News, Evidence of evolutionary "positive selection" found in 544 human genes (America, God)

[ParkTwain]

The article talks about the work by researchers at Cornell Univ. researchers, who have identified 544 genes that have been shaped by positive selection (aka Darwinian selection) over millions of years of evolution. The researchers surveyed 16,500 human genes that are also found, with some differences, in at least two of the other five species (chimpanzees, Rhesus macaque, mice, rats, and dogs).
Evidence of evolutionary selection found in 544 genes

This page offers simple definitions of "positive selection" and the "neutral model":
Detecting Positive Selection, Thomas lab

[esselcue]

This kind of goes along with a program regarding Neanderthals I watched last night. Scientific research is bridging the gap between Neanderthal, ancient man and modern man. Interesting program. I would not mind at all knowing I had Neanderthal genes racing through my veins. They were a tough and creative people.

[MontanaGuy]

esselcue wrote:

I would not mind at all knowing I had Neanderthal genes racing through my veins. They were a tough and creative people.

Yeah but that browridge, receding chin and short bulky stature all wrapped up in a mastadon jacket doesn't exactly make a guy a babe magnet.

[esselcue]

Ahhh, but we women wouldn't care as long as he was "sensitive"

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by MontanaGuy

esselcue wrote:

Yeah but that browridge, receding chin and short bulky stature all wrapped up in a mastadon jacket doesn't exactly make a guy a babe magnet.

Almost sounds like the both of you are describing Herman Göring

[Nikk]

Originally Posted by esselcue

This kind of goes along with a program regarding Neanderthals I watched last night. Scientific research is bridging the gap between Neanderthal, ancient man and modern man. Interesting program. I would not mind at all knowing I had Neanderthal genes racing through my veins. They were a tough and creative people.

Yes and they buried their dead in caves and made tools and were buried along side "modern" european skeletons (humans bury their dead with family). So, they weren't far a throw back as we like to think. We can't call them cave men because that would be politically incorrect. Think of those Modern people in Malta who dwell in caves, or Americans who have their homes made in the ground with grass growing over top.

I think that I had read years back there was a percentage of the genes of the people found in Neadertal, Germany in Modern day Europeans. So the idea is not new.

[Nikk]

Originally Posted by ParkTwain

The article talks about the work by researchers at Cornell Univ. researchers, who have identified 544 genes that have been shaped by positive selection (aka Darwinian selection) over millions of years of evolution. The researchers surveyed 16,500 human genes that are also found, with some differences, in at least two of the other five species (chimpanzees, Rhesus macaque, mice, rats, and dogs).
Evidence of evolutionary selection found in 544 genes

This page offers simple definitions of "positive selection" and the "neutral model":
Detecting Positive Selection, Thomas lab

This is of course making the assumption that these various animals and humans have a common ancestor. Where in fact they have a common designer... God (of course!).

[sanspeur]

Originally Posted by Nikk

This is of course making the assumption that these various animals and humans have a common ancestor. Where in fact they have a common designer... God (of course!).

It is not an assumption Nikk. It's fact. When are you creationists going to face it and stop burying your heads in caves? I have a pug dog and his ancestor was a wolf. Picture in your mind....Pug....Wolf....Quite different I'd say. I know my pug was not evolved through natural selection. His evolution was forced by man not god, but the principle is the same.

[MontanaGuy]

sanspeur wrote:

It is not an assumption Nikk. It's fact. When are you creationists going to face it and stop burying your heads in caves? I have a pug dog and his ancestor was a wolf. Picture in your mind....Pug....Wolf....Quite different I'd say. I know my pug was not evolved through natural selection. His evolution was forced by man not god, but the principle is the same.

I agree completely and Nikk, shouldn't it be impossible for man to have created all of these different breeds of dogs, mostly in the last couple of hundred years? I mean it sounds as though you think a species is a clearly defined thing with boundaries that can't be breached and yet man has completely changed certain animals as well as agriculture over a few thousand years and many of the products you buy in the supermarket such as corn don't even exist in the wild. It can only exist if it's planted and cared for by humans, it's a human invention that began with a wild grass called teosinte that we have manipulated and completely changed over about a 7,000 year period. We usually just talk about evolution in animals but plants evolve too and the fact that we're able to fundamentally change the genetics of a plant makes it obvious that there's no such thing as a species with unchanging boundaries. If the creationists were correct about the nature of a species it would have been impossible for man to have bred different kinds of dogs and domesticated animals or to have altered the genetics of countless numbers of plants.