Posted on 09/08/2005 5:16:56 PM PDT by Mike Bates
The evolution of the human brain is not quite a done deal, say researchers who've uncovered genetic evidence that man's mysterious gray matter is still undergoing beneficial change.
The scientists make their claim based on the recent evolutionary history of two genes -- microcephalin and abnormal spindle-like microcephaly-associated (ASPM) -- which appear to regulate brain size.
Over thousands of years, both genes seem to be generating new and improved versions of themselves -- beneficial mutations that are spreading rapidly among the human population to reshape and strengthen brain capacity.
"I think a lot of people might consider humans to be at the pinnacle of evolutionary lineage -- that we have achieved an advanced state as a species, and we have basically become the end-game," said study co-author Bruce T. Lahn, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and assistant professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago. "But what we found indicates that the species -- particularly when it comes to the brain, which is perhaps our most defining feature -- is still evolving."
In the Sept. 9 issue of Science, Lahn and his colleagues report on the results of two genetic analyses -- the first conducted among 90 men and women and a chimpanzee, and the second among almost 1,200 men and women. The participant pools were drawn from 59 ethnic groups from all over the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
One, I don't view the question of micro vs macro evolution as a red herring and, two, the author of your piece wasn't there at the invention of fire, language, farming or anything like that. He's guessing.
could be.......
yeah, it's amazing what that endless supply of slave labor could accomplish. i believe we would be unable to build the great pyramids today. at least to the specs to which they were built. maybe it's because the aliens built them...oooooohhhhhh!
*snicker*
This related to recto-fossal ambiguity?
"I think a lot of people might consider humans to be at the pinnacle of evolutionary lineage -- that we have achieved an advanced state as a species, and we have basically become the end-game,"
Yeah, right.
That's why wild critters flee before a natural disaster strikes and humans stay put and throw parties instead....:-P
I am willing to believe that you are right about your own mind.
In my family, however, we have evolved.
So9
i.e. Ye shall be as gods!
(where have we heard THAT before?)
That you plan to take over the world?
Time travel with the help of aliens, silly, don't you ever listen to Art Bell?????
Of course you don't.
two, the author of your piece wasn't there at the invention of fire, language, farming or anything like that.
Well fortunately for him -- and unfortunately for any point you thought you actually had -- epistemology requires no such thing. There are countless ways to learn about events which we weren't on hand to personally witness, and to validate and cross-check our conclusions about them.
He's guessing.
No, he's not. Conclusions based on evidence, research, validation tests, and tests of potential falsification are far more than mere "guesses". They're knowledge.
Quiet, Pinky!
Sorry, Brain...
This is one of the silliest arguments we see on these threads.
Let's try an analogy. Is there anything you believe in which you have not seen? Crucifiction? Resurrection?
Most likely you believe in a great many things which you did not actually witness. Electrons? The outer planets? The back side of the moon?
So let's forget this CS/ID red herring and just discuss these matters on more substantial grounds, eh?
Whoops. That last one should have been to tamalejoe.
Sorry.
LOL! Well, still, who knows what sort of creatures await us millions of years from now.
Sure...hyper-intelligent pigeons...:))
God created, and He did it just by speaking.
Now that is power.
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