilation removes CO2 from the blood without adding much O2 (it's already at 97+% of the possible maximum by default). Three deep breaths is the golden middle that fully replaces CO2 with O2 in lungs without affecting the blood composition too much. So those who hyperventilate do not, actually, get more time until a blackout, they just get "more comfortable" time, and "more comfortable" to a not really predictable degree. I.e. useless to really say "enough" to oneself.
Second, red blood cells are not willing to give away the oxygen they are carrying if there is not enough CO2.
Most deep divers in Asia are females ...
Obviously males and females have the same genes.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I'm not sure you know what "documented" means. When a scientist goes out and does a study, get's it reviewed, and publishes it, that's documentation. The article we're talking about here is the current best documentation and explanation we have of why some people can hold their breath longer than others.
I'm just an engineer, not an English major. But precision in communication is vital to engineering.
Filler words? No, it is the order that changed. "don't change their meaning"?
"First humans" would be humans that lived distantly in anthropological history. It would indeed be an interesting discovery if we found that they had been genetically adapted to deep diving by somehow extracting DNA from remains. That was my expectation after reading the title but was not what the study was about.
Phys.org's title in Genetic adaptations to diving discovered in humans for the first time was vastly better.