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Disappearing Blonde Gene
The disappearing blonde gene was a hoax claiming a scientific study had estimated that natural blonds would become extinct, repeated as fact in reputable media such as the BBC and ''The Sunday Times'' between 2002 and 2006. First we need to define recessive versus dominant. We all have genes from our mother and father, X and Y. If we get a dominant gene from one parent and a recessive gene from the other, the dominant gene will determine what we look like. However, the recessive gene is still in our genome. Claims that blond hair would disappear have been made since 1865. Several reports erroneously claimed that the World Health Organization (WHO) had published a report claiming that people with blond hair "will become extinct by 2202". Neither the WHO nor any reputable expert had issued such a report and the WHO asked those commenting on the alleged report to retract. In the media In 2002, the BBC News reported that unnamed German experts concluded that blond hair would disappear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selection (biology)
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blond Hair
Blond (male) or blonde (female), also referred to as fair hair, is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some yellowish color. The color can be from the very pale blond (caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment) to reddish "strawberry" blond or golden-brownish ("sandy") blond colors (the latter with more eumelanin). Occasionally, the state of being blond, and specifically the occurrence of blond traits in a predominantly dark or colored population are referred to as blondism. Because hair color tends to darken with age, natural blond hair is significantly less common in adulthood. Naturally-occurring blond hair is primarily found in people living in or descended from people who lived in the northern half of Europe, and may have evolved alongside the development of light skin that enables more efficient synthesis of vitamin D, due to northern Europe's lower levels of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2002 In Science
The year 2002 in science and technology involved some significant events Astronomy and space science * February 19 – NASA's ''2001 Mars Odyssey'' space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system. * May 26 – The ''Mars Odyssey'' finds signs of huge water ice deposits on the planet Mars. * June 4 – Quaoar is discovered. * June 6 – 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event: An object with an estimated diameter of 10 meters impacts with Earth's atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and detonates in mid-air. * June 10 – Solar eclipse of June 10, 2002: Annular solar eclipse. * September 25 – 2002 Vitim event: Possible bolide impact in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. * December 4 – Solar eclipse of December 4, 2002: Total solar eclipse. Biology * 18 April – New suborder of insects, Mantophasmatidae, announced. * Publication of ''Systema Porifera: a guide to the classification of sponges'' edited by John N. A. Hooper and Rob W. M. Van Soest. Carto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Genocide Conspiracy Theory
The white genocide, white extinction, or white replacement conspiracy theory is a white supremacist conspiracy theory which states that there is a deliberate plot, often blamed on Jews, to promote miscegenation, interracial marriage, mass non-white immigration, racial integration, low fertility rates, abortion, governmental land-confiscation from whites, organised violence, and eliminationism in white-founded countries in order to cause the extinction of whites through forced assimilation, mass immigration, and violent genocide. Less frequently, black people, Hispanics, and Muslims are blamed for the secret plot, but merely as more fertile immigrants, invaders, or violent aggressors, rather than the masterminds. White genocide is a political myth based on pseudoscience, pseudohistory, and ethnic hatred, and is driven by a psychological panic often termed " white extinction anxiety". White people are not dying out or facing extermination. The purpose of the conspiracy theory is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Common Misconceptions
Each entry on this list of common misconceptions is worded as a correction; the misconceptions themselves are implied rather than stated. These entries are concise summaries of the main subject articles, which can be consulted for more detail. A common misconception is a viewpoint or factoid that is often accepted as true but which is actually false. They generally arise from conventional wisdom (such as old wives' tales), stereotypes, superstitions, Fallacy, fallacies, a misunderstanding of science, or the popularization of pseudoscience. Some common misconceptions are also considered to be urban legends, and they are often involved in moral panics. Arts and culture Business * Legal Tender Act, Legal tender laws in the United States do not state that a private business, a person, or an organization must accept cash for payment, though it must be regarded as valid payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. a. b. c. * Adidas is not an acronym for either "All day I dream ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hardy–Weinberg Principle
In population genetics, the Hardy–Weinberg principle, also known as the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, model, theorem, or law, states that allele and genotype frequencies in a population will remain constant from generation to generation in the absence of other evolutionary influences. These influences include ''genetic drift'', '' mate choice'', ''assortative mating'', ''natural selection'', ''sexual selection'', ''mutation'', '' gene flow'', ''meiotic drive'', ''genetic hitchhiking'', '' population bottleneck'', '' founder effect,'' ''inbreeding and outbreeding depression''. In the simplest case of a single locus with two alleles denoted ''A'' and ''a'' with frequencies and , respectively, the expected genotype frequencies under random mating are for the AA homozygotes, for the aa homozygotes, and for the heterozygotes. In the absence of selection, mutation, genetic drift, or other forces, allele frequencies ''p'' and ''q'' are constant between generations, so equilibri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Hair
Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals homozygous for a recessive allele on chromosome 16 that produces an altered version of the MC1R protein. Red hair varies in hue from a deep burgundy or bright copper, or auburn, to burnt orange or red-orange to strawberry blond. Characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin, it is associated with fair skin color, lighter eye color, freckles, and sensitivity to ultraviolet light. Cultural reactions to red hair have been varied. The term "redhead" has been in use since at least 1510. Geographic distribution Modern Northern and Western Europe Red hair is most commonly found at the northern an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Selection
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charles Darwin popularised the term "natural selection", contrasting it with selective breeding, artificial selection, which in his view is intentional, whereas natural selection is not. Genetic diversity, Variation exists within all populations of organisms. This occurs partly because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual organism, and their offspring can inherit such mutations. Throughout the lives of the individuals, their genomes interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the Cell (biology), cell, other cells, other individuals, populations, species, as well as the abiotic environment. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genetic Drift
Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance. Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and thereby reduce genetic variation. It can also cause initially rare alleles to become much more frequent and even fixed. When few copies of an allele exist, the effect of genetic drift is more notable, and when many copies exist, the effect is less notable. In the middle of the 20th century, vigorous debates occurred over the relative importance of natural selection versus neutral processes, including genetic drift. Ronald Fisher, who explained natural selection using Mendelian genetics, held the view that genetic drift plays at most a minor role in evolution, and this remained the dominant view for several decades. In 1968, population geneticist Motoo Kimura rekindled the debate with his neutral theory of molecular evolution, which claims that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Extinction
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Because a species' potential range may be very large, determining this moment is difficult, and is usually done retrospectively. This difficulty leads to phenomena such as Lazarus taxa, where a species presumed extinct abruptly "reappears" (typically in the fossil record) after a period of apparent absence. More than 99% of all species that ever lived on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, are estimated to have died out. It is estimated that there are currently around 8.7 million species of eukaryote globally, and possibly many times more if microorganisms, like bacteria, are included. Notable extinct animal species include non-avian dinosaurs, saber-toothed cats, dodos, m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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