Get ready to learn more about mitochondrial genetics than any other high school students in the US. Get ready to apply the concepts you’ve learned about mitochondrial function; to understand the relationships between molecules, organelles, cells, tissues and organisms. Get ready to apply your knowledge of the Central Dogma of Molecular biology learn more about the structure and function of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Get ready to learn how to interpret pedigrees and then construct patient pedigrees based on a family history. Get ready to use molecular biology techniques like restriction digests and gel electrophoresis to look for a point mutation in mitochondrial DNA. Get ready to put all the peices of evidence together to make a claim about mitochondrial diseases. (Oh yeah, and get ready for the cameras in 9th period.) (One more thing, I’ll have slides and protocols available in class.)

Monday (11/30): Pedigrees and Mitochondrial Genetics, Lab Day 1

Tuesday (12/1): Mitochondrial Diseases, and molecular diagnostics, Lab day 2

Wednesday (12/2): Diagnosis of a mitochondrial disease by gel analysis and pedigree construction (Lab due on Thursday 12/10/09)

Thursday (12/3): Begin Review for Semester Exam

Friday (12/4): Genetics Quiz (4o MCQ)

FINAL EXAM: WEDNESDAY, 12/9/09 (100 MCQ; 2 x 10 FRQ)

These are fluorescent images of E. coli bacterial cells with visualized RNA. The bar denotes 2 microns. (Credit: Image courtesy of Natalia E. Broude, Ph.D. / Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University)

Scientists who study RNA have faced a formidable roadblock: trying to examine RNA’s movements in a living cell when they can’t see the RNA. Now, a new technology has given scientists the first look ever at RNA in a live bacteria cell — a sight that could offer new information about how the molecule moves and works.

Interest in RNA, which plays a key role in manufacturing proteins, has increased in recent years, due in large part to its potential in new drug therapies. RNA localization and movement in bacterial cell are poorly understood. The problem has been finding a way to mark RNA in a living cell so that scientists can track it, says Natasha Broude, a research associate professor at Boston University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

“You can label any protein within the cell and watch what it is doing,” says Broude, a senior researcher on the new study, published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “For RNA it was much more difficult because RNA is more mobile and less stable than both proteins and DNA.”

Before now, scientists used green fluorescent protein (GFP) to label RNA in a cell. But proteins were also tagged with GFP and their fluorescence was so bright, it drowned out the glow from the RNA. “The initial idea was to do something to allow us to decrease background fluorescence,” Broude says.

In 2007, Broude and her colleagues developed a system to persuade a cell to synthesize protein in two fragments rather than a whole, which made the protein inactive. They then modified an RNA molecule, adding a small tail of RNA sequence that works like a handle, grabbing the fragments and pulling them together, which makes the protein active — and glow bright green. The scientists can then follow the RNA as it moves through the cell.

“In our case, the protein becomes fluorescent because it binds to RNA,” Broude says. “If there is no RNA, we don’t see this protein.”

In this new work, the team modified this system to allow for the controlled synthesis of RNA — allowing the researchers to track RNA as soon as it appears in the cell. For the study, they used live Eschericha coli cells, the simplest bacteria model, and a nonfunctional RNA. To monitor the RNA and capture images as it moved through the cell, the team used a sophisticated microscope and detection system developed by colleague Amit Meller, a co-author of the study and associate professor of biological engineering at Boston University. Meller’s system made it possible to watch RNA in whole cells with high resolution. Their observations are not only the first of their kind, they also contradict previously held theories about RNA localization, which held that RNA was evenly distributed throughout the cell.

“The first thing we saw is that RNA is localized along mostly the periphery of the cell,” Broude says. One possibility for this could be that the middle of the bacterial cell, which is occupied by DNA, is less accessible to the RNA.

The researchers also noted that the RNA appeared to form helical structures resembling those seen in proteins involved in producing the cell’s cytoskeleton, which is involved in DNA replication, cell division and other important processes. “They are necessary structural elements which rule all changes in bacterial life,” Broude says. “But we need to learn more before we can say anything about the RNA helical structure’s function.”

With this new technology in place, Broude and her colleagues can learn more about the RNA network they’ve observed, examine the localization and movement of other types of RNA in live bacterial cells and, ultimately, mammalian cells.

Other study authors included Maria Valencia-Burton, research associate in biomedical engineering, Ankita Shah, undergraduate student, Jason Sutin, graduate student, Azra Borogovac, undergraduate student, and Charles Cantor, professor and director of biomedical engineering, all at Boston University, and Ron McCullough with Sequenom, Inc.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Boston University.

1. Maria Valencia-Burton, Ankita Shah, Jason Sutin, Azra Borogovac, Ron M. McCullough, Charles R. Cantor, Amit Meller, and Natalia E. Broude. Spatiotemporal patterns and transcription kinetics of induced RNA in single bacterial cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2009; 106 (38): 16399 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0907495106

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091022134448.htm

In 2012, everyone is just waiting for some apocalyptic event to occur, wiping out everything on the surface of the Earth. Luckily, Global Crop Diversity Trust has come up with an insurance policy that will save copies of many of the plants that grow on the planet.

The company seems to be all about crop and plant diversity. For that, they have created the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (known as the “Doomsday Vault” in media circles). The seed vault provides the assurance of safety for crop diversity, and should withstand many disasters, both natural and man-made.

The Vault holds over 420,000 seed samples, and pertinent information about them is viewable here.

Did I mention that the vault construction was funded entirely by the Norwegian government, as a service to the world? All 45 million Kroner (9 million dollars). How considerate and thoughtful of them, why do we not have more governments like that?

Plant diversity, which I plan to talk about in a future post, is essential for maintaining our ability to grow crops, and like they said in the video, people do not care about it. This venture, while appearing unnecessary to some people, is huge on foresight, taking the concept of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” to heart. I think I’m going to book a flight to Norway on my next trip to Europe, just to check in on the world’s insurance policy.

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National Geographic promulgates a similar theory to the one discussed here earlier.  Similar to the Klar hypothesis, it relies on epigenetic effects during development to regulate hormone expression (and from there brain development).  It is more simplistic than the Klar hypothesis, arguing that lowered testosterone production causes the an inadequate masculinity of the gay brain, with no accounting for the other features correllated with male homosexuality, namely left-handedness and counter-clockwise hair whorls*, that would be unaffected by fetal testosterone levels.  In that respect I still prefer the Klar hypothesis, but there is some more circumstantial evidence to the insufficient masculinization hypothesis.  For example, gay males tend to be more similar straight females in terms of spacial reasoning and other tasks.

