All Humans Are Mutants, Say Scientists 309
Hugh Pickens writes "In 1935, JBS Haldane, one of the founders of modern genetics, studied a group of men with the blood disease hemophilia and speculated that there would be about 150 new mutations in each human being. Now BBC reports that scientists have used next generation sequencing technology to produce a far more direct and reliable estimate of the number of mutations by looking at thousands of genes belonging to two Chinese men who are distantly related, having shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805. To establish the rate of mutation, the team examined an area of the Y chromosome which is unique because, apart from rare mutations, the Y chromosome is passed unchanged from father to son so mutations accumulate slowly over the generations. Despite many generations of separation, researchers found only 12 differences among all the DNA letters examined. The two Y chromosomes were still identical at 10,149,073 of the 10,149,085 letters examined."
Quality reporting (Score:4, Informative)
SMBC [smbc-comics.com] is completely accurate on this count.
Re:I get 450 mutations per generation (Score:0, Informative)
Y = 1/300th total chromosome
How do you figure that? Humans have 24 chromosomes [accessexcellence.org], so Y = 1/24, by my count.
Re:Article title seems stupid to me (Score:5, Informative)
Probably just didn't survive a collision with the pop-science filter very well...
Re:so females evolve faster? (Score:5, Informative)
In other words, the X evolves faster than the Y, and as men only get one X, anything on a single X becomes FAR more important to the men then it is to the women. It is only things that are on BOTH X chromosomes that are important to women.
Re:I get 450 mutations per generation (Score:2, Informative)
Total bases: 3,079,843,747
Y Chromosome: 57,741,652
3,079,843,747 / 57,741,652 = 53.338...
so about one 53rd
Re:Aha! Evidence.... (Score:4, Informative)
The Fourth Council of Ristorante determined that there is no such thing as "slightly" al dente. It is al dente or not al dente; there is no in-between. The path to damnation is lined with compromise, and we'll have none of that here!
Glory to his name, Ramen.
WOW (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Article title seems stupid to me (Score:4, Informative)
> No, what?
>> Do you know what is the worst thing in internet?
Re:Yay! Mutant Super Powers! (Score:2, Informative)
If you were willing to do a little basic research, you would realize that socialized health care is a good thing.
Compare the following ratio: life expectancy / price spent on health care per person, by country.
You will find that the United States is near dead last among Western countries. That means we are spending more money than other countries, per capita, and getting less for our money.
Affording your own health care would be a hell of a lot easier if it was significantly cheaper. If it was cheaper, people would be healthier and have more money to put into activities that actually drive industry. This is a good thing, unless you hate America and want to see it continue its decline. Unless the promises G.W. Bush made regarding health care and social security are rescinded or otherwise solved, every single American tax dollar will be going towards paying retirees, instead of maintaining our roads and other common goods where economy of scale can give us significantly better deals than a single person can accomplish alone.
Re:12 or 4? (Score:3, Informative)
The problem with amplifying the material in this manner is that it's bound to introduce a few more mutations, since there is cell division involved, and cancer cells in particular can be a bit sloppy in replicating genes. So, to account for the mutations caused by their amplification procedure, they double checked the twelve candidate mutations they found against the donor's DNA from blood samples (not amplified by cell culture) and against the same regions in very close male relatives of the donors (if you are male and have a biological full brother, then your Y chromosomes should be almost completely identical). They scratched eight candidate mutations off as coming from the cell culture process, leaving four.
Re:May I opt out on the yellow spandex? (Score:3, Informative)
You can do whatever you want. I like being dry and comfortable on my bike and not having my work clothes get sweaty. When I first started out, I just wore whatever and thought the bike clothes were stupid. One ride in the right shorts and I was sold. (I wear shorts with a shell.)
It might also be that when I first started biking, I weighed ~250 pounds and was terribly out of shape.
Of course, one would point out that since I buy my work clothes on clearance, my bike clothes are the most expensive kit I own. (With the exception of my dive gear, but that's different.) It's actually more cost effective for me to wear a tux on my bike than the bike shorts.
Another point to make is visibility. If I look like a guy on a bike, then maybe someone in a car will look up from their bagel / cell phone and say, "whoa, that is one UGLY outfit." At least they've seen me, which is really all I can do.
Finally, I'm smart all day at work. Let me put on the superhero outfit and look like a moron for 40 minutes, okay?
Re:Yay! Mutant Super Powers! (Score:4, Informative)
I think they're a common side-effect of sickle-cell anaemia, a mutation which also provides resistance to malaria.