News tagged with ancestors
Political motivations may have evolutionary links to physical strength
Men's upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to new research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Psychology & Psychiatry
May 15, 2013 |
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Study explains what triggers those late-night snack cravings
A study published in the most recent version of the journal Obesity found that the body's internal clock, the circadian system, increases hunger and cravings for sweet, starchy and salty foods in the evenings. While the ur ...
Overweight and Obesity
Apr 30, 2013 |
3.5 / 5 (2) |
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Completion of the zebrafish reference genome yields strong comparisons with the human genome
Researchers demonstrate today that 70 per cent of protein-coding human genes are related to genes found in the zebrafish and that 84 per cent of genes known to be associated with human disease have a zebrafish counterpart. ...
Genetics
Apr 17, 2013 |
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Python venom traces could waste antivenom
A University of Queensland researcher has found the potential for Australian doctors to prescribe expensive antivenom to snake bite victims who don't need it.
Other
Apr 16, 2013 |
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When it comes to love, men are the biggest risk takers
How far would you go to get the attention of the one you love?
Psychology & Psychiatry
Feb 11, 2013 |
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A history lesson from genes: Using DNA to tell us how populations change
When Charles Darwin first sketched how species evolved by natural selection, he drew what looked like a tree. The diagram started at a central point with a common ancestor, then the lines spread apart as ...
Genetics
Jan 09, 2013 |
4 / 5 (6) |
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Alzheimer's-plagued Colombia region is focus of drug trial
The unusually high incidence of early-onset Alzheimer's disease in this isolated cattle town has thrust it to the forefront of global efforts to find a cure for the debilitating malady.
Alzheimer's disease & dementia
Dec 17, 2012 |
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Gene knockout stops immune cell development
(Medical Xpress)—Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have identified the key gene in ensuring that our immune defences develop infection-fighting cells. No cells of the adaptive immune system ...
Immunology
Dec 11, 2012 |
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Indonesia says it has found more virulent bird flu strain
Indonesia has identified the bird flu virus that killed hundreds of thousands of ducks in recent weeks as a more virulent type which is new to the country, according to a letter seen Tuesday.
Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes
Dec 11, 2012 |
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HIV-1 vaccine development: Pinning down a moving target
HIV-1 is a genetically diverse collection of viruses, making it a moving target in vaccine development.
HIV & AIDS
Nov 12, 2012 |
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New research suggests all primates shared common blood type ancestor
(Medical Xpress)—An international team of researchers has found evidence that suggests that the ABO blood types found in all primates developed in a shared common ancestor. In their paper published in the ...
Medical research
Oct 23, 2012 |
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S. Africa labour court okays traditional healer's 'sick note'
A labour appeals court in South Africa has validated a "medical certificate" written by a traditional healer, the Sunday Times reported.
Other
Oct 21, 2012 |
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Most mutations come from dad
Humans inherit more than three times as many mutations from their fathers as from their mothers, and mutation rates increase with the father's age but not the mother's, researchers have found in the largest study of human ...
Genetics
Aug 24, 2012 |
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More sophisticated wiring, not just bigger brain, helped humans evolve beyond chimps
Human and chimp brains look anatomically similar because both evolved from the same ancestor millions of years ago. But where does the chimp brain end and the human brain begin?
Neuroscience
Aug 22, 2012 |
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Feces fossils lend new insights into connection between Native-Americans, diabetes
Why do Native Americans experience high rates of diabetes? A common theory is that they possess fat-hoarding "thrifty genes" left over from their ancestors – genes that were required for survival during ancient cycles ...
Diabetes
Jul 24, 2012 |
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Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth).
Two individuals have a genetic relationship if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In evolutionary theory, species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common descent. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other organisms capable of horizontal gene transfer.
Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and a total of about 2g+1 ancestors in the g generations before him. In practice, however, it is clear that the vast majority of ancestors of humans (and indeed any other species) are multiply related (see Pedigree collapse). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 generations old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans that have ever lived.
Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one's autosomal DNA is concerned: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.)
Some cultures confer reverence to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more youth-oriented cultural contexts display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek providence from their deceased ancestors; this practice is sometimes known as ancestor worship or, more accurately, ancestor veneration.
For more information about Ancestor, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