Also, both hypotheses are compatible with the Feynay effect, as the hormonal or immuno-response alterations caused by previous male residents in the mother’s womb would in both cases serve as the catalyst for whatever epigenetic changes occur.  If we could figure out the mechanism behind the Feynay effect, it would be a huge leap forward in developmental biology and genetics, as it will likely expose a whole host of areas where the external environment of the uterus shapes the fetus inside, irrespective (to a degree) of their genetic code.  Maybe we aren’t heading towards a GATTACA dystopia after all.

*Of note: the probabilities relayed in the video concerning fraternal/identical twins and homosexuality are identical to those observed with left-handedness and hair whorls and to the predictions of the Klar model.

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Growing a self (with matter) in a body in the world is an infant-child’s sole job in childhood.  Our early caregivers either help us or they harm us in our efforts.

For someone as abused as I was from birth and throughout their childhood, with without a safe and a secure attachment to any early caregiver that would allow them to develop their self in connection to their body in the world, feeling as if one MATTERS or even is a self WITH MATTER is extremely hard to do.

Everyone is born with a spark of life that is uniquely theirs and nobody else’s.  Parents are not supposed to work to destroy that spark.  They are supposed to recognize it in the body (and as the body) of the little one under their care.  They are supposed to recognize the growing self of their infant-child as being separate from their own self, so they can fan the spark and feed it fuel to grow on.

Parents who have serious unresolved trauma complications of their own often cannot do their job.  In my mother’s case, she never recognized ME as a separate being from herself at all.  She overwhelmed me, threatened my spark of life, and my growing and developing body-SELF from the moment I was born and for the next 18 years of my childhood.

Only no matter how hard she tried she could never destroy the spark of life that was-is me.  She heaped every possible obstacle in the way of ME growing my SELF in my body in the world that she could.

I see in my mind the terrible image of an un-jolly giant wielding a gargantuan sledge hammer (like in a tragic cartoon), smashing it down on top of me every chance she got.  In this image I am no bigger than a tiny ant.  As much as it was possible for me to do, my growing self had to stay hiding in order to stay alive at all.

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When early caregivers are not available to recognize and nurture and reflect an infant-child’s spark of life self back to it, that little self can seem to all but disappear over time.

I was never allowed to have happy genuine time to grow my self or to even be my self from birth (except in hiding).  The ugly giant with her weapons of destruction was always present or near5 by.  Any time she caught me out in the open being my self in play, exploration or in a state of mistaken safety, she would attack me again.

I see another image in my mind that reminds me of the Phantom of the Opera, because this image is of a stage.  I was only allowed to be like a shadow on the stage of my family’s play.  My mother completely controlled and directed the show.  Mostly I was ‘in trouble’ and being punished somewhere off stage.  I was banished and forbidden to be a part of the ongoing play.

I was left alone in misery because that’s where my mother wanted me (short of dead, which she dared not accomplish).  I could only appear in some version of her dramas such as “It’s a fun family holiday” or “This is Linda in the classroom.”

Mostly I remained either hidden, or under attack.

The REAL me was able to remain hidden back stage and could only sneak around like a phantom where she couldn’t detect me.  Over time, as I aged, I learned to appear on stage in different roles, both as an older child and later as an adult.  But my self-in-hiding could not become integrated within the body that appeared in all of its roles.

Only I didn’t know this was happening.  I have seen in my adult journals how lost I was to myself.  As I’ve mentioned before, my being lost in the world appeared in an unending sequence of patterns of questions that I could never find the answers for no matter how hard I searched or tried.

I have only been able to see the parts of myself that are reflected in my actions performed either around other people, or in my actions I perform when I am alone.  I so rarely have any sense that my WHOLE SELF exists at all that doubt I even have one.  I’ve always had a sense that most of who I am remains somewhere in hiding.

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Some would say that loving my ‘inner child’ would give her permission to come out of hiding.  I do not attach an age to the self.  A self moves forward in time just as a body does.  Neither exist ‘back there’ somewhere, suspended in the past.

From my perspective as I write this, I would think that the WHOLE of me simply knows things, as do its ‘parts’.  This self of me was forced to make decisions about how to remain alive in a dangerous world every step forward through my childhood from birth.

Every time my growing and developing self was attacked, my body-self was forced at the same time to make a decision about how best to adapt its growth and development so I could survive in a malevolent world.  Those decisions were made automatically in my body on the cellular, molecular level – including the epigenetic processes that used all the available options possible to tell my DNA how to ensure my survival in a chaotic and dangerous world.

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As   strange as it might seem as I write this, I believe by body-brain continued to develop throughout my entire childhood without the ‘usual’ connections to the ongoing presence of a continuous self within it.  Any time I was attacked by my mother and a survival-based decision had to be made in my tiny body about how to stay alive, my growing body went one way and my spark-of-life-self went a different way.

I was supposed to be growing an intimate, inseparable connection between my self and my body.  My mother’s attacks on me were so threatening and continual that this connection could not be formed – physiologically – in any ordinary way.

My ongoing responses to attacks during my early growth and developmental stages changed not only how my body-brain developed, and changed this connection between my self and my body, it also changed how I experienced my self in a body in the world.  Both my growing body and self had to include these changes on a structural and operational level.  There was no magic.  There was no possible alternative.

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These patterns of interruption between my growing self and body happened so many times that they cannot be counted.  Two examples that I’ve written earlier come immediately to mind.

One happened when I was two:  *AGE 2 – CINDY BORN – 1953

The other happened when I was three:  *Age 3 – THE TOILET BOWL

I already suffered from an extremely disorganized, disoriented insecure attachment to my ‘caregiving’ mother, to the world around me, and most importantly to my developing body-self connection well before these experiences happened to me.  I believe my mother had already overwhelmed my ability to have any ongoing self experience of having an experience an uncountable number of times well before I reached the age of two.  Without safe, secure and stable early caregiving interactions a safe, secure and stable connection between a growing self and a growing body cannot possibly be made.

After my mother dragged me out of the safety of my grandmother’s bed on the day a month and a half before my second birthday, my mother’s version of this incident was added to her abuse litany of me as proof that I wanted to be an only child, that I loved my grandmother more than I loved her, that I was able to deceive my grandmother by hiding my true, terrible self from her, and that I wanted my grandmother to be my mother and not her.

