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Study Explains Explains Why We're Not All Beautiful
Live Science ^ | 3-28-2007 | Andrea Thompson

Posted on 04/04/2007 1:06:34 PM PDT by blam

Study Explains Why We're Not All Beautiful

By Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 28 March 2007
09:47 am ET

A new study explains why we aren't all born with Brad Pitt’s perfectly chiseled features or Angelina Jolie’s pouty lips.

A long-standing thorn in the side of biologists has been the difficulty in accounting for the enormous variation between individuals when sexual selection by females for the most attractive mates should quickly spread the “best” genes through a population.

“It is a major problem for evolutionary biology,” said study team leader Marion Petrie of Newcastle University.

The lek paradox

For some species, females select the most attractive males to mate with: female peacocks will choose males with the longest tail feathers—the peacock version of George Clooney. These more attractive features usually indicate some other level of genetic fitness, such as disease resistance, that the female’s offspring will then also inherit.

According to this method of sexual selection, if females only bred with the most attractive males, then all males should be equally attractive and sexual selection could not take place. (In the peacocks’ case, all males would have similarly long tails.) But clearly this isn’t the case: for every Johnny Depp out there, there’s a George Costanza—in humans, birds and other animals alike.

This so-called “lek paradox” (a lek is a group of males congregated for mating) has plagued evolutionary biologists for decades.

“If you had no variation at all, you wouldn’t get evolution,” Petrie told LiveScience.

But a group of British scientists think they have found the answer to the paradox in the human body’s “DNA repair kits.”

DNA repair kits

A cell’s DNA repair kit is not really a kit but a set of molecular processes that routinely repair the damage

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: beauty; evolution; lek; paradox; selection; sex; study
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To: blam

21 posted on 04/04/2007 1:14:32 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: digger48

Not nice to post a picture of your GF on this thread, Dig. ;)


22 posted on 04/04/2007 1:14:36 PM PDT by derllak
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To: johnny7

Waxman is looking more and more like Yoda every day!


23 posted on 04/04/2007 1:15:22 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: digger48
Good God - that needs an antidote and fast...



There, that's better.
24 posted on 04/04/2007 1:15:25 PM PDT by reagan_fanatic (I have a big carbon footprint and I'm not afraid to use it.)
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To: blam
But clearly this isn’t the case: for every Johnny Depp out there, there’s a George Costanza—in humans, birds and other animals alike.

Well! There's your proplem. I think George Costanza is WAY sexier that prissy, scary, Johnny Depp.

It all comes down to individual brain wiring. I tend to select my mates by there testosterone, sweat and agression and not their pampered, soft-handed good looks.

25 posted on 04/04/2007 1:15:28 PM PDT by colorcountry (Remember: Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.)
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To: blam

26 posted on 04/04/2007 1:15:49 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: johnny7

If he has any offspring at all, it’s against all odds.


27 posted on 04/04/2007 1:15:52 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: dead

Dang, that nasty global warming sure did a number on his face.


28 posted on 04/04/2007 1:16:23 PM PDT by derllak
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To: SlowBoat407

“Ugly people don’t get the chance to reproduce as much........”

“Then why are there so damned many of them?

Because they find each other.”

No, they find BEER!!!!!!!


29 posted on 04/04/2007 1:16:53 PM PDT by henkster (When democrats talk of "the rich," they are referring to anyone with a private sector job.)
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To: blam

30 posted on 04/04/2007 1:17:05 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: blam

Well that study doesn’t apply to me, so I’ll skip this thread.


31 posted on 04/04/2007 1:18:27 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (When toilet paper is a luxury, you have achieved communism.)
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To: blam

We don’t all drink beer all day.

That would fix it...:)


32 posted on 04/04/2007 1:18:31 PM PDT by rlmorel (Liberals: If the Truth would help them, they would use it.)
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To: blam

The answer is easy.

We think we know why animals pick a mate.

But we really don’t.

We just think we do.

That’s probably the case for much of biology.

Shalom.


33 posted on 04/04/2007 1:18:39 PM PDT by ArGee (Reality - what a concept.)
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To: Alter Kaker

larger database?


34 posted on 04/04/2007 1:18:46 PM PDT by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: blam

35 posted on 04/04/2007 1:18:52 PM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: johnny7
Separated At Birth


36 posted on 04/04/2007 1:19:05 PM PDT by Tokra (I think I'll retire to Bedlam.)
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To: dead

lmao!


37 posted on 04/04/2007 1:19:31 PM PDT by sageb1 (This is the Final Crusade. There are only 2 sides. Pick one.)
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To: derllak

Doing my part for population control.


38 posted on 04/04/2007 1:19:35 PM PDT by digger48
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To: Red Badger
Ugly people don’t get the chance to reproduce as much........

Of course, that depends on what 'ugly' is. To many women, a guy not having a lot of money is 'ugly'. Some may even substitute the money for power/ influence/ intelligence.

39 posted on 04/04/2007 1:19:40 PM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: reagan_fanatic
Better take another dose of antidote.


40 posted on 04/04/2007 1:20:56 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (When toilet paper is a luxury, you have achieved communism.)
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