Darwin re-visited

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by freeztar

That's a very interesting article. Unfortunately, not enough information is given in that article to determine their methodology, which is oh so important in studies such as this.

It seems pretty logical to me though. If tools are an extension of man and those tools are relied on by man (eg trans-oceanic voyages in boats), then natural selection would seem to play a role. The fittest of the fittest shall survive.

glug. . . glug. .

It probably links up a bit with this article
Does Socializing Make Us Smarter?

They found that people who engaged in social interaction displayed higher levels of cognitive performance than the control group.
Social interaction aided intellectual performance.

Does Hypography make us Smarter? or do we just end up with more and more science trivia?( A poll perhaps?)

Why do people always knock on the hulls of boats? (Watch at a boat show.)

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

glug. . . glug. .

Good one!

It probably links up a bit with this article
Does Socializing Make Us Smarter?

I'm failing to see the link you are making. Can you explain?

Does Hypography make us Smarter? or do we just end up with more and more science trivia?( A poll perhaps?)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I feel it improves my intellect. Smarts isn't all about knowledge (science trivia), but also about exercising our minds and thinking about problems in novel ways.

Why do people always knock on the hulls of boats? (Watch at a boat show.)

I'm not sure, but it might have to do with the density.

[Michaelangelica]

[quote=freeztar;208505]

I'm failing to see the link you are making. Can you explain?

my apologies i soften make obtuse (to others) connections between divergent ideas. I did say 'a bit"
Though socialisation we are learning; and learning how to learn; and taking the groups thought process to a different level.
EG
Brainstorming in a supportive, friendly group often leads to new original ideas. (Sometimes disastrous ones -the classic being the oft-quoted 'Bay of Pigs invasion'). So via socialisation the group and the group's process are changing and hopefully evolving. The end result- a better canoe.
I hope this is 'a bit' clearer.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I feel it improves my intellect. Smarts isn't all about knowledge (science trivia), but also about exercising our minds and thinking about problems in novel ways.

I think it makes you examine different points of view, express yourself better and make different connections with ideas. I find I am also continually browsing all media looking for stuff to add and share on threads. So I am more aware of issues that i would normally ignore. (and better informed) Its 'a bit' like debating.

[Michaelangelica]

Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) has a greater impact on the appearance of new traits than previously expected,
"One of the great mysteries of biology is how life could have evolved so rapidly," says Lindquist. "This research gives at least one plausible explanation for the speed of evolution and for the evolution of complex traits affected by several genes."

HSP90 belongs to a class of proteins called chaperones, which help other proteins in the cell fold properly, prevent protein clumping, and escort improperly made proteins to be recycled. These vital functions become even more important when a cell is stressed by heat, cold, toxins or other hardships that affect protein folding.
. . .
However, when the plants were slightly stressed by geldanamycin, HSP90-related traits emerged; seedling stem and root length increased, flowering time was delayed and size and fitness were altered. The abundance of naturally occurring genetic variation that is affected by Hsp90 was remarkable. The authors also genetically mapped the traits that could be affected by HSP90 and found that nearly every complex trait in A. thaliana that they investigated could be affected by HSP90-dependent genetic variation.

"One stressful event can affect many traits and allow previously unseen genetic variation to be expressed," says Sangster.

Heat shock protein 90 helps explain the speed of evolution
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

[Michaelangelica]

This may account for the "two speed evolution" we see in nature

Protein 'Shocks' Evolution Into Action

ScienceDaily (Feb. 27, 2008) — Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) has a greater impact on the appearance of new traits than previously expected, according to two articles published on February 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) by researchers in Whitehead Member Susan Lindquist's lab and their colleagues in Christine Queitsch’s lab at Harvard University’s FAS Center for Systems Biology.
. . .
Hsp90 is particularly interesting because it is specialized to chaperone proteins that are key regulators of growth and development. Thus, it is in a position to couple environmental change to the release of hidden genetic variation and thereby to produce a host of new traits.

Protein 'Shocks' Evolution Into Action

Now we can finally fiddle with Mendel's peas

Genetic Coding Of The Pea Unravelled

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...225213703.htm]

Another article on this fascinating area of "phamo-geonomics".
This emerging discipline has the potential to save millions of lives that drugs now take.

Gene Expression Differences Between Europeans And Africans Affect Response To Drugs, Infections

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Differences in gene expression levels between people of European versus African ancestry can affect how each group responds to certain drugs or fights off specific infections, report researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Expression Research Laboratory at Affymetrix Inc. of Santa Clara, CA.

Gene Expression Differences Between Europeans And Africans Affect Response To Drugs, Infections

[Michaelangelica]

MY ATHEIST!!
A SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL SAYING DARWIN WAS WRONG ABOUT CHOOKS?!
O HORROR!
SAVE US FROM SUCH BLASPHEMY!!!

Darwin Was Wrong About Wild Origin Of The Chicken, New Research Shows

ScienceDaily (Feb. 29, 2008) — Charles Darwin maintained that the domesticated chicken descended from the red jungle fowl, but new research from Uppsala University now shows that the wild origins of the chicken are more complicated than that.

Yellow-skinned chickens have a different version of a gene than their white-skinned cousins. Darwin believed that all chickens came from a wild species known as the red junglefowl.
When the researchers looked for the yellow-skin gene in the red junglefowl, they only found the genetic variant that codes for white skin. More surprisingly, when they finally did find the yellow-skin version of the gene, it was present in a completely different wild species: the grey junglefowl.

Darwin Was Wrong About Wild Origin Of The Chicken, New Research Shows

After watching Jurassic Park I was convinced they were all dinosaurs that decided to fly, well flap a bit anyway.
BUFFY
The genes are there
Do you want to write a "Hero's" TV series with me

[Michaelangelica]

This is clever

Woman gives birth to identical triplets
The identical triplets were born last Wednesday at North Shore University Hospital — an event so rare that an obstetrician estimated it might happen just once in 200 million births.

The triplets' mother, Allison Penn, was impregnated with just one embryo through in vitro fertilization, said Dr. Victor Klein, a specialist in multiple births and high risk pregnancies who delivered the boys. That embryo split in half and then one half of that split again, he said.

Woman gives birth to identical triplets - USATODAY.com

[REASON]

Would this be Natural Cloning, or does the fact that it was in vitro make it Man-Made?

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by REASON

Would this be Natural Cloning, or does the fact that it was in vitro make it Man-Made?

That's a bloody hard question.
How about another
Is it natural selection?

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

That's a bloody hard question.
How about another
Is it natural selection?

I think it could be argued philosophically that since human beings are natural, any impact we have on life could still be considered Natural Selection from a large scale point of view. The system of life does not presume to make such a distinction.

If all human beings were to quickly become exinct due to some rapidly spreading disease, for instance, our affect on the development of life on this planet would seem like a ripple in time.