I first remembered this incident from my vantage point of being a very small toddler floating above my body which I could see in lying at the head in the middle of the expanse of my grandmother’s bed.  I can also remember this experience from within my body on the bed and see the ‘other me’ up there above me looking down.  Only by closing my eyes in my remembering process or by not looking up at all can I make ‘that one’ go away.

I can float around my grandmother’s entire house in that little body.  I can float over the heads of the two screaming women.  I can float over to the window and touch the lace of the curtains.  I can float through the open walk-in closet door, out the bedroom door, down the long curving hallway, into the massive kitchen, into the dusky living room.  I can experience the whole nasty, terrifying event from within the little physical body on the bed, but I cannot bring these two states of experiencing the experience together into one.

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When it comes to the toilet bowl incident that happened a month and a half before my fourth birthday, I cannot experience both sides of my memory’s experience.  This ‘event’ was added to my mother’s ongoing abuse litany as proof that I was a murderer who wanted my little sister dead, and that I tried to kill her.

I can remember being in my small battered body as it crumpled against the cold hard surface of the side of the bathtub where my mother threw me after she had exhausted herself in beating me.  What I experienced next I cannot put back together.

As my mother turned to storm out of the bathroom I turned my eyes upward to the window high on the wall across from my sobbing, shaking body.  I can return to this memory in my body.  I remember feeling some part of me rise out of my body and float up toward that window and out of it into the radiant blue sky.  In this memory my awareness remains in my tortured body as the other part of me left my body-self behind.

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These are remembered patterns of who-what separates from who-what.  I believe that because I was older and further down the body-brain-self developmental pathway when the toilet bowl attack happened that the separation between my body and self that happened then has continued as a pattern of my being in the world ever since.  What happened that day was an inner rupture without repair.

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As I sit here writing at this moment, thinking about what I might be willing or able to say about the part of my self that drifted up out of my body, aimed itself at the window, found its way to escape and floated away, I am having a rather ‘Disney Moment.’

Those of you who watched the movie, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, can probably remember the final scenes as the wall disappears and a magical world of animation opens up into motion, light, music and color.  At this moment I can sense a similar scene going on behind my shoulders as I write these words.  Thousands of brilliantly colored butterflies dance in the sunlight behind me, each one being a fragment of my experience of myself in my life.

Yet I also know that if I could enter that scene, and travel more deeply within it, that the light would dim, the sounds would change, the butterflies would not be dancing………there I will not go.

This sense I am having of this other world is eerie and makes the hairs on the back of my neck begin to crawl.  I turn around and look behind my back.  There is nothing there but my kitchen wall.  It helps to see a framed picture of Johnny Depp in his pirate guise hanging there.  Seeing it there, I smile.

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For those of you who might be curious, this is the link to the latest ‘counseling’ report I asked for from astrologer Zane:

*Age 58 – Astrology reading about life and death

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Please feel free to comment directly at the end of this post or on

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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Computer rendering of E. coli bacteria. A newly developed E. coli strain is capable of efficiently producing unnatural polymers, through a one-step fermentation process. (Credit: iStockphoto/Sebastian Kaulitzki)

A team of pioneering South Korean scientists have succeeded in producing the polymers used for everyday plastics through bioengineering, rather than through the use of fossil fuel based chemicals. This groundbreaking research, which may now allow for the production of environmentally conscious plastics, is published in two papers in the journal Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Polymers are molecules found in everyday life in the form of plastics and rubbers. The team, from the KAIST University and the Korean chemical company LG Chem, led by Professor Sang Yup Lee focused their research on polylactic acid (PLA), a bio-based polymer which holds the key to producing plastics through natural and renewable resources.

“The polyesters and other polymers we use everyday are mostly derived from fossil oils made through the refinery or chemical process,” said Lee. “The idea of producing polymers from renewable biomass has attracted much attention due to the increasing concerns of environmental problems and the limited nature of fossil resources. PLA is considered a good alternative to petroleum based plastics as it is both biodegradable and has a low toxicity to humans.”

Until now PLA has been produced in a two-step fermentation and chemical process of polymerization, which is both complex and expensive. Now, through the use of a metabolically engineered strain of E.coli, the team has developed a one-stage process which produces polylactic acid and its copolymers through direct fermentation. This makes the renewable production of PLA and lactate-containing copolymers cheaper and more commercially viable.

“By developing a strategy which combines metabolic engineering and enzyme engineering, we’ve developed an efficient bio-based one-step production process for PLA and its copolymers,” said Lee. “This means that a developed E. coli strain is now capable of efficiently producing unnatural polymers, through a one-step fermentation process,”

This combined approach of systems-level metabolic engineering and enzyme engineering now allows for the production of polymer and polyester based products through direct microbial fermentation of renewable resources.

“Global warming and other environmental problems are urging us to develop sustainable processes based on renewable resources,” concluded Lee. “This new strategy should be generally useful for developing other engineered organisms capable of producing various unnatural polymers by direct fermentation from renewable resources”.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

1. Taek Ho Yang, Tae Wan Kim, Hye Ok Kang, Sang-Hyun Lee, Eun Jeong Lee, Sung-Chul Lim, Sun Ok Oh, Ae-Jin Song, Si Jae Park, Sang Yup Lee. Biosynthesis of polylactic acid and its copolymers using evolved propionate CoA transferase and PHA synthase. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2010; 105 (1): 150 DOI: 10.1002/bit.22547
2. Yu Kyung Jung, Tae Yong Kim, Si Jae Park, Sang Yup Lee. Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of polylactic acid and its copolymers. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 2010; 105 (1): 161 DOI: 10.1002/bit.22548

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123083702.htm

A premature baby (28 weeks) raise up his hand to the nurse in the NICU. New research offers real hope for a better treatment for babies born with immature lungs. (Credit: iStockphoto/Christian Michael Tan)

Dr. Bernard Thébaud lives in two very different worlds. As a specialist in the Stollery Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, he cares for tiny babies, many of whom struggle for breath after being born weeks before they are due. Across town, in his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Thébaud dons a lab coat and peers into a microscope to examine the precise effect of stem cells on the lungs.

Now, with his scientific research being published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Dr. Thébaud has made a significant leap to bridge the gap between those two worlds.

An international team of scientists led by Dr. Thébaud has demonstrated for the first time that stem cells protect and repair the lungs of newborn rats. “The really exciting thing that we discovered was that stem cells are like little factories, pumping out healing factors,” says Dr. Thébaud, an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Clinical Scholar. “That healing liquid seems to boost the power of the healthy lung cells and helps them to repair the lungs.”

