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"This is just willful blindness. It's no loss to lose the need for something upon which you cannot rely. The loss of a vulnerability to malnutrition is a gain. At any rate, there's a gain of an ability to form a new protein. The net ability to synthesize proteins is unchanged."

It certainly looks like willful blindness to me. The loss of an INvulnerability to malnutrition is a loss. Neanderthal had an INvulnerability, that we don't, so we apparently lost it.

It certainly looks like willful blindness to me. The loss of an INvulnerability to malnutrition is a loss. Neanderthal had an INvulnerability, that we don't, so we apparently lost it.

No. Read it again. The neanderthal protein is the same as ours. Fruit-eating primates whose vitamin C supply is assured by their diet have a different protein.

["This is just willful blindness. It's no loss to lose the need for something upon which you cannot rely. The loss of a vulnerability to malnutrition is a gain. At any rate, there's a gain of an ability to form a new protein. The net ability to synthesize proteins is unchanged."]

It certainly looks like willful blindness to me.

Thanks for the honest confession.

The loss of an INvulnerability to malnutrition is a loss. Neanderthal had an INvulnerability, that we don't, so we apparently lost it.

You're completely confused. The article said no such thing.

It does not say that "Neanderthal had an INvulnerability".

It does not say that Neanderthals had anything we don't -- in fact it specifically says that Neanderthals had the *same* protein we do.

It doesn't say that we "lost" anything. It says that we (and Neanderthals, as well as chimps and orangutans) gained the ability to form the protein by using an alternate amino acid which does not require the presence of Vitamin C. This is an *advantage* (not a loss) because shortages of Vitamin C are often a dietary problem for primates in general, and evolving an independence from Vitamin C requirements is an evolutionary *advantage*.

Again, please attempt to learn something about science before you attempt to pontificate upon it.