Humans can be up to 10% genetically different

[JazzRemington]

"LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - One person's DNA code can be as much as 10 percent different from another's, researchers said on Wednesday in a finding that questions the idea that everyone on Earth is 99.9 percent identical genetically.

They said their new version of the human genetic map, or "book of life," fills in many missing pages and chapters to explain how genes are involved in common diseases.

"This important work will help identify genetic causes of many diseases," Dr. Mark Walport, director of Britain's Wellcome Trust, said in a statement.

Instead of showing single variations in human DNA that make people unique, the map looks at differences in duplications and deletions of large DNA segments known as copy number variants or CNVs, which can help explain why some people are susceptible to illnesses such as AIDS and others are not."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22205028.htm

[P.L.U.C.K.]

cool! :D

[Eastside Revolt]

This is all very new to me, some people are not susceptible to aids?

[Janus]

some people are not susceptible to aids?
Certain genes help to prevent the entry of HIV though the protection isn't absolute so it is possible that a person with such genotype will not be infected with HIV.

Genes can also affect the progression rate of HIV and thus delay the progression towards AIDS which explains why long term survivors survive so long.

[Ol' Dirty]

I think this is incorrect, but whatever.

[RevolutionaryMarxist]

This 'discovery' could very easily be used to justify extreme racial differences through 'science'. I am very skeptical of this, it would throw a lot of things into different directions.

[Janus]

This 'discovery' could very easily be used to justify extreme racial differences through 'science'
Perhaps though racists rarely justify their hatred through science and they have kept up their doctrine and ignored the previous genetic theory that we were all 99% similar.

[Severian]

What they're describing here, is that people have different numbers of copies of the same gene. (If you follow the link, it's talking about copy number variants, CNVs.)

How big a difference that makes, is the question.

The answer depends on how genes are turned on and off, and there's a lot that nobody knows yet about that.

[STI]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26, 2006 09:58 pm
I think this is incorrect, but whatever.
It takes more than that to "fly" when it comes to science.

[chimx]

well, when it comes to science, i think it takes more than anything revleft would have to offer to fly.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

Originally posted by [email protected] 06, 2006 08:45 am
well, when it comes to science, i think it takes more than anything revleft would have to offer to fly.
Well this is a political website. We don't discover the facts, we just discuss their political implications.

[Pawn Power]

The answer depends on how genes are turned on and off, and there's a lot that nobody knows yet about that.

Yes, and furthermore only 3% of human DNA is expressed.


This 'discovery' could very easily be used to justify extreme racial differences through 'science'

Probably not considering there is just as much, and sometimes more, genetic difference within ethnicities or bogus “races” as there is between them.

[Fawkes]

Originally posted by [email protected] 27, 2006 04:07 pm

This 'discovery' could very easily be used to justify extreme racial differences through 'science'
Perhaps though racists rarely justify their hatred through science and they have kept up their doctrine and ignored the previous genetic theory that we were all 99% similar.
Yeah they do. The smarter ones (I know, that seems like an oxymoron) do.

Some they try to justify their positions through science. However, don't be fooled by those studies because investigations have shown that the scientist who conducted those studies recieved his data from extremely unreliable soucres (one of them being Penthouse). By the way, CLICK ME, (http://www.***************/forum/showthread.php/reality-race-344024.html)

[TC]

Anti-racists shouldn't try to argue along lines that racism is wrong because human genetic differences are so slight or whatever, doing so makes the mistake of subordinating a political principle, the emancipation of all people, to a scientific hypothesis, and is therefore very stupid. We don't want people to be treated equally regardless of their race or biology because its scienficially indistinguishable, we want them to be treated equally regardless of their race because it is politically and socially desirable regardless.

Whether human DNA differs .01% or 10.0% has no political implication, discrimination is as wrong with a human variation of 10% as it is with none at all. To politicize these scientific questions simply plays the reactionaries game by implicitly accepting that it could be relevant and then claiming that it just so happens not to be; we ought to deny the political relevance of genetics altogether.

[Fawkes]

^^ If you are speaking to me, I never said that we should figh racism based on the idea that all humans are genetically very similar. I was simply saying how that scientist's sources are totally unreliable, so even if it did make a difference how genetically different they are, the evidence to support it is not very strong.

[Janus]

Yeah they do
They try. Particularly the more organized racist groups or governments though much of the info. is usually easily discredited like you said.

[Ol' Dirty]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 05:53 pm
Anti-racists shouldn't try to argue along lines that racism is wrong because human genetic differences are so slight or whatever, doing so makes the mistake of subordinating a political principle, the emancipation of all people, to a scientific hypothesis, and is therefore very stupid. We don't want people to be treated equally regardless of their race or biology because its scienficially indistinguishable, we want them to be treated equally regardless of their race because it is politically and socially desirable regardless.

Whether human DNA differs .01% or 10.0% has no political implication, discrimination is as wrong with a human variation of 10% as it is with none at all. To politicize these scientific questions simply plays the reactionaries game by implicitly accepting that it could be relevant and then claiming that it just so happens not to be; we ought to deny the political relevance of genetics altogether.
That's bullshit. There's no such thing as race.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 05, 2007 04:53 pm
Whether human DNA differs .01% or 10.0% has no political implication, discrimination is as wrong with a human variation of 10% as it is with none at all.
Sure. But I gotta disagree with the idea that we shouldn't try to debunk racist pseudoscience.

To take a historical example, the claim that Black people had smaller brains was certainly useful in trying to justify racism. The scientific debunking of that false claim was useful in the fight against racism.

As I pointed out earlier, it's not clear how this finding - about variation in the number of copies of genes - means practically, in terms of what's expressed.

[TC]

Originally posted by Muigwithania+January 08, 2007 08:54 pm--> (Muigwithania @ January 08, 2007 08:54 pm)
[email protected] 05, 2007 05:53 pm
Anti-racists shouldn't try to argue along lines that racism is wrong because human genetic differences are so slight or whatever, doing so makes the mistake of subordinating a political principle, the emancipation of all people, to a scientific hypothesis, and is therefore very stupid. We don't want people to be treated equally regardless of their race or biology because its scienficially indistinguishable, we want them to be treated equally regardless of their race because it is politically and socially desirable regardless.

Whether human DNA differs .01% or 10.0% has no political implication, discrimination is as wrong with a human variation of 10% as it is with none at all. To politicize these scientific questions simply plays the reactionaries game by implicitly accepting that it could be relevant and then claiming that it just so happens not to be; we ought to deny the political relevance of genetics altogether.
That's bullshit. There's no such thing as race. [/b]
There mere existence of human genetic variation is undeniable and obvious (if you haven't noticed, we aren't all clones of each other), it doesn't imply that this genetic variation forms along the lines of discreet biological races, whether the variation is slight or dramatic.


(As severian knows, i wont be responding to his absurd and unfounded accusation that i don't want to "debunk racist psudoscience" as i'm applying a no platform for trolls policy to him (http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=16918&st=0&#entry1292238766))