The Human Genome and evolution

[TimberWolf]

It's true.

First kid is white and pastey looking just lke I am. The second one conceived about the time the wife went to Greece with the girls has much darker skin and looks positively mediterranean.






(this isn't true of course.)

Or in this case...the blackmsmith's wife goes for a holiday to Greece...

[EternalOptimist]

Was the magazine called Lamarckism monthly?

Imagine how difficult it would be to code environmental factors into DNA. The DNA would have to understand itself, and if it got too clever might decide it best that the blacksmith's son were born a bacteria. 3 arms at the very least.

it's weird isnt it. it means that instead of a change taking many generations to spread through a population, it could happen in less than one. which is, in effect , immediate.

[TimberWolf]

it's weird isnt it. it means that instead of a change taking many generations to spread through a population, it could happen in less than one. which is, in effect , immediate.

Hormones might do it. As well as getting kids metal bashing at an early enough age.

[meridian]

it's weird isnt it. it means that instead of a change taking many generations to spread through a population, it could happen in less than one. which is, in effect , immediate.

Change doesn't necessarily take generations though, all it takes is for a dominant gene to be brought to the fore. The blacksmith father will be predisposed to pack on muscle, it's just that his environment pre-blacksmith didn't work the muscles sufficiently to allow growth.

[zeitghost]

I was reading a magazine article last week about the genome.
Apparently all of the known functions that create a human account for a small fraction of the dna, and no one knows what the rest is for. yet.

One of the working theories is that part of the unknown dna is used for enviromentaly driven evolution, which seems to go against the orthodox view on how evolution works.

for example, if enviromental evolution is true, a skinny guy who comes from a skinny line, then becomes a blacksmith, he could father boys with big muscly bodies.

interesting

Makes one wonder if dear old Lysenko was really on to something after all.

Lysenkoism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's all to do with yer inprinting on genes and stuff see?

[minestrone]

I once asked if Camels with long eyelashes were 0.0000000001% more able to breed to make camels with onger eyelashes or if there was something that said "yes the last design was working out OK but could we have longer eyelashes 'cos the sand is terrible in that desert".

Never got an answer.

[shaunbhoy]

I once asked if Camels with long eyelashes were 0.0000000001% more able to breed to make camels with onger eyelashes or if there was something that said "yes the last design was working out OK but could we have longer eyelashes 'cos the sand is terrible in that desert".

Never got an answer.

No wonder. You don't speak Camel!!

HTH

[OwlHoot]

I think this is possible.
Family I know, father worked in a factory that damaged his hearing. Children born before he worked in factory ok, thoes born after have hearing problems.

Sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

It's more likely the father's voice got much louder after he went mutt & jeff, and that affected his kids' hearing (at an early age, when their eardrums were perhaps more sensitive than the older siblings')

P.S. No doubt sasguru will be along shortly, to explain what a village idiot I am.

[EternalOptimist]

Sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

It's more likely the father's voice got much louder after he went mutt & jeff, and that affected his kids' hearing (at an early age, when their eardrums were perhaps more sensitive than the older siblings')

P.S. No doubt sasguru will be along shortly, to explain what a village idiot I am.

There are always going to be alternative explanations, till the truth gets nailed. I was wondering about the dna database, what would happen if your dna COULD change

[alreadypacked]

Sounds like a post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.

It's more likely the father's voice got much louder after he went mutt & jeff, and that affected his kids' hearing (at an early age, when their eardrums were perhaps more sensitive than the older siblings')

P.S. No doubt sasguru will be along shortly, to explain what a village idiot I am.

This would also explain why fat Americans are producing fat kids.