Questions tagged [genetics]
The science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms.
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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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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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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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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 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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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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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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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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Did the Lenski experiments result in additional genetic information?
In the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham on Feburary 4, 2014, Ham claimed the Richard Lenski experiments added no new genetic data. He went on to show a clip from Dr. Andrew J. Fabiach, a ...
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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 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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Is homosexuality primarily genetic? [duplicate]
It seems to me that, evolutionarily speaking, the fitness of a purely homosexual animal or human is much lower than that of a heterosexual one, and therefore would be strongly selected against. Thus I ...
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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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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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Does a gene predict the time of day one dies?
In this article from the Huffington Post it is mentioned that a certain gene can predict what time one will die (of natural causes). Not the date, but the time of the day.
"This particular ...
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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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Correlation between MAO-A gene and murderers / sex offenders
The MAO-A gene, also known as the "Warrior gene", is thought to cause increased antisocial and violent behavior patterns in people who have experienced an abusive childhood. [ref] Caspi et. al. found ...
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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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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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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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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 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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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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