Why are humans not considered good organisms for genetic studies?
Humans are not the most studied organism as far as genetics go. That's probably the mouse or fruit fly. Humans are crappy subjects. For one, our DNA mixes alot, we mate w/ whoever we want to. Good genetic organisms are genetically identical from one indiv. to the next. For two, our generation time is 20 years or so (the time between birth and having first kid). And we only pop out 1 or 2 a year. Good genetic organisms like mice can pop out 8 every 8 weeks or so (6 or 5 weeks if they are pushing it). Better, flies lifecycle is 1-2 weeks, and they generate thousands of offspring. Further, we can't manipulate our genome, it's not ethical to do so. Also, although we can communicate with each other, we haev to follow all sorts of protocols, we can't just inject people with whatever we want. Human research is extremely slow and extremely expensive, for these reasons mainly. Nobody wants to kill a patient during a clinical trial, many trials have been halted due to this. Population studies on humans is very complicated and huge family trees are reqd to generate useful data. I think these are the main reasons, dunno if i missed any.
What makes some white people consider themselves a superior race?
For the same kind of reasons that makes some Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Jews, Russians, Scandanavians, etc. consider themselves superior.EVERY society in the world regards itself (originally) as superior to all others. WE do things right; THEY do things different, and therefore are wrong. They worship the wrong god. Their skin is the wrong color. They eat the wrong food, and it tastes revolting. Their hair looks funny. That’s human nature.When power politics - which all societies practice, at one time or another - leads to one group of people consistently dominating others, as the West as done for much of the past millennium, it reinforces such prejudices, making their racism stronger and more visible. Those who are dominated, on the other hand, may wind up thinking of themselves as “inferior.” But in fact much of the time they think (understandably) “We are still superior in the way we look, the way we behave, the gods we worship, how we marry, what we eat, everything that matters - EXCEPT military power, which we will manage to get back some day.”And if you are following Quora with your eyes and ears open, you should also be aware of the views of some non-white Quorans who clearly consider themselves a “superior race” - not only superior to whites, but to their neighbors.It is (alas) human nature.
What human problems have modern researchers solved?give one example and explain.?
We had an example on the news tonight. Scientists are now able to clone without destroying a human embryo. When the technique is perfected, it means that any human organ can be cloned, grown and ultimately implanted to replace a faulty heart,liver etc This particular discovery also solves a moral problem for those people who could never condone cloning because it meant the destruction of a human embryo..
Why do white people's faces turn red?
It's a side effect of the sympathetic nervous system response to a stressful situation. People are nervous when they are in a situation of perceived danger. Instead of a lion, tiger, bear ...etc, modern humans encounter different types of danger but the response to danger is still the one inherited from our ancestors who had to deal with different types of selection pressure. When in danger, apes had to decide to fight or run away. In either of those cases, the need is for increased metabolic activity. This requires increased blood flow (heart rate increases, blood vessels dilate, blood pressure increases), increased respiration (breath rate increases, bronchioles dilate) divert blood from non-critical activities (digestive system shuts down), increase sensory awareness (pupils dilate). All humans do this normally but the effects of peripheral vaso-dilation is more easily seen in light skinned persons.
Do most white people consider themselves superior to other races?
The problem is that they don't realise it.Most of them will tell you that they don't. But privilege is a tricky, blinding thing. Had you asked the question "Do non-white people realise how much whites are constantly discriminating against them?" then you would have had many an interesting answer. The defensiveness in the answers above is already something to go by, mind you.It's really in the very simple things.I have a friend, a white male, who thinks any work I show him elicits that I want his 'advice' on it. I don't see him doing that with other people we know in our design school over past year or so that I've known him. But he does it with me. As a result, I try less and less to show him any of my work. I always thank him for his 'friendly' advice because whenever he decides to give me this 'advice', because it's true that I get a bit cross and glare at him a bit when this happens. When he acts as if he can't see how cross I am, I am just relieved that we didn't argue and thank him. And so it continues in a vicious continuum, because I guess he'll reckon I liked his advice.I think this kind of 'overnice-ness' is also one of the strategems of superiority. They either dismiss you if they're really racist, or they are overly kind and nice and ginger and generous with you. [Edit: Of course this 'over-niceness' is like neo-tokenism, because he first forced his advice on me, and then he's being overly nice that I glared at him, instead of getting the message that I can ask for help when I need it, and that I'd rather be friends on a more genuine rather than "give and take" relationship.]I am in a school full of white people, and the easiest way to get their attention to me or get them to know me better is to talk about the country I come from, even if it's about the most mundane thing. This kind of constant reminder that makes the 'white perspective' is some kind of 'default' way to look at things is what is so exhausting. I have been in the opposite situation too: in a class full of brown people with one or two white exchange kids. The brown kids never assumed that their point of view was a default one, and in fact they made sensitive links through appropriate cultural references and approached the foreigners to make them welcome. watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAv8JA_9uKI
Interesting genetic facts about humans?
If you were to recite the entire ATCG sequence, pronouncing each of its 3 billion letters the genetic material notation is made of at a rate of 100 ATCG sequences per minute without sleeping, eating or drinking, you would cite for 57 years. If all 46 chromosomes were combined and arranged lengthwise, the total length would be 1.8 meters. If all the chromosomes from all the nuclei in the human body (1014 cells) were to be arranged lengthwise, it would measure around 180 000 million kilometres. For a better understanding, compare it to the distance from the Earth to the Sun which measures 150 million kilometres. The length of the DNA would thus be one thousand times greater. The full stop at the end of a sentence is the size of one thousand cell nuclei. African ethnic group Yoruba has an unusually high birth rate of twins, making it an interesting study group for research in the field of heritability. There is genetic proof indicating that the Sans are one of oldest peoples in the world. They may well be the most ancient, and are considered to be a “genetic Adam”. The banana is a fruit which originated in Asia. During the period of one of the largest human migrations (between 1000 B.C. and 300 A.C.), it was brought to Africa. In the case of autosomal recessive hereditary diseases, the recessive gene, situated on an autosomal chromosome, is passed on in the family. If a person has only one copy of this gene, he is its carrier without being aware of it, as the disease has not developed. The haemophilia is recessive disease and linked to the sex chromosome X. Women have two X chromosomes. That is why only individuals carrying two recessive genes develop the disease. The women who carry only one recessive gene are the transmitters of the disease. All men with the recessive gene will develop the disease as they only have one X chromosome. These facts were well known with the Jewish population, as the sons of the women who were considered to be transmitters of the disease were exempt from circumcision. Beside the DNA present in the nucleus, people also have DNA present in mitochondria. This DNA is only inherited from the mother and it is used in studies related to female ancestry. An interesting fact noticed in bees is that their mitochondrial DNA can also be inherited from the father.