Questions tagged [genetics]
The science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms.
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Is 8% of human DNA from viruses?
According to 23andme's Twitter
Image reads,
Approximately 8% of DNA is originally from viruses, which infected your ancestors and became integrated into their cells.
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Are girls and boys pre-programmed to behave... like girls and boys?
My dad claims that even as toddlers, my sister and I knew which toys to play with. For example, I would always pick up toy guns, Action Man, and other similar toys. She would always pick up Barbie. He ...
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Is there any harm in forcing/re-educating a left-handed child to use their right hand?
Backstory:
Many of my relatives were subjected by their parents to a "training process" to "prevent" left-hand-dominance. This method started at a very young age and basically consisted of politely ...
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Do humans share 50% of their DNA with bananas?
It's widely claimed that we share 50% of our DNA with bananas. Does this have actual basis or is it a myth?
Example claims The Mirror (UK), NHGRI
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Is Genetically Modified food safe to consume?
What's the truth surrounding the popular idea that genetically modified food is dangerous to consume?
There's entire websites and institutions dedicated to popularizing the alleged dangers of eating ...
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What risks exist with GMO, but not with selective breeding?
Anytime you hear Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) come up, someone always pipes in that it's perfectly safe because we've been doing it for thousands of years through selective breeding. ...
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Is IQ hereditary? If so, to what degree?
The movie Idiocracy suggests that intelligence is hereditary; this idea has also been perpetrated by German author Thilo Sarrazin, who claims that due to the higher fertility of Islamic immigrants and ...
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Did a 'Black History Month website' call white people ‘genetically defective descendants of albino mutants’?
Telegraph.co.uk reports that 'A Black History Month website' has made claims such as :
[white people are the] genetically defective descendants of albino mutants
[white man can] “fantasise that he ...
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Has increased computer use led to increased myopia?
According to ABC News and this Ophthalmological study there has been a significant increase in the number of people with myopic eyesight over a recent 30 year period. From the ABC article:
There ...
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Are Ashkenazi Jews smarter?
I just received an email entitled "Why are Jews So Smart". You can read an article here.
I also found a similar article in New York Magazine.
Did Jewish intelligence evolve in tandem with Jewish ...
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Are Ashkenazi Jews largely descended from Khazars?
There is an obvious ethnic subdivision within Jews, between the Sephardic and the Ashkenazi. In several vaguely antisemitic websites (see for instance, here, here, and here ), but also in a completely ...
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Do the mother's genes almost exclusively determine the sons' intelligence?
According to this paper: Intelligence and the X chromosome by Gillian Turner, published by The Lancet (a highly regarded medical journal) in 1996, the X chromosome is dominantly responsible for coding ...
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Did drinking milk cause an evolutionary change in the human genome?
In a recent Slate article "The Most Spectacular Mutation in Recent Human History. How did milk help found Western civilization?" (October 23, 2012), a claim was made that:
[Around 10,000 B.C.] a ...
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Is reviving an extinct species possible?
With all the science of genetics, and genetic engineering, would reviving an extinct species possible?
Yes, akin the story of "Jurassic Park".
Would it be possible now, with the science we have today?...
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Are Adolf Hitler's DNA samples available?
A recent report published by LePoint claims that a Frenchman named Jean-Marie Loret is Hitler's son. The evidence in favor of this claim cited by the Huffington Post includes:
Hitler and Loret have ...
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Is there more genetic difference between men and women than men and male chimpanzees?
I got into trouble with someone yesterday for poo-pooing this idea as it smelled of apples and oranges to me.
The specific statistic was that genetically there is a 5% difference between men and ...
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Can the Bajau people stay underwater for as long as 13 minutes?
National Geographic 4/2018: 'Sea Nomads' Are First Known Humans Genetically Adapted to Diving claims:
But a group of people called the Bajau takes free diving to the extreme, staying underwater for ...
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Is one in two hundred men a descendant of Genghis Khan?
I've read years ago that 8% of all Asian men and thus 0.5% of all men would be descendant of Genghis Khan.
Is there any truth to this? Or was this some trick to get their paper published?
Citation of ...
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Do humans share 99% of their DNA with rats?
I keep hearing this claim that a lab "rat has 99% of the DNA of a human?" Is that so? What exactly does this mean? One source for this claim seems to CNN which only says,
"About 99 percent of genes ...
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Does homosexuality preserve the species?
From The Huffington Post:
For even without a causal link established between homosexuality and population management, the obvious reduction in population growth attributable to homosexuality by ...
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Is intelligence declining due to the lack of selection pressure?
I have read lately that human intelligence has already peaked and that it will slowly decline over time because humans are no longer naturally selected for intelligence (Darwin award winners aside). ...
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Of all humans ever born, did most men not become fathers?
I quote in full a passage from the book Is There Anything Good About Men?: How Cultures Flourish by Exploiting Men by Roy Baumeister, pages 63 – 64:
Counting Ancestors
Let’s return now to the ...
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Is this image of eye colour inheritance accurate?
This image is circulating on social media (e.g. Pinterest).
It implies that if you have green eyes, then you can't possibly have one biological parent with blue eyes and the other with brown.
The ...
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Do corporations own human DNA sequences?
I came across the claim that Human DNA sequences are now owned by corporations:
FACT: HUMAN DNA SEQUENCES ARE NOW OWNED BY CORPORATIONS
Is this true?
If so, what does this mean?
(I realise ...
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Is Lamarckian evolution still considered credible?
I had thought that Lamarckian evolution had been essentially dismissed in favour of Darwinian evolution. Lamarckian evolution as I understand it is essentially the idea that the traits an organism ...