In this study, Thébaud’s team simulated the conditions of prematurity — giving the newborn rats oxygen. The scientists then took stem cells, derived from bone marrow, and injected them into the rats’ airways. Two weeks later, the rats treated with stem cells were able to run twice as far, and had better survival rates. When Thébaud’s team looked at the lungs, they found the stem cells had repaired the lungs, and prevented further damage.

“I want to congratulate Dr. Thébaud and his team. This research offers real hope for a new treatment for babies with chronic lung disease,” says Dr. Roberta Ballard, professor of pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco. “In a few short years, I anticipate we will be able to take these findings and begin clinical trials with premature babies.”

“The dilemma we face with these tiny babies is a serious one. When they are born too early, they simply cannot breathe on their own. To save the babies’ lives, we put them on a ventilator and give them oxygen, leaving many of them with chronic lung disease,” says Dr. Thébaud. “Before the next decade is out I want to put a stop to this devastating disease.”

The research team includes physicians and scientists from Edmonton, Alberta, Tours, France, Chicago, Illinois, and Montreal, Quebec.

The team is now investigating the long-term safety of using stem cells as a lung therapy. The scientists are examining rats at 3 months, and 6 months after treatment, studying the lungs, and checking their organs to rule out any risk of cancer. Dr. Thébaud’s team is also exploring whether human cord blood is a better option than bone marrow stem cells in treating lung disease.

“We are also studying closely the healing liquid produced by the stem cells,” says Dr. Thébaud. “If that liquid can be used on its own to grow and repair the lungs, that might make the injection of stem cells unnecessary.”

Dr. Thébaud is a neonatal specialist for Alberta Health Services, and a Canada Research Chair in Translational Lung and Vascular Development Biology. His research is supported by the AHFMR, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Stem Cell Network and the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.

Background:

Alberta has the highest rate of premature births in Canada with a rate of 9.2% compared to the rest of Canada at 7.8%.

Babies who are born extremely premature — before 28 weeks — cannot breathe on their own. In order to help the babies’ lungs to develop, neonatal doctors give them oxygen and drugs to help them breathe.

These treatments contribute to a chronic lung disease known as Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). At present there is no treatment to heal the lungs of these premature babies.

50% of babies born before 28 weeks will get chronic lung disease. Case studies have shown that as these babies grow up, they continue to struggle with lung disease, coping with reduced lung function and early aging of their lungs.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

1. van Haaften et al. Airway Delivery of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Prevents Arrested Alveolar Growth in Neonatal Lung Injury in Rats. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2009; 180 (11): 1131 DOI: 10.1164/rccm.200902-0179OC

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091126124140.htm

DNA on abstract background. Researchers have published the first genetic historical map of the Han Chinese, the largest ethnic population in the world, as they migrated from south to north over evolutionary time. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andrey Prokhorov)

The first genetic historical map of the Han Chinese, the largest ethnic population in the world, as they migrated from south to north over evolutionary time, was published online November 25 in the American Journal of Human Genetics by scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS).

Based on genome-wide DNA variation information in over 6,000 Han Chinese samples from 10 provinces in China, this new map provides information about the population structure and evolutionary history of this group of people that can help scientists to identify subtle differences in the genetic diversity of Asian populations.

Understanding these differences may aid in the design and interpretation of studies to identify genes that confer susceptibility to such common diseases as diabetes in ethnic Chinese individuals. Understanding these differences also is crucial in exploring how genes and environment interact to cause diseases.

With the genetic map, the GIS scientists were able to show that the northern inhabitants of China were genetically distinguishable from those in the south, a finding that seems very consistent with the Han Chinese’s historical migration pattern.

The genetic map also revealed that the genetic divergence was closely correlated with the geographic map of China. This finding suggests the persistence of local co-ancestry in the country.

“The genome-wide genetic variation study is a powerful tool which may be used to infer a person’s ancestral origin and to study population relationships,” said Liu Jianjun, Ph.D., GIS Human Genetics Group Leader.

“For example, an ethnic Chinese born and bred in Singapore can still be traced back to his or her ancestral roots in China,” Dr. Liu said. “By investigating the genome-wide DNA variation, we can determine whether an anonymous person is a Chinese, what the ancestral origin of this person in China may be, and sometimes which dialect group of the Han Chinese this person may belong to.

“More importantly, our study provides information for a better design of genetic studies in the search for genes that confer susceptibility to various diseases,” he added.

Of particular interest to people in Singapore are the findings that while the majority of Singaporean Chinese hail from Southern China as expected, some have a more northern ancestral origin.

GIS Executive Director Edison Liu, M.D., said, “Genome association studies have provided significant insights into the genes involved in common disorders such as diabetes, high cholesterol, allergies, and neurological disorders, but most of this work has been done on Caucasian populations.

“More recently, Dr. Liu Jianjun from our institute has been working with his Chinese colleagues to define the genetic causes of some of these diseases in Asian populations,” the GIS Executive Director added. “This work refined those tools so that the results will not be obscured by subtle differences in the genetic diversity of Asian populations. In the process, Dr. Liu has reconstructed a genetic historical map of the Chinese people as they migrated from south to north over evolutionary time.”

“There are definite differences in genetic architecture between populations,” noted Chia Kee Seng, M.D., Head, Department of Epidemiology & Public Health, National University of Singapore (NUS), and Director, NUS-GIS Centre for Molecular Epidemiology.

“We have seen this in the Singapore Genome Variation Project, a Joint NUH-GIS effort. Understanding these differences is crucial in exploring how genes and environment interact to cause diseases,” he added.

The research results published in American Journal of Human Genetics is part of a larger ongoing project on the genome-wide association study of diseases among the Chinese population. The project is a collaboration between GIS and several institutions and universities in China.

In Jan. 2009, Nature Genetics published the findings of researchers at the GIS and Anhui Medical University, China, on psoriasis, a common chronic skin disease. In that study, led by Dr. Liu Jianjun at the GIS and Dr. Zhang Xuejun at the Anhui Medical University, the scientists discovered a genetic variant that provides protection against the development of psoriasis. The collaboration’s recent discovery of over a dozen genetic risk variants for systematic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in the Chinese population was published in Nature Genetics in Oct. 2009.

Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore.

