Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 12:50:15 +0100
From: Chris Lees <chrislees@easynet.co.uk>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: FW: gene-ulture model etc (still going, sorry)
Derek wrote :
<snip>
> evolutionary geneticists (many of
> whom are even more savage than I am) are going to rip you to shreds, and
> the reputation of memetics along with you.
<snip>
Yeh. I've heard of some that can't even be let out of their cages without being
tranquilised and muzzled first, lest they decide to devour their guards.
But maybe all this sturm und drang is in vain ? -see below-
I know this is not directly relevant to the taboo / reproduction / mathematics
points that you are arguing about. But if the gentetic linkage for homosexuality
is so dubious , wouldn't it be more interseting to choose more solid ground
for the example ?
Chris.
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrislees/tao.index.html
> WASHINGTON (April 22, 1999 3:04 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Male
> homosexuality cannot be genetically linked, despite a previous finding by
> National Cancer Institute researchers claiming so, the journal Science said
> in a report to be published Friday.
>
> "These results do not support an X-linked gene underlying male
> homosexuality," lead author George Rice, a professor at the University of
> Western Ontario in Canada, said in Science.
>
> In 1993, NCI researcher Dean Hamer who studied 40 pairs of homosexual
> brothers found that one or several genes transmitted by the mother and
> situated in the Xq28 chromosome strongly influenced who develops the trait.
>
> However, Rice and his three colleagues examined 52 pairs of homosexual
> brothers for the presence of four markers in the chromosome region and said
> the brothers "were no more likely to share the Xq28 markers than would be
> expected by chance."
>
> With their data, the Canadian researchers said they could "exclude the
> possibility of any gene in Xq28 with a major genetic influence" on
> homosexuality.
>
> However, Rice said the "search for genetic factors in homosexuality should
> continue" and added they were "looking for a link on other chromosomes."
>
> Even so, he stated taken together the results of different studies "would
> suggest that if there is a (genetic) linkage, it's so weak that it's not
> important."
>
> Unpublished data from professor Alan Sanders at the University of Chicago
> also does not support the theory of a genetic link for homosexuality, a
> Science editorial said.
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