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Has natural occuring genetic insertion ever been observed in direct offspring of some organism?
Maybe this is somewhat of an ignorant question of me, and in all honesty I haven't tried very hard to find what I'm looking for1, but I keep hearing the argument that "information" can never be added ...
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Are red heads more likely to be hot headed?
It's a common cliche that red heads are more likely to have a fiery personality.
To quote from Wikipedia:
A common belief about redheads is that they have fiery tempers and
sharp tongues. In ...
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Can a twin perceive that the other is in trouble?
There are many stories about twins being able to "feel" each other even when they are apart. Typically a twin would say that they felt that an accident or some other calamity happened to the other one ...
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Is baldness inherited?
There are many articles on how baldness is inherited (mostly from the mother's side of the family).
In the BBC Life program, the narrator linked baldness to higher levels of testosterone.
Is ...
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Can Tifton 85 grass produce cyanide gas?
Today I read something quite unexpected:
Preliminary tests revealed the Tifton 85 grass, which has been here for years, had suddenly started producing cyanide gas, poisoning the cattle.
[...]
...
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Does inbreeding cause severe birth defects?
I've been doing some research on breeding rabbits and saw many people mentioning that if you inbreed rabbits (father-daughter/mother-son/sister-brother) that there is only a small chance of birth ...
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Are humans descended from chimp-pig hybrids?
Geneticist Dr. Eugene McCarthy claims that humans have descended from hybrids of pigs and chimpanzees:
A 2013 Phys.Org article explained:
he has amassed an impressive body of evidence suggesting that ...
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Do races/ethnicities have different odors?
This is a serious question and not intended to demean any ethnic group or racial group. I'm Caucasian and have dated Asian (Chinese), black and South Asian (Indian and Pakistani) men. I have noticed ...
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Is Y-chromosomal Adam younger than Mitochondrial Eve?
A Christian claimed to me that: the Y-chromosomal Adam is way younger than the Mitochondrial Eve.
Is this true?
He argued that this was consistent with the biblical account: that Noah is Y-...
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How reliable is identification via DNA matching?
For example, how did they identify Osama bin Ladin? How can they identify with such confidence a DNA match?
How can you compare DNA against a sister and determine that it is indeed Osama bin Ladin?
...
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Was Charles Darwin's family adversely affected by inbreeding?
I was reading the Wikipedia article on Inbreeding depression when I came across this:
Charles Darwin, through numerous experiments, was one of the first
scientists to demonstrate the effects of ...
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Is it possible to hatch dinosaurs from chicken eggs?
This article is one of many articles talking about re-enabling some dinosaur features in chicken.
I don't know a lot about genetics or paleontology. Most articles I've found about the subject use ...
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Are all white cats with blue eyes deaf?
I was told that all pure white cats with both eyes being blue are completely deaf, and that all pure white cats with one blue eye are deaf on the side that has the blue eye.
If the cat has even a ...
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Have scientists successfully cloned a dinosaur?
An article makes a claim that scientists have cloned a baby Apatosaurus.
From Article:
Scientists at Liverpool’s John Moore University have successfully cloned a dinosaur, a spokesman from the ...
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Could obligatory screening for Thalassemia in Cyprus violate the bioethical rules?
Stefan Beck, a visiting assistant professor at the University of California at Berkeley, claimed:
“The obligatory screening and counseling for Thalassemia in Cyprus is one of the most successful ...
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Have scientists demonstrated an absent protein can cause chicks to be born with scales rather than feathers (as well as reptile scales to feathers)?
While researching and educating myself about evolution, I've come across an interesting claim that I'd like to learn more about, but so far, I've only been able to find the claim and no sources or ...
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Can one be naturally better at computers than English or Maths?
I think everybody heard this claim, and its opposite, a million times. Students or teachers commonly speak about having talents for a particular subject or another.
The subject is debated, for example,...
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Is it possible for ingested dsRNA (or other genetic materials) to affect human gene expression?
I am usually pretty skeptical about claims on the danger of genetically modified crops because the issue of health for me logically breaks down to: Do the genes altered produce toxic chemicals in a ...
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Can phobias be genetic, but created in one generation and not by natural selection?
I have seen this article floating around.
Pretty much they state that if a parent is traumatized, the child could be born with a phobia.
Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine, in ...
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Are Ashkenazi Jews genetically more European than Semitic?
Referring to this article Surprise: Ashkenazi Jews Are Genetically European.
But a new study suggests that at least their (Ashkenazi Jews) maternal lineage may
derive largely from Europe.
...
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Can one's genetics account for x% of their weight?
I have seen statements like this in various places: "Such and such accounts for X percent of so and so". But it's not always clear what this means, how it is calculated or proven.
You will see this ...
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Is dandruff an indicator of an "unhealthy scalp?" Can a shampoo cure the underlying problem?
In this video (sponsored by Head and Shoulders) by Veritasium entitled "What Actually Causes Dandruff?", you can hear Dr. Jim Schwartz a Research Fellow at Head & Shoulders say:
The ...
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Does speciation occur?
I am not questioning the theory of comment descent, but I am skeptical about the evolutionary mechanisms proposed for speciation.
Have we ever observed in detail how speciation occurs? We can take ...
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Could the Australian Aborigines have Descended from Three People?
My anthropology professor claimed that certain genetic simulations showed that the Australian Aborigines could have descended from a population of only one man and two women. Those three people and ...
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Is height about as heritable as obesity?
The Thin Privilege FAQ explains:
Weight is about 50% - 80% heritable (sources disagree, but here’s a study that shows it to be 77% heritable). Height, for comparison, isn’t 100% heritable (I’ve ...
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