/sci/ - Science & Math

>>5445566
Why do Y chromosomes degrade?

>>5445573

planet of the apes style.

would it be possible to reverse evolute?

like an opposite arrow on your pic?

>>5445573

If the right selection pressures were set up, but it would be almost impossible to achieve.

Would we be better off with digitigrade feet and paws?

>>5445566
Define the Homo Sapiens Sapiens species in such a way that it includes any living member of this species (from past to present) and it clearly separates it from other members of the Homo genus.

Take your time. I want a technical definition.

>>5445577

k my bad,

what in your opinion is the next step in human evolution?

or does it not work like that.

Why does my semen taste sweet?

Why does my vagina burn when I pee?

Is race a social construct?

>>5445566
>Biological Anthropologist
>Anthropologist
oh...

Will all monkeys evolve into humans or did some humans evolve back into monkeys?

What is the theoretical maximum weight a person can lift.

>>5445581

Our species can only be specified that precisely retrospectively - we are the population of the homo genus that has survived up til the present.

There probably aren't any characteristics that cleanly separate us from other hominins

>>5445584
This was actually a serious question. But whatever OP.

>>5445591
Geneticist here

I hope you are a troll

what was your thesis about?
did you make a significant contribution to science with it?
did you decide on what to study on or your adviser picked the topic for you?
got any published papers?

>>5445582

It's well known that domesticating animals leads to a shrinking of their brains since, being taken care of, they don't need to think and problem as much. Maybe the same thing will happen to us now that we've built civilizations and essentially domesticated.

>>5445582

It's well known that domesticating animals leads to a shrinking of their brains since, being taken care of, they don't need to think and problem solve as much. Maybe the same thing will happen to us now that we've built civilizations and essentially domesticated ourselves.

>>5445611
>what was your thesis about?
Reproductive strategies used in hunter-gatherer societies.
>did you make a significant contribution to science with it?
Pretty much but people didn't like it.
>did you decide on what to study on or your adviser picked the topic for you?
I decided my self.
>got any published papers?
What i discovered was so explosive they wouldn't let me.

>>5445566
who do we store memory?

>>5445625

In the brain.

>>5445614

yes well women will probably be offended.

and computers are also much smaller now.

brain size and its usage are very debatable imo.

>>5445622
What was it? (last question)

>>5445582
Geneticist here.

It doesn't work like that. Evolution is not a series of "steps", it is gradual continual change. In any case, the time spans involved are too massive for it to be of relevance to us.

Also, there is very reduced selective pressure on humans (in the west at least), so things could get interesting. But these reduced pressures have only been around for 100 years or so, and (depending on future medical advances) they may change/be reduced further.

TL;DR - not a fucking clue.

Though the increase in things like thalassemia/Sickle cell anaemia in Africans is pretty interesting. If AIDS becomes much much worse we could see gp120/40 mutations on the rise

>>5445634
Gene therapy. When and what will be possible?

>>5445632

The best strategy for men to use was to marry girls aged about 12-16 and get as many offspring from them over the long term.

>>5445634

it is probably stepwise in most animals.

and works on a generation basis.. imo without thinking about it too much.

humans have a greater degree of control over it, it would seem.

selective pressures in humans tend not to be of natural resources for the majority imo.

..which is interesting.

sickle cell increase should mean things like malaria would decrease.

...the aids thing is just sad though.

>>5445643
All sorts. A lot of it depends on public/governmental support.

At its most basic, we could (and probably should) impose mandatory screenings of all high-risk pregnancies. There are many well-characterised genetic diseases (e.g huntingdon's) that we could be screening for and eradicating. The most effective way to do this would be to just undergo IVF and dispose of the affected embryos, but public opposition would be too great.

For treating actual living people - lots of work is being done into ways of growing new tissue. If we can use a patient's own DNA (bone marrow most likely) to grow new tissue there would be almost no rejection, as well as dealing with organ shortages.

