Re: Picts (the painted ones)

"mack54@xxxxxxxxxx" <mack54@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
news:1157026139.625083.25810@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

Ian O. wrote:
Boabby wrote:

SNIP
As far as the question of "race" is concerned, in the biological sense,
there aren't any as far as Homo sapiens is concerned. We are a
remarkably homogenous species. The discredited "races" with which we
might have grown up, such as "Caucasian", have been tossed into the
dustbin of history, thanks to the advance of science.

Ian, I've heard this before but always wondered why this was so. We
seem to have diseases, like sickle cell anaemia that strike black
people more than white. Albinism seems to strike more white people than
black.

If we're so homogenous, how does this happen?

Sickle cell anemia and a related condition thallasemia are
adapations to malaria. The gene that produces MD or MS ( I
forget which ) is apparently an adaptation to things like
cholera and/or typhus/typhoid. Having one copy of the gene in
question provides a certain enhanced resistance to the
disease. Malaria isn't found in northern europe to any degree
so the gene would confer no particular advantage and remain
at a low incidence if found there at all. Typhus or whatever
is a European disease and even small genetic advantages seem
to have helped. There was a discusiion of theis in talk.politics.
evolution some years ago including a fascinating sidebar on
why the mutation persisted rather than killing its hosts.

As to homogeneous, we differ far less in morphology than do
say dogs which are after all simply canis familiaris(sp)
whatever their size and/or shape.

IBM

IBM

.

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