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Intelligence genes discovered by scientists
Photo: AP The Telegraph ^ | 21 Dec 15 | Sarah Knapton

Posted on 12/22/2015 4:43:59 AM PST by SkyPilot

Imperial College London has found that two networks of genes determine whether people are intelligent or not so bright.

Genes which make people intelligent have been discovered and scientists believe they could be manipulated to boost brain power.

Researchers have believed for some time that intellect is inherited with studies suggesting that up to 75 per cent of IQ is genetic, and the rest down to environmental factors such as schooling and friendship groups.

But until now, nobody has been able to pin-point exactly which genes are responsible for better memory, attention, processing speed or reasoning skills. Now Imperial College London has found that two networks of genes determine whether people are intelligent or not-so-bright.

They liken the gene network to a football team. When all the players are in the right positions, the brain appears to function optimally, leading to clarity of thought and what we think of as quickness or cleverness.

However when the genes are mutated or in the wrong order, it can lead to dullness of thinking, or even serious cognitive impairments.

Scientists believe that there must be a 'master switch' regulating the networks and if they could find it, they could 'switch on' intelligence for everyone.

"We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant," said Dr Michael Johnson, lead author of the study from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College.

"This research highlights some of genes involved in human intelligence, and how they interact with each other."

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; genes; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; intelligence; iq; race; stringtheory; xplanets
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To: 6SJ7; AdmSmith; AFPhys; Arkinsaw; allmost; aristotleman; autumnraine; bajabaja; ...

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721 posted on 04/24/2007 8:14:42 PM PDT by DocRock
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41 posted on 12/22/2015 12:28:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
 
X-Planets
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42 posted on 12/22/2015 12:28:21 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; dayglored; ...
Thanks SkyPilot, extra to APoD.

43 posted on 12/22/2015 12:28:53 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Here's to the day the forensics people scrape what's left of Putin off the ceiling of his limo.)
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To: metmom
"Book Smart, Common Sense Dumb" A friend’s father called them *college educated idiots*.

Old joke from the WWII boot camp days:
Sgt. hands mop to recruit and says "Start mopping."
Recruit says, "But Sarge, I'm a college graduate!"
Sgt. says, "Oh, then let me show you how."

44 posted on 12/22/2015 12:51:35 PM PST by Oatka (ES)
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To: SkyPilot

manipulating” or “switching on” things
I think they are referring to what I call trying to make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. Just won’t work.


45 posted on 12/22/2015 12:54:50 PM PST by Recompennation
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To: SkyPilot

As for your last paragraph, I think it has more to do with Genesis 12:3.


46 posted on 12/22/2015 1:46:09 PM PST by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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To: SkyPilot

Worms.
Can.

Big ass!


47 posted on 12/22/2015 2:33:45 PM PST by djf ("It's not about being nice, it's about being competent!" - Donald Trump)
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To: SunkenCiv

Given the cul-de-sac most funded scientists have allowed themselves to be restricted, I’d be inclined to ask “how would YOU know what intelligence is?” :\


48 posted on 12/22/2015 3:29:38 PM PST by Avoiding_Sulla (You can't tell where we're going if you don't know where we've been before)
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To: libertylover

“I wonder if IQ tests perhaps measure problem solving of a particular sort and that perhaps the variations in results are really because people of different races solve problems in different ways.”

If those different ways are “well” and “poorly,” then you have a point.

Some races just have more dumb-asses and fewer geniuses than others.


49 posted on 12/22/2015 8:43:07 PM PST by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: SkyPilot

***** “75 per cent of IQ is genetic” *****

Son Nuclear Power-plant Operator
Daughter Linguistic Anthropologist, Historian, Author
Daughter Theoretical Mathematician, Statistical Mathematician

Me = salesman
So the Wife must have cheated on me a few times... gonna be an interesting conversation ;^)


50 posted on 12/22/2015 9:22:50 PM PST by TexasTransplant (Idiocracy used to just be a Movie... Live every day as your last...one day you will be right)
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To: Paradox; SkyPilot; wrench; bert; metmom; IronJack; Smokin' Joe; SunkenCiv; libertylover
SkyPilot: "My personal opinion is that the Jewish people (who definitely are a race) possess the highest intelligence.
At something like 0.2% of the world's population, they have won over 25% of all Nobel Prizes in Economics, Medicine, Chemistry, and Physics."

Paradox: "My modest 135 IQ, while nothing to sneer at overall, makes me a freakin Einstein among “my fellow hispanics”..."

libertylover: "I wonder if IQ tests perhaps measure problem solving of a particular sort and that perhaps the variations in results are really because people of different races solve problems in different ways."

First of all, nobody should expose their own IQ's in public, any more than you'd expose your private parts -- it's indecent.
Keep it properly clothed, then if you truly do have some IQ, people will quickly surmise that from your words and actions.

Second, in today's world, "average IQ" is a function of previous social structures.
In ancient lands ruled for millenniums by a small, capable aristocracy, where the vast majority of humans were mere beasts of burden -- valued far more for their brawn than brain -- among them you will find a few geniuses, but much lower average IQs.

Amongst other groups whose very survival depended on their mental agility, where stupidity was effectively a death sentence, there you will find the average IQs much higher.

And, of course, from all those lands most Americans are self-selected immigrants, selected for their ambition, courage and, yes, intelligence to improve their lives in a new land of opportunity.
So Americans generally score higher than their fellow countrymen who stayed home in their native lands.

Finally it's been noted that in the past 100+ years average IQs slowly increased, even amongst, or especially amongst, those groups which score lowest.