It's quite far off at the moment in humans but recent studies have shown promise in e.g curing blind mice (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20898935))

It will soon be possible to sequence your entire genome quickly and cheaply enough to make it a useful diagnostic tool. With computer analysis we could even identify problem alleles before they cause trouble, leading to better and more personal treatment planning. You could also advise people on whether to have kids or not if they are carrying assorted recessive alleles that they wouldn't know they otherwise had.

>>5445644

>>5445660
No. Evolution works over many generations. For a whole population to acquire a mutation (in the absence of plasmids/proviruses/other horizontal gene transfer methods) it will take many generations. The selective pressure has to be sustained for this whole time.

Evolution is just the product of random chance and minor differences in fitness and reproductive/survival probabilities. The change is so gradual that clearly delineated "steps" are only meaningful if looked at over millions of years.

>>5445670
What the actual fuck? Why isn't this shit getting top priority in most countries? The possibilities you described could be a huge step forward in terms of medicine.

>>5445644
can i tell that to the judge?

>>5445644
>The best strategy for men to use was to marry girls aged about 12-16 and get as many offspring from them over the long term.

How did you come to that conclusion?

>>5445634

Actually there are plenty of pressures in humans that evolve us pretty rapidly. There is a reason bushmen tribes tend to score lower on the IQ tests (yes I know IQ isnt perfect) - living in cities where perception politics play such an important role requires extra brain power. The ability to manage people and complex businesses influences mating opportunities greatly. Charlie munger had a few things to say about it.

>>5445690
You realize the Nazi's were on this right? They're braintrust had a book called "permission to destroy life that is undeserving of life" or something similar.

Even America dabbled in it a bit, including my home state of Virginia - they forcibly sterilized a few handfuls of people during that era.

>>5445670
You'd be OK with giving our government that sort of power?
You're crazy.
It's best we educate people and develop a culture of responsibility and leave it to parents to get tested.

Also, you say you advocate mandatory screenings of all high risk pregnancies. How do you know they are high-risk before screening without them volunteering information? You'd have to force people to register their disabilities. The logical next step is restricted breeding, followed by forced abortions, followed by mandatory sterilizations.

You don't want to give our government power over something so fundamental to human life as reproduction. It's best we educate people as best as possible and allow individuals to make decisions. It's not like people born with disabilities are a major strain on the world or the economy anyway.

>>5445728
I dont know but in the book sperm wars they mention that as best as the experts can tell marriage and monogamy tends to help men slightly more than women from a reproductive success standpoint.

>>5445690
Because, as >>5445732 correctly points out, this is essentially eugenics. Eugenics has a pretty bad rap. We would essentially be saying "it is better this person does not live" (or rather, "it is better that this embryo without these mutations lives instead"). It is highly unpalatable for the general public, who just say stupid things like: "you are saying disabled people don't deserve to live, you nazi!".

>>5445732
Oh there are pressures, but they are very novel and transient. The reason why bushmen score lower on IQ tests is probably because they lack systemic education, and the IQ test is *not* a test of "raw" intelligence. Interestingly studies show men tended to do better at IQ tests for ages, until women's education caught up with it and people stopped shoving girls away from STEM subjects.

>>5445679

i was thinking along the lines of social consequences of a beneficial mutation within a single generation.

and how it was perceived by the majority.

>>5445735
Ok. Here's one for you.

Do you think we should legalise incest?

Because the chances of you getting any kind of serious medical problems are much lower than the chance of someone with any dominant autosomal (or sex linked, e.g haemophilia) disorder passing it on.

I think if you have a serious heridatry emdical condition you have a responsibility to try and not pass it on to your children. Besides, the government knows all these people have them anyway (because they are receiving medical treatment for them).

I also think the medical benefits of having your entire genome on file far outweigh any poorly thought out teenage anti-government reservations you might be having.

How deep does the 'we're all identical just the colour of your skin' lie go in the field.

Can you finally sit down and do some actual anthropology, or do you still have to tip toe around the issue and ignore the elephant in the room just incase there's a liberal journalist in the room?

