Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin
Washington Post ^ | December 16, 2005 | Rick Weiss

Posted on 12/15/2005 10:05:07 PM PST by RWR8189

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."

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: biology; crevolist; dna; genetics; godsgravesglyphs; jacko; multiregionalism; neandertal; pigment; skin; skincolor; skinpigment
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 201-207 next last
To: Sofa King; Junior
Thanks for the ping. Alas, things are too far gone for me to deploy the ping list.
61 posted on 12/16/2005 3:51:16 AM PST by PatrickHenry (... endless horde of misguided luddites ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: PatrickHenry

Evolution Ping.


PS(I still think europeans have some Neanderthal genetics and that eventually it will be borne out)


62 posted on 12/16/2005 3:52:08 AM PST by Vaquero ("An armed society is a polite society" R. A. Heinlein)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vaquero; b_sharp; Ichneumon; longshadow; CarolinaGuitarman; Thatcherite; MineralMan; Coyoteman; ...

Thread's all wuked up, but I'll ping "the few" ...


63 posted on 12/16/2005 3:55:23 AM PST by PatrickHenry (... endless horde of misguided luddites ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: RWR8189
If these scientists want to be politically correct they should burn their findings, burn down their laboratory, and then burn up themselves and everyone they told about this.

Talking about race is evil evil evil! ;-)
64 posted on 12/16/2005 4:01:59 AM PST by cgbg (MSM and Democratic treason--fifty years and counting...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GeronL
Soon the Washington Post will join the human extinction movement.

Humanity is humanity's greatest source of strife according to many scientists. :-)
65 posted on 12/16/2005 4:03:45 AM PST by cgbg (MSM and Democratic treason--fifty years and counting...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Reactionary

Talk about misreading. The author was talking about "race" not "white skin."


66 posted on 12/16/2005 4:04:27 AM PST by Junior (From now on, I'll stick to science, and leave the hunting alien mutants to the experts!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: NotJustAnotherPrettyFace

Great juxtaposition. My immediate thought: this is what happens when man tries to play God.


67 posted on 12/16/2005 4:38:46 AM PST by MSSC6644
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: Junior
"Talk about misreading. The author was talking about "race" not "white skin."

Is that so? Well, perhaps you will show me where the word "race" is mentioned. It isn't.

68 posted on 12/16/2005 5:15:29 AM PST by Reactionary (The Stalinist Media is the Enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: GeronL
According to the Washington Post white skin is one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.

I think it was just a poorly worded way of saying that differentiation of humans by color is one of the sources of strife, not white skin per se.

We really need to save the outrage for the times when it is truly deserved. This is a non-starter.

69 posted on 12/16/2005 5:20:20 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (The best stuff happens just before the thread snaps.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: RWR8189

What surprises me is that the white-skinned mutant wasn't killed or left behind. OTOH, what if the white skin at the time was seen as a mark of some kind of spiritual favor, and was actually nurtured and protected by the community? What if everyone in the tribe wanted to have offspring with the "the glowing one"? Then, when all the little light-skinned babies started running around, they got scared and turned them all out, and they formed their own tribe?

See? I can play too!


70 posted on 12/16/2005 5:30:05 AM PST by SlowBoat407 (The best stuff happens just before the thread snaps.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RWR8189
Scientists have isolated a compound which replicates the effect of this gene.


71 posted on 12/16/2005 5:32:25 AM PST by sono (Every purple finger is a bullet in the chest of terrorism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: txflake
As a blonde, blue-eyed, light-skinned girl, I always wondered what the hell I was selected for for living on this planet.

It goes to show that you are an asset to FR.

72 posted on 12/16/2005 5:36:12 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (I never got a job from a person on a government program.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: RWR8189
So. On top of everything else, now I find out that I'm a mutant. Part of a whole race of blankety-blank X-Men.

Cool.

73 posted on 12/16/2005 5:55:55 AM PST by Constitutionalist Conservative (Have you visited http://c-pol.blogspot.com?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

I did not say they only hate Christian white people. They hate anyone who is not of their political bent but they hate White Christians - they target White Christians - the most with active discrimination and hate doctrines.

When they had the KKK assortment of majority preferences, they hated whites who opposed their racial doctrines and system of racial preferences. But they targeted their hate doctrines and divison schemes centrally at Black Americans. The Democrats' hatred of Condi can be compared to this. She is off the race reservation just as whites who opposed segregation (Republicans) were off the race reservation.


74 posted on 12/16/2005 6:03:01 AM PST by Galveston Grl (Getting angry and abandoning power to the Democrats is not a choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: CarrotAndStick

The man is a Caucasian, albeit dark. It's not the same as a black African.


75 posted on 12/16/2005 7:04:22 AM PST by furball4paws (The new elixir of life - dehydrated toad urine.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: furball4paws

Perhaps.

76 posted on 12/16/2005 7:10:24 AM PST by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: RWR8189
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.

This article is ridiculously racist.

77 posted on 12/16/2005 7:17:51 AM PST by B Knotts
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SlowBoat407

> what if the white skin at the time was seen as a mark of some kind of spiritual favor, and was actually nurtured and protected by the community?

Would hardly be surprising. While offspring that are clearly defective are often killed, exposed, left to die, sent down the river or whatever in primitive societies, individuals who are not physically defective but who are clearly *different* are oftentimes treasured. Schizophrenics and other mental disorders are often seen as being touched by the gods, for good or ill. So if a baby was born of a different color, it's possible that some spiritual advantage could be assumed.


78 posted on 12/16/2005 7:19:58 AM PST by orionblamblam (A furore Normannorum libra nos, Domine)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: Forte Runningrock

Some times its hard to tell the Koran from a D&D Monster manual.


79 posted on 12/16/2005 7:21:57 AM PST by King Moonracer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: sono

LOL!!!!!!!!


80 posted on 12/16/2005 7:27:30 AM PST by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 201-207 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson