Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin

The work suggests that the skin-whitening mutation occurred by chance in a single individual after the first human exodus from Africa, when all people were brown-skinned. That person’s offspring apparently thrived as humans moved northward into what is now Europe, helping to give rise to the lightest of the world’s races.

Leaders of the study, at Penn State University, warned against interpreting the finding as a discovery of “the race gene.” Race is a vaguely defined biological, social and political concept, they noted, and skin color is only part of what race is — and is not.

In fact, several scientists said, the new work shows just how small a biological difference is reflected by skin color. The newly found mutation involves a change of just one letter of DNA code out of the 3.1 billion letters in the human genome — the complete instructions for making a human being.

“It’s a major finding in a very sensitive area,” said Stephen Oppenheimer, an expert in anthropological genetics at Oxford University, who was not involved in the work. “Almost all the differences used to differentiate populations from around the world really are skin deep.”

Race is such a touchy issue – even to scientists.

Do Americans and Brits smile differently? According to this article they do.

A cute video of Tai Shan playing with a ball and mimicking mom. And pandafix.

Oh my goodness. How freaking cute can a panda be? And he knows how to relax.

Mom just called to remind me to leave water running from my outside faucets. (They don’t insulate pipes here, so the chances of getting a busted pipe when it’s below freezing out is fairly high.) I hadn’t thought of doing the outside ones – I usually worry about the inside ones. I go out front and turn on the front one no problem. I go out back and step on to my back porch. Oops! That shiny shit is ice. I slide around a bit before I manage to grab ahold of the door knob and get my balance. Whew. Okay, I carefully cross the patio and get to the faucet. I turn the knob. Nothing happens. I turn it back and forth. Nothing. The pipe is already frozen solid. So, now I get to worry about busted pipes tomorrow. Weee!

I think my free version (advertising supported) of Eudora is spying on me. Why? It just showed me an advert for this.

So, I’m sitting there at lunch, enjoying some nasty fast food and catching up on the news when my electricity goes out. Damn. I wait for a bit, but it’s time to go back to lunch. I walk into the living room to see Mishka on top of the entertainment center staring intently at the still ceiling fan. It dawns on me: he’s never seen it when it’s not moving. He mews and chatters at the fan. It is, apparently, now a sworn enemy. I could try and get him down from the entertainment center (the back corner if it is pretty close to the ceiling fan), but I know he’d just get right back up there after I leave. I take a picture of the scene and leave – certain that I’ll come back to a broken fan, broken cat or some combination of the two. Luckily, he seems to have left the fan alone.
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And from the “I have the flu and have been spending a lot of time in bed” series of cat photos…
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Want proof that too much cold medicine can make you loopy? Well, take a look at this Cafe Press store I just made…for all my fellow Panda Cam addicts.

I don’t understand my TiVo. Every now and then, it forgets how to connect to my wireless network. Well, not really forget, but says it cannot find the router. The thing is, nothing about the network has changed. The router is still at the same IP address and connected to the internet. I’ve spent most of the evening trying to get it to convince it the router is there and happy to help it out, but it refuses to see it. It’s pissing me off.

Today’s broken item: a pink flamingo snow globe that I’d hidden at the back of a book case.