>>5445753
The problem is, beneficial mutation over a single generation is very unlikely to have a significant effect on your phenotype. The same is not true for deleterious mutations, for obvious reasons.

I'm not sure I entirely understand you though. What kinds of things are you talking about? Give me some examples of theoretical single-generation mutations with social consequences.

>>5445644

Why was that controversial? We already knew that?

Please don't tell me liberals are covering their ears to that too.

I mean christ, it's only in the last few hundred years we got rid of marrying girls about that age. Even today it's still a widespread practice in other cultures of the world (I just read a news story about a Saudi Arabian 90 year old man who married a 15 year old girl, but she locked herself in a room).

Why do liberals find it so hard to believe that maybe our ancestors did a similar thing back in our history?

>>5445760
>>>/b/
they love wincest

>>5445690
>What the actual fuck? Why isn't this shit getting top priority in most countries?

Because the public would throw a shit fit.

They can't even agree on a simple thing like GM crops or abortion. They have to get all "But muh nature" "GOD DIDN'T INTEND THIS"

God also didn't intend for us to soar through the sky like a bird in a giant metal box with 300 other people. But they seem okay with that when it's taking them to Spain.

>>5445735
>It's best we educate people and develop a culture of responsibility and leave it to parents to get tested.

Hah, because that will work. You have a nice assumption that the people aren't brain dead morons.

That totally worked out for birth control, right? "Oh just educate people about condoms and the pill, and I'm sure they'll use them themselves. No reason to force them".

All that ends up doing is the educated people use it (have fewer kids), the uneducated morons don't and multiply like crazy.

>>5445786
>only liberals don't want to fuck 12 year olds

>>5445811
explain that comment because it makes no fucking sense

>>5445573
>>5445577

Not the OP, but evolution doesn't go in "reverse," it just happens. It's advantageous mutations being selected for in the organism's environment and then being preserved through reproduction. There's no way to go backwards, you just adapt to a new environment.

>>5445811
Not what I said at all.

So if I have a theory that groups of male dolphins will group around and rape a female dolphin, it means I want to rape dolphins? Stop being so narrowminded.

The dolphin thing is true, incidentally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sexual_behaviour#Rape

>>5445566
Which Named parts, can be considered the main poison filtrations and what parts do they hook up to?

Also, do you have a psuedoscience oppinion on that answer?

>>5445749
op of your reply here. I believe most of these studies were not just given to raw bushmen but people who have been educated but originate from those peoples. I dont claim to be a professor on the issue or to have trapped all the biases (ive heard for awhile there were some) but in the aggregate i do believe that there are broad trends in IQ between ethnic groups.

>>5445810
Actually as long as its cheap enough I believe it will work. Gattaca style - people will see everyone else doing it the "smart way" and want the best for their offspring.

Of course there will always be teen pregnancies but hopefully there will be a stigma attached to not aborting.

>>5445573
Sure. See the movie Idiocracy and ignore the humor. The idea is very real.

What is the next phase of human evolution going to be like?

>>5445940
not op
i would say were are doing it right now
medical implants was the start
think about it, we evolved with our brains to solve problems including our shortcomings

pacemakers etc was the start
who is to say that cyborg type devices aren't natural?
i could ramble on, maybe later

>>5445566
What do you think of your cultural anthropology peers?

>>5445566
>Ask me anything about human biology.
Seriously, is nobody gonna ask the hard questions? Are you all just gonna troll because biology is not a real science? Ok, answer this:

Whats the deal with the penis? How come such a thing came to be? Which organism has the earliest penis ever known? Which human race/subspecie/group have the largest/smallest?

And , most importantly, why is it so fucking awesome???

>>5445956
I dont think so. I think gene therapy and computer AI will be the driving forces of progress. Maybe some light opt-in eugenics of high quality people breeding with other high quality people.

>>5445961
i didnt think that through
evolution is not the same as my post

>>5445958
Cephalopods have a penis similar in appearance to humans.

Fun fact. Watch out for the 16 foot Architeuthis cock.

>>5445971
lolwut