1. Jieming Chen et al. Genetic Structure of the Han Chinese Population Revealed by Genome-wide SNP Variation. American Journal of Human Genetics, November 25, 2009

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125134705.htm

South Korean scientists tinkering with fluorescence protein genes say they have bred white  Turkish Angora cats to glow red under ultraviolet light.

I WANT ONE!

]]> http://theimmoralist.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/lighter-sentence-for-murder-with-bad-brains-and-genes/ Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:14:59 +0000 theimmoralist http://theimmoralist.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/lighter-sentence-for-murder-with-bad-brains-and-genes/

Published online 30 October 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1050

News

Lighter sentence for murderer with ‘bad genes’
Italian court reduces jail term after tests identify genes linked to violent behaviour.

Emiliano Feresin

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An Italian court has cut the sentence given to a convicted murderer by a year because he has genes linked to violent behaviour — the first time that behavioural genetics has affected a sentence passed by a European court. But researchers contacted by Nature have questioned whether the decision was based on sound science.

The interesting thing about the sentence is that not only genetics was used but the clue that induced the lawyers to ask for genetic diagnosis came from fMRI scans indicating abnormalities in brain-imaging . this is neuroethics at work…

‘Simple’ bacterium shows surprising complexity – life – 26 November 2009 – New Scientist

The inner workings of a supposedly simple bacterial cell have turned out to be much more sophisticated than expected.

An in-depth “blueprint” of an apparently minimalist species has revealed details that challenge preconceptions about how genes operate. It also brings closer the day when it may be possible to create artificial life.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes a form of pneumonia in people, has just 689 genes, compared with 25,000 in humans and 4000 or more in most other bacteria. Now a study of its inner workings has revealed that the bacterium has uncanny flexibility and sophistication, allowing it to react fast to changes in its diet and environment.

“There were a lot of surprises,” says Peer Bork, joint head of the structural and computational biology unit at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. “Although it’s a very tiny genome, it’s much more complicated than we thought.”

We reviewed the article about identical /ai’denticl/ twins and checked homework questions. I like the way you can find specific sentences in the text to justify your choice for each question. That’s a great way of double checking whether you’ve chosen the best answer (assuming you’ve read and understood the question properly, that is! ).

In terms of topic, isn’t it absolutely fascinating what scientists have discovered? Well, in a nutshell, they say that our genetic make up is not only reponsible for how we look but also how we behave! I never knew! I’ve certainly learned something new.

Afterwards, and as a general question, I asked whether you wanted to have children in the future. Most of you said you’d like to have more than one.

Language: focus on a variety of future forms.

Speaking skills: expressing your views

Writing skills: a letter to a friend. So, essentially the register and style needs to be informal and if you remember, we changed so rather unnatural formal expressions in a letter from one friend to another into appropriate informal synonyms.

Which ones can you remember?
(See FCE boards page to check)

Homework: is writing a letter page

We reviewed the article about identical /ai’denticl/ twins (page10-11) and checked questions in ex3 which had been set for homework last week.

I like the way you are able to find specific sentences in the text to justify your choice for each question. That’s a great way of double checking whether you’ve chosen the best answer (assuming you’ve read and understood the question properly, that is! ).

In terms of the topic, isn’t it absolutely fascinating what scientists have discovered? Well, in a nutshell, they say that our genetic make up is not only reponsible for how we look but also how we behave! I never knew! I’ve certainly learned something new by reading this.

Afterwards, and as a general question, I asked whether you wanted to have children in the future. Most of you said you’d like to have more than one.

Language: focus on a variety of future forms (page12-13) including the future continuous and future perfect (see FCE boards for examples and timelines).

Speaking skills (pg13 ex3): you were involved in expressing your views on issues related to the future using expressions like:

“In my opinion…”

“From my point of view…:”

“I think…..”

Remember it is INCORRECT to say “according to me…” but it’s perfectly correct to say “according to him/her/them/you…”  

Writing skills (pg 18): a letter to a friend, which means that essentially the register and style needs to be informal. Do you remember ex2 where we changed rather unnatural formal expressions in the letter from one friend to another into appropriate informal synonyms.

Which ones can you remember?
(See FCE boards page to check)

Homework (pgs 18-19): is working through the rest of the exercises, ie 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 which is writing a letter yourself.   Happy writing!

Dr. Elina Chernyak in Vail, Colorado recently released an article explaining that rather than our heath depending on our genes, our health depends on what we do to our genes. Genetotrophic disease is the result of an imperfect expression of certain genes created by insufficient amounts of particular nutrients.

Although we may seem pretty similar to each other, each human body differs greatly on a biochemical level.  Our diversified genetic potentials are a result of the impact of nutrients on the expression of our genetic characteristics.  “Exposure to various nutritional and environmental factors alters the expression of our genes, producing what we call the phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an individual.”

Everything we eat, micronutrients, proteins, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals all have an impact on our genes. For example, lipoic acid, N-acetyl-cysteine, vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 are known to have an impact on the modulation of gene expression. We can improve a person’s immune system “by designing an appropriate diet for an individual based on his or her genetic needs, and by reducing antigens to which the person is sensitive (such as gluten in wheat or casein in dairy products).”

Physicians of functional medicine can use certain biological markers to evaluate a dysfunctional metabolism, “providing insight into where gene expression is increasing the risk or likelihood of various diseases, including heart disease, arthritis, and cancer.” “In the true spirit of preventative medicine, we can modify nutritional and environmental exposures today in order to help avoid potentially bigger and harder to solve problems in the future.”

Medical research such as this is taking us another step forward in bridging the gap between traditional and holistic medicine with additional elements such as nutritional supplements.

3103661    พันธุศาสตร์สถิติ 1    Statistical Genetics I

เมตริกซ์ ชนิดของการกระจาย สมการแบบหุ่นเชิงเส้น การวิเคราะห์ความแปรปรวนและความแปรปรวนร่วมทางพันธุศาสตร์

(Matrix algebra, Types of distribution. Linear models. Genetic variance and covariance estimation.)

(3103661 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3103662    พันธุศาสตร์ปริมาณในการปรับปรุงพันธุ์สัตว์    Quantitative Genetics In Animal Breeding

ธรรมชาติการกระจายของลักษณะสำคัญทางเศรษฐกิจ การประเมินองค์ประกอบของวาเหรียนซ์ที่เกี่ยวกับความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างเครือญาติและการประเมินค่าพารามิเตอร์ทางพันธุศาสตร์ การคัดเลือก ผลตอบสนองต่อการคัดเลือกทางตรงและทางอ้อม การผสมเลือดชิดและการผสมข้ามพันธุ์

(Distribution nature of economic important traits, estimation of variance component in relation to relationships among relatives and genetic parameters estimate. Selection, direct response and correlated response to selection. Inbreeding and crossbreeding.)

