← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · BlueBonnet
Thread ID: 20107 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2005-09-09
2005-09-09 14:29 | User Profile
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif][size=2][color=black][url="http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050909/D8CGFA7O0.html"]http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050909/D8CGFA7O0.html[/url] [/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif][size=2][color=black] Lahn's own calculations acknowledge that the microcephalin variant could have arisen anywhere from 14,000 to 60,000 years ago, and that the uncertainty about the ASPM variant ranged from 500 to 14,000 years ago.[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Verdana,Sans-serif][size=2][color=black]Those criticisms are particularly important, Collins said, because Lahn's testing did find geographic differences in populations harboring the gene variants today. They were less common in sub-Saharan African populations, for example.[/color][/size][/font]
2005-09-09 15:09 | User Profile
very good find. note the article trys to spin away the obvious implications
2005-09-09 16:10 | User Profile
[QUOTE=JoseyWales]very good find. note the article trys to spin away the obvious implications[/QUOTE] Well, I tend to agree with this warning.
[QUOTE] Other scientists urge great caution in interpreting the research. That the genetic changes have anything to do with brain size or intelligence "is totally unproven . . . [/QUOTE]Unproven is a key point. More work needed, obviously, to understand the implications and the interactions among the variables in the genetic code.
[QUOTE]
. . . and potentially dangerous territory to get into with such sketchy data," stressed Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
[/QUOTE]Didn't he mean "politically dangerous" when he said that? :blink:
That aside, the leaping to conclusions by the layman has led to any number of stupid things, such as the continual back and forth of whether or not eggs are good for you.
AE