White skin originally a mutation

[BonaFied_CriTic]

Obessions with skin color is constantly growing and beleive it or not but people these days take drastic measures to change and abuse their looks or what they were born with. So I thought I would introduce this article to show just how pointless the concept of racial superiority is.

 

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A01

 

Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

 

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person's offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world's races.

 

Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpreting the finding as a discovery of "the race gene." Race is a vaguely defined biological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is only part of what race is -- and is not.

 

In fact, several scientists said, the new work shows just how small a biological difference is reflected by skin color. The newly found mutation involves a change of just one letter of DNA code out of the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome -- the complete instructions for making a human being.

 

"It's a major finding in a very sensitive area," said Stephen Oppenheimer, an expert in anthropological genetics at Oxford University, who was not involved in the work. "Almost all the differences used to differentiate populations from around the world really are skin deep."

 

The work raises a raft of new questions -- not least of which is why white skin caught on so thoroughly in northern climes once it arose. Some scientists suggest that lighter skin offered a strong survival advantage for people who migrated out of Africa by boosting their levels of bone-strengthening vitamin D; others have posited that its novelty and showiness simply made it more attractive to those seeking mates.

 

The work also reveals for the first time that Asians owe their relatively light skin to different mutations. That means that light skin arose independently at least twice in human evolution, in each case affecting populations with the facial and other traits that today are commonly regarded as the hallmarks of Caucasian and Asian races.

 

Several sociologists and others said they feared that such revelations might wrongly overshadow the prevailing finding of genetics over the past 10 years: that the number of DNA differences between races is tiny compared with the range of genetic diversity found within any single racial group.

 

Even study leader Keith Cheng said he was at first uncomfortable talking about the new work, fearing that the finding of such a clear genetic difference between people of African and European ancestries might reawaken discredited assertions of other purported inborn differences between races -- the most long-standing and inflammatory of those being intelligence.

 

"I think human beings are extremely insecure and look to visual cues of sameness to feel better, and people will do bad things to people who look different," Cheng said.

 

The discovery, described in today's issue of the journal Science, was an unexpected outgrowth of studies Cheng and his colleagues were conducting on inch-long zebra fish, which are popular research tools for geneticists and developmental biologists. Having identified a gene that, when mutated, interferes with its ability to make its characteristic black stripes, the team scanned human DNA databases to see if a similar gene resides in people.

 

To their surprise, they found virtually identical pigment-building genes in humans, chickens, dogs, cows and many others species, an indication of its biological value.

 

 

Source

 

The article is long so click on the link to continue with the reading.

[J.Lee]

Pointless as it is maandhey, such a finding won't dissuade proclamations of racial superiority nor will it exterminate it. I fear it may have the opposite effect.

 

Laakiinse, I do wonder how the members of your favorite identity sect would react to the fact that their ancestors were once black; the supposedly inferior race: I wonder if they'd still think of us as a result of Whites and Monkeys mating.

[BonaFied_CriTic]

^^living proof that evolution CAN go in reverse - luckily these types kill themselves before reproducing - think of it as evolution in action -

[Socod_badne]

Jimca lee and Hitlerette,

 

meow!

 

keep it up ladies!

[J.Lee]

Evolution in action is reversion :confused: How so maandhey?

 

As for the members of the C.I.S, I would rather if they reverted to their aboriginal stock; I can't think of a more fitting punishment.

[Maf Kees]

Hitlerette, you just let her say that to you? Where is the Führer in you?

 

 

Girls, defend your reputation!

[BonaFied_CriTic]

guess this is as far as we go about intelligence on earth - i am so moving to mars -

[uchi]

Whites and monkeys mating? Never heard that one before...but I must say Hitler, its an interesting find, Thnx

[GarYaQaaN]

Interesting article. The mutations hypothesis has always been there, but now seems to be established with this new data. Have you ever seen an albino Asian? They have blond hair and blue eyes!

[BonaFied_CriTic]

Originally posted by uchi:

Whites and monkeys mating? Never heard that one before...but I must say Hitler, its an interesting find, Thnx

lol - it is not about whites and monkeys mating - but rather the mutation of skin color - the traits are fairly the same but the shades of skin are different - the article speaks of "Race" as a major issue - however, such a thing as race doesn't exist - race as color is only a 500 year old illogical idea based on false assumptions when Europeans began exploring the wider world - and the articles gets more indepth with genetics - and the changing of genes to adapt to new environments as migrations took place in prehistoric times - am telling you even the famous Lucy skeleton found in Ethiopia gives the genetic mutation a whole new concept -

[Qandalawi]

Evolution miyaa and mutation of skin color aa

 

The more one reads and follows this the better bewildered he becomes, conflicting scientist accounts, historian tales of different versions, and religious perspective.

 

Trust who? What faith do you have on the above Scientists, Sometime assumption taken as facts, could they be wrong by any chance?

[uchi]

I was refering to the assumptions you stated, but never mind