(3103662 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Robert J. Berry is a geneticist at University College London. He is also an evangelical Christian and has written a number of works on the compatibility of religion (his kind, anyway) and evolution. He has a quite accurate letter in today’s Nature. Since that is behind a paywall, I have excerpted it below the fold.

The Church in England did not generally react so “badly” to Darwin’s ideas as readers of your Editorial may be led to believe (Nature 461, 1173–1174; 2009).

Reverend Charles Kingsley, Regius Professor at the University of Cambridge, UK, wrote in 1863 “God’s greatness, goodness and perpetual care I never understood as I have since I became a convert to Mr Darwin’s views.” The Bishop of Carlisle, Harvey Goodwin, proclaimed after Darwin’s funeral in Westminster Abbey “It would have been unfortunate if anything had occurred to give weight and currency to the foolish notion which some have diligently propagated, but for which Mr Darwin was not responsible, that there is a necessary conflict between a knowledge of Nature and a belief in God.” In 1884 Frederick Temple, Bishop of Exeter and future Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote “The doctrine of Evolution restores to the science of Nature the unity which we should expect in the creation of God.” Aubrey Moore, a leading theologian at the University of Oxford, welcomed Darwinism “as a friend in the disguise of a foe” because it struck at the heart of nineteenth-century deism.

Ironically, in view of later developments, even some of the authors of Fundamentals (a series of Christian booklets published in the United States between 1910 and 1915) were happy to see evolution as the method that God used in his work of creation.

The assumption that there must be conflict between evolution and religion was (and is) the result of the distorting “cultural lenses” that you mention. Modern ‘creationism’ was born only in the twentieth century, largely through the efforts of the Canadian adventist George McCready Price. There has probably been less conflict in England than in most other countries.

None of this is to claim that all religious people view evolution in a positive light, nor that all evolutionists are objective about religion. But we need to remain aware of our cultural lenses.

Two things about this. One is that Berry is absolutely right about the religious response to Darwin prior to 1920 or so. For the first 50 years, Darwin was a friend to religion. Second, he is right also that we tend to read back into the past the battles of today, or overgeneralise one minority opinion of Christianity – the modern, post-1960, fundagelicals.

Nature has found a way send genetic information forward through time. Tiny crustaceans can bury their young in the Earth for centuries, and scientists in the new and awesomely-named science of “resurrection ecology” are using these sleeping samples to study evolution.

Personality Pedagogy Newsletter Volume 4, Number 3, November, 2009

Hello and welcome to the thirty-ninth Personality Pedagogy newsletter highlighting what’s new at http://personalitypedagogy.arcadia.edu.

What’s new this month? Lots!!

Did you know that elders who go online show increased brain function and less depression than elders who do not use the internet to learn about new things, reminisce, play games, and connect with family and friends? You can read the whole article here: http://tinyurl.com/yh7pgo2

Are your students looking for a study abroad internship experience in psychology? AIDE, a not-for-profit organization which provides international internships and volunteer experiences, is offering a special 2-for-1 discount on deposits until November 30. Check it out: http://www.aideabroad.org/index.asp

Do you teach other classes in psychology? The Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, just debuted a wiki for the Teaching of Psychology (http://teachpsych.pbworks.com/). Here’s your chance to jump in to the wonderful world of wikis!

Are you familiar with Discovery Education? A division of Discovery Communications, i.e., they of the TV and magazine, designed a series of lesson plans for the k-12 classroom (but which can be easily beefed up for an intro-level college course). Though they seem to have many topics except for psychology (language arts, history, astronomy, ecology, economics, fine arts, biology, literature, mathematics and more) we found some gems for genetics, evolution and even Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams hidden in these pages. Check them out via the links below.

Do you own the ill-fated 6th edition of the APA manual? We have word from Ted Bosack (via the PsychTeacher listserv) about the APA Manual exchange program:

”The leadership of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA, Division 2)
wants to be sure that as many of its members as possible are aware of APA’s
decision to replace copies of the recently published Publication Manual revision
that contained a number of errors and inconsistencies. APA will replace these
purchased manuals with corrected copies. However, there are a number of
requirements that must be met prior to a December 15, 2009, deadline if
purchasers are to receive a replacement copy. These requirements are as
follows:

APA has agreed to replace copies of the Publication Manual (1st printing). If
you wish to take advantage of this opportunity, you must follow these steps:
* Call 1-800-374-2721, ext. 5510 between 9:00 and 6:00 EST.
* State your desire to exchange your manual for a new printing and be
prepared to answer some questions.
* You will get an e-mail with an instruction sheet and pre-paid mailing label to
send your old manual back.
* REMEMBER, THE DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 15!!

These requirements are also detailed on the STP Web site at
http://teachpsych.org/news/news.php ”

Of course, if you’re fed up with the manual and the entire brouhaha, then check out the first link to a free, online, APA style sheet for the current (2009) style guidelines.

As ever, please pass this newsletter on to interested colleagues and invite them to sign up for future issues. Remember, you can read old newsletters, comment on newsletters, view the current newsletter or you can even re-read what you missed in last month’s newsletter by checking out our new blog: http://personalitypedagogy.wordpress.com/ You can even receive Personality Pedagogy newsletters via an RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) feed as soon as they are posted.

I, personally, am very thankful for the community of teachers which have helped me with my teaching throughout the years and especially to the readers and subscribers who support Personality Pedagogy. We wish a bountiful and restful Thanksgiving holiday to you all!!

Cheers,
Marianne

Marianne Miserandino
miserandino@arcadia.edu

1. Free APA Style Sheet

From the website: ”APA Lite for College Papers” is a concise guide to crafting research papers in the style of the American Psychological Association (APA). It is based on the current edition of the APA Publication Manual (2009) while incorporating guidelines for ”Material Other Than Journal Articles” found in the last edition. Specifically covers writing scientific papers at the undergraduate level.

2. OTRP Teaching of Psychology Wiki

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology, Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, just debuted this wiki. Wiki-Master Sue Frantz, Highline Community College, Des Moines, WA, explains: ”This brand new resource is completely dependent on you to build it. In the spirit of reciprocity, we ask that if you take something, you leave something. To be able to write to this wiki, you will need to request access from the Wiki-Master.”

