Re: The humanness genes

Steven H. Schimmrich (sschimmr@calvin.edu)
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 11:36:54 -0400

At 07:24 PM 9/23/98 -0500, Glenn Morton wrote:
>
> There is a fascinating report today on some work comparing the great apes
> with humans. It is:
>
> http://www.toledoblade.com/editorial/health/8i23apes.htm
>
> [SNIP]
>
> What difference does the missing oxygen mean for an animal's health or
> behavior? Using genetic engineering techniques, Japanese scientists are
> raising a colony of mice with the gene segment intentionally deleted. The
> Science report quoted Dr. Varki as joking, ``Maybe their mice will speak.''
> Scientists, however, believe that many genes, rather than one, determine
> key human traits."

I wonder when they will try raising a colony of great apes with that
gene segment deleted. It makes for some interesting ethical questions.

> What I noticed (most ironically) is that this particular gene, the first
> major one known to be clearly human, does indeed go the direction that
> anti-evolutionists perfer. The human sialic acid is a degenerate form when
> compared with the better ape version. Thus, we can conclude that our
> evolution obeys the "anti-evolutionary claims" and represents a loss of
> information. We have indeed lost information. God created the apes and we
> have degenerated from them. Now that we know that we are lesser than the

Can you really say it's a "degenerate" form and not simply an alternate
form. After all, it would presumably would have some beneficial trade-off
in order to be naturally selected.

- Steve.

--   Steven H. Schimmrich, Assistant Professor of Geology   Department of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies   Calvin College, 2301 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546   sschimmr@calvin.edu (office), schimmri@earthlink.net (home)   616-957-7053 (voice mail), 616-957-6501 (fax)    http://home.earthlink.net/~schimmrich/