Posted on 12/14/2005 6:26:00 AM PST by Dichroic
Durham, NC - Researchers have discovered the first brain regulatory gene that shows clear evidence of evolution from lower primates to humans. They said the evolution of humans might well have depended in part on hyperactivation of the gene, called prodynorphin (PDYN), that plays critical roles in regulating perception, behavior and memory.
They reported that, compared to lower primates, humans possess a distinctive variant in a regulatory segment of the prodynorphin gene, which is a precursor molecule for a range of regulatory proteins called "neuropeptides." This variant increases the amount of prodynorphin produced in the brain.
While the researchers do not understand the physiological implications of the activated PDYN gene in humans, they said their finding offers an important and intriguing piece of a puzzle of the mechanism by which humans evolved from lower primates
(Excerpt) Read more at bioresearchonline.com ...
So, thus far, you opened with the false announcement that the lead article repudiates Gould and Lewontin. As it does not, you were either mistaken or lying.
No acknowledgement, you simply shifted the discussion. Nothing you've said since then makes you look any more credible.
And you are still a clueless idiot who understands none of the issues.
Lewontin for sure allows that the differences between races are indeed genetic and some genes are turning up which reflect these differences. The article points up one such, a regulatory gene controlling prodynorphin production. What someone has fully allowed for in advance is not a repudiation.
You have responded with increasingly wild claims about Gould being a Lysenkoist and you having debated him in the 80s. This is at best off-topic and unverifiable.
... and unlikely bordering on ridiculous.
I think you meant "likely bordering on the ridiculous." But who knows what the hey you meant? Do you? You seem very confused...
Your own quote of Lewontin denies this parodic mischaracterization. Lewontin specifically accepts that races evolved and that such differences as exist are genetic.
What society DOES with that concept is another matter entirely, but I am strictly speaking of the biologic issues. Lewontin and Gould used half-truths and misrepresentations to bolster their political views through "science." If you contend that they are and were great scientists, so be it. Whatever their accomplishments in research may have been is--IMO--subverted by their politics.
Perhaps you hadn't heard, but they attacked E.O. Wilson repeatedly for his sociobiology, and circulated petitions to stop discussion of IQ and genes on the Harvard campus. Nice heroes you have...I guess Lysenko is on your list also.
YOU reread them.
What I was specifically referring to--from the beginning--was the issue of genetic diversity among people within the same ethnic group/race and the genetic diversity among the population as a whole.
And the picture we have is that a population which already had a lot of diversity in things like blood types went through some recent bottlenecks, then diversified again to a level of something which you would call subspecies in non-human animals or varieties in plants. Something well short of speciation.
And now, for what it's worth, we're remelding in an era of easy travel. Some people may look with dismay on a future filled with "mud people" but those are the breaks. I personally am dismayed at reports that someday within a century or less there won't be any redheaded women. Always had a special thing for pretty redheads. Still, if that's where freedom takes us, that's the future we need. Can't be against freedom.
What society DOES with that concept is another matter entirely, but I am strictly speaking of the biologic issues. Lewontin and Gould used half-truths and misrepresentations to bolster their political views through "science."
You have nowhere documented this. ALL the half-truths and misrepresentations have been yours on this thread. You're a mess. The issues I supposedly don't understand are your issues. Get over them and start showing some integrity in your characterizations of other people's positions. BTW and for instance, I have not defended and do not defend collectivism, statism, nanny-statism, etc.
If somebody hyperactivates that guy's prodynorphin, we're all in big trouble.
Evolution...
...It's all in your head.
I have had a theory that we began to eat meat and this started the hyperactivation of the gene that gave us perception, behavior and memory.
Perhaps it was red meat and not a red apple.
You obviously still do not get it and I do not think you ever will. You are evidently not bright enough to know the difference between data and ideology.
Please...have a great Marxmas and to all a good night.
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