3. Statistics Glossary

The STEPS (STatistical Education through Problem Solving) consortium has developed problem-based modules to support the teaching of Statistics in various fields including Psychology. As part of their online support, Valerie J. Easton and John H. McColl maintain this statistics glossary for all of the terms covered in a basic course. The glossary is arranged alphabetically or organized around key topics including presenting data, sampling, probability, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, categorical data, nonparametric methods, time series data, design of experiments, ANOVA, paired data, correlation, regression, and random variables and probability distributions

4. Psychobiography

This website, maintained by William Todd Schultz, Pacific University Oregon, describes psychobiography (the application of psychological theory and research to individual lives of historical importance), the influential people in the field, an annotated bibliography and lots more.

5. Nova: Stem Cell Breakthrough

Three separate teams overcome a biomedical hurdle—creating stem cells without the use of human embryos. Learn about their research here and much more about stem cells including related science news, links and books, transcript, and a teacher’s guide The program, 13 minutes and 39 seconds long, originally aired on PBS July 23, 2008 and is available in closed captioning. Click through to the teacher’s guide for a shortened version 5 minutes and 16 seconds long.

6. A Dream Interpretation: Tuneups for the Brain

A new theory suggests that dreams are a warm-up for the day ahead. In a paper published last month in the journal ”Nature Reviews Neuroscience”, Dr. J. Allan Hobson, a psychiatrist and longtime sleep researcher at Harvard, argues that the main function of rapid-eye-movement sleep, or REM, when most dreaming occurs, is physiological. Read all about his research in this ”New York Times” article by Benedict Carey, from November 10, 2009. (Remember that access to the New York Times is free, but you may need to sign up for a free account).

7. Henry Murray: 20 Needs

Summarizes Henry Murray’s theory of needs and describes the original 20 needs he wrote about including nAchievement, nPower, and nAffiliation.

8. Otto Rank (1914). The Myth of the Birth of the Hero. New York: Vintage.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/mbh/index.htm

The full-text version of his book is available from this website: ”In this study Rank looks at a a wide variety of Eurasian hero birth narratives, including Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian, Indian, and Germanic legendary figures. He uses the methodology and vocabulary of classic Freudian psychoanalysis to do so. The middle part of this book, where Rank enumerates some of these tales, will be the most useful for modern readers, as he draws on a wide range of sources, some of them fairly obscure. In the last part he puts these myths ‘on the couch’ as it were, and ties up his thesis very coherently.”

9. Dr. Matthew Fox: The Stanford Lectures: An Immersion in Creation Spirituality
What is the Creation Spirituality lineage and Why does it strike fear in the hearts of Inquisitors and Fundamentalists? What does it mean to be Spiritual and adult in the 21st century? What is the future of spirituality, religion and interfaith in our time? Fox answers these questions is a series of videos, using the theories of Otto Rank, ”the youngest and the most brilliant” of Freud’s students:

a) Otto Rank Overview of his theory (9 minutes, 57 seconds)

b) Otto Rank on Art (6 minutes, 50 seconds)

10. Genetic Screening: Ethical issues

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, London, prepared this report to encourage debate about the ethical issues raised by research on genes associated with psychological and behavioral traits. Read their report, reviews of the evidence, and other materials here.

11. An interview with Dr. Klaus-Peter Lesch

From the website: ”In-cites talks with Dr. Klaus-Peter Lesch about his paper, “Association of anxiety-related traits with a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region,” (Science 274[5292]: 1527-31, 29 November 1996), as well as his related research. This paper has been named a Highly Cited Paper in the field of Neuroscience & Behavior by  Essential Science Indicators, and currently has a total of 1,160 citations to its credit.” Includes a summary of the paper and a description of his current work.

12. Human Genome Project
http://genomics.energy.gov/
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/education/education.shtml

Find information about the Human Genome Project including project facts; educational materials; medicine and the new genetics; and ethical, legal and social issues. The second link brings you to resources for teachers.

13. Lesson Plan: Evolution

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson on Evolution, students will: demonstrate an understanding of the theory of evolution, study how the theory of evolution has been received by society over time and consider why it has been so controversial and compare the theory of evolution to other ideas about how different life forms emerged and assess which ideas should be taught in science class.

14. Lesson Plan: The Interpretation of Dreams

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson on Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, students will understand that Freud argued that our dreams contain clues to our hopes, fears, and fantasies and that Freud claimed that developments in our childhood affect the way we act and the kinds of dreams we have.

15. Lesson Plan: Genetics

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson on Genetics, student will: Describe the technologies make that make genetic manipulation possible, identify situations in which genetic manipulation could solve a problem and debate the positive or negative arguments of the ethical issues surrounding the use of genetic manipulation.

16. Lesson Plan: Understanding the Power of Genes

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson on genetics students will discuss new scientific information about genes; consider how that information is changing thoughts about human behavior and scientific research; and write essays about how information about genetics affects private homes, the research laboratory, and hospitals and clinics.

17. Lesson Plan: Genetic Engineering

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson on genetics students will: discover ethical issues surrounding the practice of genetic engineering in reproductive medicine; and understand key terms and concepts related to the science of genetic engineering.

18. Lesson Plan: Nature versus Nurture

Discovery Education, a division of Discovery Communications, provides a Lesson Plans Library of hundreds of original lesson plans written by teachers for teachers for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some lesson plans include suggestions for adaptations for older or younger audiences. Borrow them as-is or use them to spark your own lesson plans. In this lesson, students will learn that environment can influence some personality traits, while others are genetic; understand that the most effective way to study the concept of nature versus nurture is by conducting research with identical and fraternal twins reared separately and together; and discover that the issues of nature versus nurture are still debated in the scientific community.

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published 150 years ago Tuesday, opened the book on our evolutionary past, which has since been traced by scientists back to fossil apes.

[Via National Geographic]

But where is evolution taking us? Will our descendants hurtle through space as relatively unchanged as the humans on the starship Enterprise? Will they be muscle-bound cyborgs? Or will they chose to digitize their consciousnesses—becoming electronic immortals?

And as odd as the possibilities may seem, it’s worth remembering that, 150 years ago, the ape-to-human scenario in On the Origin of Species struck many as nothing so much as monkey business.

(Related pictures: “Evolution vs. Intelligent Design: Six Bones of Contention.”)