And that is a HUGE problem for Democrats, because any people eventually reach the point where they begin to grasp that Democrat political-economic diagnoses are false and their nostrums quack, intended only to maintain their class dependence on Democrat Big Government.
Such people begin to seek more uplifting ideas less committed to Democrat politics.

It's why Democrats constantly bombard us with not just high quality new immigrants, but more to their purposes, the worst of the worst, future Democrat voters.
Without them, Democrats as a national party would slowly fade away.

51 posted on 12/23/2015 5:30:32 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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To: BroJoeK

It also explains why liberals have taken control of the educational system, to keep hidden the paucity of their ideas and the tyrannical, deceitful methods by which they are advanced.


52 posted on 12/23/2015 6:00:06 AM PST by IronJack
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To: BroJoeK
First of all, nobody should expose their own IQ's in public, any more than you'd expose your private parts -- it's indecent.

When did I do that?

53 posted on 12/23/2015 6:42:10 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot
SkyPilot: "When did I do that?"

No, of course you didn't but, ahem, one of our posters here did, just as I quoted in #51 above.
Even then, it was only in service of a higher point, namely, that groups with lower average IQs still include some who are very bright indeed.

You might call that a paradox.
I'm only saying it's a function of thousands of years of social structures which either reward or punish brain over brawn.
In short: when jocks rule, you get more jocks and when nerds rule, you'll get more nerds.

Nothing mystical or supernatural about it.

54 posted on 12/23/2015 8:21:27 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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To: BroJoeK
No, of course you didn't but, ahem, one of our posters here did, just as I quoted in #51 above.

They why did you include me by name in your comment like that?

Even then, it was only in service of a higher point, namely, that groups with lower average IQs still include some who are very bright indeed.

No one is disputing that. That is why I posted a graph of the IQ Bell Curve - which points that out exactly.

I'm only saying it's a function of thousands of years of social structures which either reward or punish brain over brawn. In short: when jocks rule, you get more jocks and when nerds rule, you'll get more nerds.

People with higher intelligence are "nerds?" What is the scientific definition of a "nerd"? You throw out sweeping statements such as that, but you demand everyone else police themselves. Yours is a very strange post.

55 posted on 12/23/2015 8:48:15 AM PST by SkyPilot ("I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6)
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To: SkyPilot
SkyPilot: "They why did you include me by name in your comment like that?"

Because in my post #51 I quoted from your own post #8, hoping to make a point about average IQs amongst various human sub-groups, i.e., Jews & Hispanics.

SkyPilot: "People with higher intelligence are 'nerds?'
What is the scientific definition of a 'nerd'? "

Why-ever do you wish to debate the definition of "nerd"?
I simply used it as an informal term for "smart people", as opposed to more physically endowed "jocks".
What's to debate?

So I'll repeat one point I'm trying to make, in hopes you will accept it without taking further offense:

  1. For thousands of years, amongst some cultures being a "smart guy" is/was frowned on and penalized.
    As a result "smart guys" did not reproduce and pass along their genes as readily as those more culturally acceptable.
    Such groups have lower IQs, on average.

  2. In other cultures over those same millenniums, being mentally agile was the only way to survive, and dullards could not reproduce or pass along their genes.
    Those groups have higher IQs, on average.

So what, exactly, is your problem with this?

56 posted on 12/23/2015 10:52:29 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective...)
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To: SkyPilot

I’m pretty sure I got some good genes when it comes to intelligence.

But what I need is a rich gene. Because I’m constantly questioning, “if I’m so smart, how come I ain’t rich?”


57 posted on 12/23/2015 1:55:35 PM PST by DannyTN
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To: BroJoeK

Thanks for a thoughtful response. I still wonder though, since if you compare say, blacks to whites, blacks have or tend to have different noses, different lips, different hair, etc. so it seems possible, perhaps probable, that their brains work a little differently too.

I haven’t read “The Bell Curve” and I wonder if they tried to vary the testing methods in order to overcome what could be an unintended bias.


58 posted on 12/23/2015 7:13:42 PM PST by libertylover (The problem with Obama is not that his skin is too black, it's that his ideas are too RED.)
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To: SkyPilot; wrench; SunkenCiv; All

Jews have had a particularly bad time of it historically, and probably the more stupid ones have failed to survive, while the smart ones did. Africa had major towns and cities, but the people who were captured and sold as slaves were often taken from the forest and undeveloped areas. It is likely that the more enterprising even in those days might have gravitated to the cities or escaped into the forest. Thus those brought to the Americas may have not been the most intelligent. Survival in slavery was not usually a product of intelligence, but of physical strength and obedience to orders. Culturally, of course, Jews, Orientals and other Asians place a strong emphasis on education and diligent study. Also, it was not easy for these populations to flourish in this country decades ago.


59 posted on 12/24/2015 12:19:07 AM PST by gleeaikin
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To: metmom; SkyPilot; SunkenCiv; All

My younger son was severely dyslexic, but had a really fine people sense. Although he ended up being a high school dropout, he married a college graduate, has two fine children and manages his own business. I always told him not to worry about the reading and writing because he could always hire a secretary. He knew how to charm people and engender cooperation. He tells me his 8 year old has twice his social intelligence, gets very high grades and has no dyslexia, and is very cute. I look forward to seeing how he turns out.

I also think our education system does dyslexics a severe disservice. My brother was also severely dyslexic. Both did not begin to be able to read until the 5th grade. Perhaps it would make more sense to have such children learn more from dealing with other subjects than reading and writing (except in small doses), until they showed the readiness to learn reading and writing. They enjoyed making things and drawing among other activities.


60 posted on 12/24/2015 12:27:42 AM PST by gleeaikin
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