July 31, 2004

• "More seriously, this disproves the theory of history promoted by Marx and Tolstoy that says only social forces matter, not individuals," Cochran claimed. "This shows that one man can make a difference" Wow. That, my friends, is fucking inspiring. I'm off to make some BABIES.
• If this interests you, I'd really recommend picking up a copy of Bryan Sykes' The Seven Daughters of Eve, where he breaks down rDNA to prove that every modern European is the descendent of one of seven women. Very good read, I thought.
• Yeah, I bet it was Ghengis. He even died on the job, IIRC.
• Get DOWN!!!
• Tyler-Smith noted, "In 'The Secret History of the Mongols,'...Genghis Khan's subordinates are represented as explicitly promising him the pick of captured women and horses." In other news, 8% of *all* Asian horses...
• Now wait one hairy mongolian minute here. My understanding is that the DNA is traced through the maternial line. That would mean it's Genghis Khan's MAMA that deserves R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Paging Frogs or some other biology whiz!
• It is mitochondrial DNA that is traced thru' the maternal line, organelles whose DNA is separate (I think) from that of the complete cell in which they reside - as I understand it. From what I gather from this article, the tested samples were not from the mitochondria. I believe mitochondrial DNA sampling is more of use in studying very ancient organic material where the main DNA sequences have decayed - mitochondrial DNA does not decay quite as much as the .. er.. main DNA.
• Thanks Nostril. Been too long since a Bio class and my reading is sketchy, at best.
• (But I'll bet Genghis' mom was a pistol, anyway.)
• Dude, pyrrthon1 said "trim!"
• But I hasten to add, BlueHorse, I may be completely wrong. But it's *something* like that. And.. I am not clear on the colloquial use of 'pistol' in this context. Sorry, I forgot my Amspeak.. ? clue for the Aussie?
• For a second I misread this as "80% of all Asian men".....wouldn't THAT be interesting.
• Nostrildamus has the gist of it. We can trace the maternal line through mitochondrial DNA because the egg contains these organelles (which replicate separately from the rest of the cell!) and a bunch of other things besides. Sperm is basically a packaged piece of genomic DNA with a motor. Sperm does contain some mitochondria, but it's thought that the egg's mitochondria vastly outnumber them so we can essentially use the organelle's DNA for establishing the maternal line.
• The really cool thing about this is that this study indicates the Y chromosomes for vast numbers of men in asia are virtually identical. Y chromosomes generally do not swap genes like other chromosomes do (in a process carried out during meiosis called crossing over), and if I remember correctly mutation rates for Y chromosomes are pretty low. Thus the Y chromosome you inherited from your dad is probably identical to the Y chromosome your great grandfather passed onto your grandfather etc. This is an awesome post - I'm going to have to track down the original research article somewhere.
• Look! Free dinner in London - well, only if you're a relative.
• Hey Nostril, pistol = firecracker = feisty gal = woman with energy, determination and spirit. I'd say "spunky", but that gets into a whole 'nother question...
• Spunky monkeys?
• Oh, and isn't it that 8% of Asian men are direct line male descendents of one man? Which means a whole huge chunk of men are descended from this one fella with maybe one or two or thirty women in the line, which I bet all adds up, no?
• descendents = descendants
• I assume that while it wasn't a bad gig to have, ole' Ghengis and his elder heirs knocked up a girl in every village as a way of politically binding recently conquered group to his larger empire. Chicks might have even dug him. There are plenty o girls who are into the power thing and he was actually a very clever dude. The major downside would have had been dealing with his mother, and even he was afraid of her.
• He looked a lot like Omar Shariff too, keep that in mind. He was probably good at playing bridge and giving backrubs to Peter O'Toole.
• Genghis Kahn is my new hero.
• Khaaan!
• My mom and her sisters strongly resemble A Taxing Woman. Their father was born near the Black Sea. Maybe not Genghis, but definitely a little border action somewhere in our history.
• This kind of thing makes me regret my habit of "spilling my seed on the ground" so much. Oh shit - there it goes again! Damn!
• 8% of all british plants are descended from one man.
• quidnunc?
• Is that why english carrots taste so salty?