PREDICTION ONE
Human Evolution Is Dead

“Because we have evolved, it’s natural to imagine we will continue to do so, but I think that’s wrong,” anthropologist Ian Tattersall of New York’s American Museum of Natural History said in an email.

“Everything we know about evolutionary change suggests that genetic innovations are only likely to become fixed in small, isolated populations,” he said. For example, Darwin’s famous Galápagos finches each evolved from their mainland ancestor to fit a unique habitat on the isolated islands in the Pacific.

(Take a Darwin quiz.)

Natural selection, as outlined in On the Origin of Species, occurs when a genetic mutation—say, resulting in a spine suited to upright walking—is passed down through generations, because it affords some benefit. Eventually the mutation becomes the norm.

But if populations aren’t isolated, crossbreeding makes it much less likely for potentially significant mutations to become established in the gene pool—and that’s exactly where we are now, Tattersall said.

“Since the advent of settled life, human populations have expanded enormously. Homo sapiens is densely packed across the Earth, and individuals are unprecedentedly mobile.

“In this situation, the fixation of any meaningful evolutionary novelties in the human population is highly improbable.” Tattersall said. “Human beings are just going to have to learn to live with themselves as they are.”

Steve Jones, a genetics professor at University College London, put forward a similar scenario during a recent lecture series marking the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species at the University of Cambridge.

The human population will become more alike as races merge, he said, but “Darwin’s machine has lost its power.”

That’s because natural selection—Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” concept—is being sidelined in humans, according to Jones.

The fittest will no longer spearhead evolutionary change, because, thanks to medical advances, the weakest also live on and pass down their genes.

When On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, only about half of British children survived to 21. Today that number has swelled to 99 percent.

In developed countries, “the fact that everybody stays alive, at least until they’re sexually mature, means ['survival of the fittest' has] got nothing to work with,” Jones said. “That part of the Darwinian fuel has gone.”

(See “Was Darwin Wrong?” from National Geographic magazine.)

PREDICTION TWO
Humans Will Continue to Evolve

Other scientists see plenty of evidence that human evolution is far from over.

For instance, a study published last month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested that women of the future could become shorter and stouter.

A team led by Yale University evolutionary biologist Stephen Stearns found that, due to ovulatory characteristics, shorter, slightly plumper women tend to have more children than their peers. These physical traits are passed on to their offspring, suggesting natural selection in humans is alive and well.

Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico, believes Darwinian evolution in humans is actually speeding up. He highlighted sexual selection through mate choice as one key driver.

“You still have powerful mate choice shaping mental traits particularly … traits that are needed to succeed economically and in raising kids,” Miller said.

“We’re also going to get stronger sexual selection, because the more advanced the technology gets, the greater an effect general intelligence will have on each individual’s economic and social success, because as technology gets more complex, you need more intelligence to master it,” he said.

“That intelligence results in higher earnings, social status, and sexual attractiveness.”

Miller added that artificial selection using genetic technologies will likely accentuate these changes in the future.

“Parents could basically choose which sperm and egg get to meet up to produce a baby based on genetic information about which genes contribute to which physical and mental traits,” he said.

“If the rich and powerful keep the artificial-selection technology to themselves, then you could get that kind of split between a kind of upper-class, dominant population and a lower-class, genetically oppressed population,” he added.

“But I think it’s very likely the new genetic technologies will be widespread in their use, simply because that’s more profitable. So I think there will actually be a leveling effect, where both the poor and the rich are going to be able to have the best kids they can genetically.

“You will probably see a rise in average physical attractiveness and health,” he added. “You will probably get selection for physical traits that tend to be attractive in both males and females—things like height, muscularity, energy levels.”

But “regular” natural selection will also continue to play a major role, Miller believes.

“What you’re facing now is a global pathogen pool of viruses and bacteria that get spread around by air travel to every corner of the Earth, and that’s going to increase,” he said.

“We’re going to get a lot more epidemics,” Miller added. “That will increase the importance of the genetic immune system in human survival”—and result in a human species with stronger immune systems, he speculated.

(Meet the “other Darwin” in National Geographic magazine.)

PREDICTION THREE
Humans to Achieve Electronic Immortality

A philosophy known as transhumanism sees humans taking charge of their evolution and transcending their biological limitations via technology.

In essence, the old-fashioned evolution of On the Origin of Species may be beside the point: The future may belong to unnatural selection.

Nick Bostrom, director of the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said Darwinian evolution “is happening on a very slow time scale now relative to other things that are leading to changes in the human condition”—cloning, genetic enhancement, robotics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology, for starters.

Transhumanism raises a spectacular array of possibilities, from supersoldiers and new breeds of athletes to immortal beings who, having had their brains scanned atom by atom, transfer their minds to computers.

In addition to living forever, “uploaded” beings would be able to “travel at the speed of light as an information pattern,” download themselves into robots for the occasional stroll through the real world, think faster when running on advanced operating systems, and cut their food budget down to zero, Bostrom imagines in his paper “The Transhumanist FAQ,” available on the Humanity+ Web site.

If that were to happen, a new type of evolution would emerge, Bostrom said.

“Evolutionary selection could occur in a population of uploads or artificial intelligence just as much as it could in a population of biological organisms,” he told National Geographic News. “In fact, it might operate much faster there, because artificial intellects could reproduce much faster.”

Whereas the current human generational cycle takes some 20 years, a digitalized individual could replicate themselves in seconds or minutes, Bostrom said.

Of course copying yourself isn’t without complications, Bostrom acknowledges.

“Which one of them is you?” he writes. “Who owns your property? Who is married to your spouse?”

(Related: “Darwin Devotees Make ‘Father of Evolution’ Facebook Superstar.”)

PREDICTION FOUR
New Era of Evolution Awaits on Off-World Colonies?

“Some major new isolating mechanism” would be needed for a new human species to arise, according to John Hawks, an anthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Despite up to 30,000 years of partial isolation among populations in places such as Australia and Papua New Guinea, human speciation did not occur, he noted.

But if, in the far distant future, habitable planets beyond our solar system were colonized by Earth migrants, that could provide the necessary isolation for new human species to evolve.

“If we had spacefaring people who went on one-way voyages to distant stars, that might be enough to trigger speciation,” Hawks said.

But, he added, “if you think about it, a small group of people went on a one-way voyage to [the Americas] 14,000 years ago, and then when new people [Europeans] showed up 500 years ago, they were still the same species.”

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