Blue eyes: result of a recent mutation which has been identified

Originally all human beings had brown eyes. Then, sometime between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago, there was a mutation to "the so-called OCA2 gene, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives color to our hair, eyes and skin." Jeanna Bryner at MSNBC reports the story.

"A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a 'switch,' which literally 'turned off' the ability to produce brown eyes," Eiberg said.

The genetic switch is located in the gene adjacent to OCA2 and rather than completely turning off the gene, the switch limits its action, which reduces the production of melanin in the iris. In effect, the turned-down switch diluted brown eyes to blue.

If the OCA2 gene had been completely shut down, our hair, eyes and skin would be melanin-less, a condition known as albinism. [Snip]

Eiberg [from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen.] and his team examined DNA from mitochondria, the cells' energy-making structures, of blue-eyed individuals in countries including Jordan, Denmark and Turkey. This genetic material comes from females, so it can trace maternal lineages. [Snip]

...we can conclude that all blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor," Eiberg said. "They have all inherited the same switch at exactly the same spot in their DNA." Eiberg and his colleagues detailed their study in the Jan. 3 online edition of the journal Human Genetics.

That genetic switch somehow spread throughout Europe and now other parts of the world.

"The question really is, 'Why did we go from having nobody on Earth with blue eyes 10,000 years ago to having 20 or 40 percent of Europeans having blue eyes now?" Hawks said. "This gene does something good for people. It makes them have more kids."

I find this fascinating.

Now, just to satisfy my curiosity, when will the Chinese geneticists tell us about the history of the epicanthal fold that many people of East Asian and Southeast Asian descent have. But that is probably not something that can be pinned down to a single mutation so easily, and I'd guess that it's a little older than the blue-eye mutation. both are a direct result of the migration of human beings north out of Africa, as described in Nicholas Wade's outstanding book Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors.

Oh, wait. We don't need to find out those things, because the fundamentalist theological schools have already told us - those things are the results of decisions by the "Intelligent Designer." Such things are much to complicated for us mere human beings to understand, so we make a mistake trying. It is for us to do nothing more than worship the Intelligent Designer, obey the superior church leaders and tithe so that they can buy better cars and bigger mansions. Why would we mere sheep have to know about such things that are so far above our God-given station?

[Makes me want to contribute to some genetics research somewhere, just to spite the Discovery Institute and Mike Huckabee.]

American ignorance enforced by religious beliefs

Too many people believe that Creationism and enforced ignorance of Evolution and the Big Bang Theory, the organizing principles of modern biological science and modern physics, are things that exist only in small towns in Tennessee and the Appalachian mountains. Not true. Here is a story from Fort Bend County, Texas, which is a large portion of the Southeast part of the Houston Metropolitan Area, and not coincidently, includes the people who have sent both Representatives Tom DeLay and Ron Paul to Congress. From Nancy Hentschel in Sugar Land, Texas Fort Bend Now:

I taught sixth grade in Texas for three years 2001-2004. During that time, I was absolutely warned to not begin to say the word “evolution” or we would have every preacher in the district, as well as the media, breathing down our necks, and then there would truly be no teaching or learning. Sadly, I needed the position, so I played the “hide the issue and hide the learning” game.

Every time I tell this story, usually at a dinner party, people look at me like I am reliving some ancient past. I remind them that this policy ruled only two years ago – and in their progressive community. Like many issues that are easier to disbelieve than to address, people inevitably choose disbelief.

It is more difficult for me to choose disbelief, but over time, even I can begin to question my experience. So several weeks ago, I decided to test the continued use of this policy. I interviewed with a high school in Fort Bend and asked if I could use current events in the English classroom to explore why real evolution education is often an inoculation against racism and eugenic posturing. The interviewer quickly replied, “We do not challenge the sensitive “beliefs” of our student community.”
Too bad, … our most ill-informed students fall easy prey to eugenic manipulation, intolerance, and gangs because they do not understand real evolution. As can easily be seen in our prisons, it is the most ignorant of our population who are the most susceptible to a twisted understanding of evolution and racism. In more affluent areas, evolution ignorance is commonly twisted into lame justification for oppression.

God forbid that we should teach knowledge over “beliefs.” No wonder our politicians keep repeating the mantra “I believe …this and I believe …that” The “belief” word demands free reign to twist reality without being questioned. It is a true tragedy when believing trumps thinking, especially in our schools.

This isn't some backwoods rural small town. This is the public education system of part of the Houston, Texas metropolitan area. But it spreads through much of Texas politics, supported by Texas' current governor, Rick Perry.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) as an approval process for textbooks that are used in Texas Public Schools, and the state of Texas will not pay for textbooks which are not approved. Currently the TEA is considering the content of science textbooks for Texas schools. The textbooks that are printed for the massive Texas market are then also sold to school districts across the United States, because it is a lot cheaper to print only one version of a textbook.

But the members of the TEA are elected, in down-ballot but statewide elections that are of interest only to a few very committed political junkies and a whole lot of Texas religious nuts and Creationists. (Think Mike Huckabee, thought he comes from that small and mostly rural state north of Texas.) The Press does not cover elections to the TEA, so the candidates are not questioned regarding their policies or beliefs. also, the religiuos fundamentalists took complete control of the Texas Republican Party over two decades ago.

The result is that as long as the Press does not find a smoking gun issue that is can report on, the religious fundamentalists effectively appoint the members of the TEA, who then carefully craft the Texas textbooks to meet the demands of their religion. That means anti-science science textbooks, as well as pro-free market nationalist and nativist history texts. And remember, these same textbooks are offered cheap around the U.S.

That's the background behind the recent firing of the Texas Education Agency’s director of science, Christine Castillo Comer. What did she do to get fired? She emailed - without recommendation - information to likely participants regarding time and location of a talk to be given by a highly respected science educator who was also known as an opponent of Intelligent Design.

The TEA religious yahoos do not want good science information to be presented to children, because when they are ignorant they are easier to convert to Yahooism. They want the government to forbid science and teach only religion.

Mike Huckabee is a supreme religious Yahoo - with a great smile. He's a Dominionist This is another part of the Constitution that he wants to change because it conflicts with his definition of "God's standards."