World History
I read with fascination a recent article from The Register titled All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor. As someone with blue eyes, it was nice to learn where my eyes came from in the first place. Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen is the person behind a team working on this discovery.
I am quit pleased to learn that I am closely related to all the blue-eyed people on the planet. It is also nice to know now that I am a mutant that originated from a small gene change 6-10 thousand years ago!
From the article:
The proof that all blue-eyed people have a common ancestor comes from the fact that whereas eye colours ranging from brown to green are caused by relatively large differences in the amount of melanin in the iris, controlled by "considerable individual variation" in the area of the DNA responsible for melanin production, the variation in iris melanin levels across all blue-eyed individuals is very small.
Eiberg elaborated: ?From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.?
Eiberg noted that the blue eyes mutation is neither "positive nor negative", since it doesn't affect chances of survival. He concluded: "It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.?
- Human Evolution Speeding Up?
Ralph E. Schmid at Time has an article titled Human Evolution Speeding Up? In it he wrote, "People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another, researchers say."...
- 100 Years Ago In Scientific American - The Riddle Of Mars
Recent findings of ancient seas and the very likely possibility that there is still water on Mars has continued the debate that there may be life on Mars. But my, how a hundred years has changed the discussion! In 1907, Scientific American published...
- Quizlet
While I prefer Study Blue, as it allows one to add pictures and audio, it does not allow one to search and use other people's flash cards unless you have an account. For schools that adhere to FERPA and COPPA closely this is not possible. So...
- Take My Integrating Technology Into The Classroom Class
Starting tomorrow (August 28th at 4 pm), if you work in Fairfax County, VA you can sign up to take my course called "Enhancing the Use of Technology In The Classroom." It will be 10 weeks and give you 2 credits and will be offered on Thursdays...
- Big Blue Button And Teaching/meeting Online
My county uses Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate) for our online classes (and will soon be letting teachers use it for their own purposes). But you can use Big Blue Button for free to teach your students (as I tell my students it could...
World History
All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor
I read with fascination a recent article from The Register titled All blue-eyed people share one common ancestor. As someone with blue eyes, it was nice to learn where my eyes came from in the first place. Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen is the person behind a team working on this discovery.I am quit pleased to learn that I am closely related to all the blue-eyed people on the planet. It is also nice to know now that I am a mutant that originated from a small gene change 6-10 thousand years ago!
From the article:
The proof that all blue-eyed people have a common ancestor comes from the fact that whereas eye colours ranging from brown to green are caused by relatively large differences in the amount of melanin in the iris, controlled by "considerable individual variation" in the area of the DNA responsible for melanin production, the variation in iris melanin levels across all blue-eyed individuals is very small.
Eiberg elaborated: ?From this we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor. They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA.?
Eiberg noted that the blue eyes mutation is neither "positive nor negative", since it doesn't affect chances of survival. He concluded: "It simply shows that nature is constantly shuffling the human genome, creating a genetic cocktail of human chromosomes and trying out different changes as it does so.?
- Human Evolution Speeding Up?
Ralph E. Schmid at Time has an article titled Human Evolution Speeding Up? In it he wrote, "People are evolving more rapidly than in the distant past, with residents of various continents becoming increasingly different from one another, researchers say."...
- 100 Years Ago In Scientific American - The Riddle Of Mars
Recent findings of ancient seas and the very likely possibility that there is still water on Mars has continued the debate that there may be life on Mars. But my, how a hundred years has changed the discussion! In 1907, Scientific American published...
- Quizlet
While I prefer Study Blue, as it allows one to add pictures and audio, it does not allow one to search and use other people's flash cards unless you have an account. For schools that adhere to FERPA and COPPA closely this is not possible. So...
- Take My Integrating Technology Into The Classroom Class
Starting tomorrow (August 28th at 4 pm), if you work in Fairfax County, VA you can sign up to take my course called "Enhancing the Use of Technology In The Classroom." It will be 10 weeks and give you 2 credits and will be offered on Thursdays...
- Big Blue Button And Teaching/meeting Online
My county uses Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate) for our online classes (and will soon be letting teachers use it for their own purposes). But you can use Big Blue Button for free to teach your students (as I tell my students it could...