02 August 2013

Notes - fresh material / 597 w. on Pouch 20


          Night time, boy. You are surprised you have nothing written so far. You didn't think about it until now. A leisurely morning then when the mail arrived you had four new September magazines for reading, Consumer Reports, Automobile, and Motor Trend, which you did read, and Discover which you are saving for tomorrow. Lunch at Cracker Barrel was earlier than usual because you were expecting a phone call from Andy but that was cancelled. For supper Carol created a cooked veggie and noodle delight. You watched the national news and two new episodes of "Covert Affair". A few minutes ago you checked your email and Doug had sent you a couple articles. One in particular is important to your story because you may have to make minor changes from an earlier chapter or two. Here is the article. - Amorella

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Genetic 'Adam & Eve' Chromosome Study Traces All Men To Man Who Lived 135,000 Years Ago

LiveScience  |  By Tia Ghose
Posted: 08/01/2013 4:16 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/02/2013 8:18 pm EDT

Almost every man alive can trace his origins to one man who lived about 135,000 years ago, new research suggests. And that ancient man likely shared the planet with the mother of all women.
The findings, detailed today (Aug. 1) in the journal Science, come from the most complete analysis of the male sex chromosome, or the Y chromosome, to date. The results overturn earlier research, which suggested that men's most recent common ancestor lived just 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.
Despite their overlap in time, ancient "Adam" and ancient "Eve" probably didn't even live near each other, let alone mate.
"Those two people didn't know each other," said Melissa Wilson Sayres, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study.
Tracing history
Researchers believe that modern humans left Africa between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago, and that the mother of all women likely emerged from East Africa. But beyond that, the details get fuzzy.
The Y chromosome is passed down identically from father to son, so mutations, or point changes, in the male sex chromosome can trace the male line back to the father of all humans. By contrast, DNA from the mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of the cell, is carried inside the egg, so only women pass it on to their children. The DNA hidden inside mitochondria, therefore, can reveal the maternal lineage to an ancient Eve.

But over time, the male chromosome gets bloated with duplicated, jumbled-up stretches of DNA, said study co-author Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist at Stanford University in California. As a result, piecing together fragments of DNA from gene sequencing was like trying to assemble a puzzle without the image on the box top, making thorough analysis difficult.
Y chromosome
Bustamante and his colleagues assembled a much bigger piece of the puzzle by sequencing the entire genome of the Y chromosome for 69 men from seven global populations, from African San Bushmen to the Yakut of Siberia.
By assuming a mutation rate anchored to archaeological events (such as the migration of people across the Bering Strait), the team concluded that all males in their global sample shared a single male ancestor in Africa roughly 125,000 to 156,000 years ago.
In addition, mitochondrial DNA from the men, as well as similar samples from 24 women, revealed that all women on the planet trace back to a mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago — almost the same time period during which the Y-chromosome Adam lived.
More ancient Adam
But the results, though fascinating, are just part of the story, said Michael Hammer, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.
A separate study in the same issue of the journal Science found that men shared a common ancestor between 180,000 and 200,000 years ago.
And in a study detailed in March in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Hammer's group showed that several men in Africa have unique, divergent Y chromosomes that trace back to an even more ancient man who lived between 237,000 and 581,000 years ago.
"It doesn't even fit on the family tree that the Bustamante lab has constructed — It's older," Hammer told LiveScience.
Gene studies always rely on a sample of DNA and, therefore, provide an incomplete picture of human history. For instance, Hammer's group sampled a different group of men than Bustamante's lab did, leading to different estimates of how old common ancestors really are.
Adam and Eve?
These primeval people aren't parallel to the biblical Adam and Eve. They weren't the first modern humans on the planet, but instead just the two out of thousands of people alive at the time with unbroken male or female lineages that continue on today.
The rest of the human genome contains tiny snippets of DNA from many other ancestors — they just don't show up in mitochondrial or Y-chromosome DNA, Hammer said. (For instance, if an ancient woman had only sons, then her mitochondrial DNA would disappear, even though the son would pass on a quarter of her DNA via the rest of his genome.)
As a follow-up, Bustamante's lab is sequencing Y chromosomes from nearly 2,000 other men. Those data could help pinpoint precisely where in Africa these ancient humans lived.
"It's very exciting," Wilson Sayres told LiveScience. "As we get more populations across the world, we can start to understand exactly where we came from physically."

From: Huffington Post - Science

[Doug, thank you again my old friend.]
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         2200 hours. I find this article very exciting, the male goes back further that sixty or seventy thousand years ago. This may be the latest evidence but science continues its studies. I love the gathering of fresh material.

         The mind is excited, the heart wonders and the soul rests this one out. That's how I see it from the inside, boy. Post, and have a better night sleeping. - Amorella


         2251 hours. I have a total of 597 words for Pouch 20 but I think it is too many to resolve this. There is much more I need to say.

         Let the characters take care of it, orndorff. Add and post. - Amorella

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Diplomatic Pouch 20 ©2013 working draft for GMG

         Blake and the phrase, "define the soul" tossed about in bed during the night. We say the soul is our essence, the embodiment of our individual selves. The soul is our mind as separate from our heart; but no, our mind is our reasoning, our consciousness, not our soul. Philosophies say our soul is our greater sense of duality, our immortal part. We are not gods. Besides the feminine pouch how is their Godofamily different from what many human equate with God, usually male. The Mother or the Father, what connotations are connected with each. They can know no more than we on such things were they a hundred thousand years ahead of us in their knowledge, society and technology? They are no wiser than we, otherwise they wouldn't have been stumbling around in our initial meetings. These alien people appear polite, kind and mannerly. We can be polite, kind and mannerly also. We can be . . .. Blake awoke immediately and fully.
         In a short time Blake knocked on Pyl and Justine's door and within minutes they were walking the corridor to breakfast. No sooner than they were settled with milk, juice and bowls of cereal that Hartolite and Friendly walked into the room with Yermey following shortly thereafter. After a few more minutes of casual banter among the six (and a bit of wit between Yermey and Blake) Blake drew the conclusion that his sister was attracted to Yermey for his mind and comfortably for no other reason. None Blake could think on in any case and he realized that Justin had not the hint of any jealousy so he dismissed it. He asked a question. "Last night we were talking about the soul. I am interested in your concept; do you people think of the soul as intellectual and emotional as we think of the mind and the heart?"
         "Morning fresh, these matters are easier to speak of," replied Friendly. "We think of the soul as immortal though not the same as Godofamily is immortal."
         "I think Blake was this on the soul Friendly," added Hartolite. "Our species and your own have similar thoughts on souls, hearts and minds. Each has no material weight nor is it in the same four dimensional space we find our physical selves."
         "We observe the heart and soul and mind through our personal thoughts and actions but they are immeasurable," continued Friendly.
         "We discern the heartansoulanmind in our friends also; just as you do," reinforced Hartolite.        
         Blake commented somewhat in dismay, "You are some twenty thousand years ahead of us and you are no further along scientifically? Last night, Yermey said that you have machinery that can detect a person's soul."
         "I think I said the word has to be defined first. This is easier to do in our home language because you focus on details. Hartolite brought this up just a minute ago when she spoke of how we cannot quantify the soul. We would never think to weight the heartansoulanmind." He muttered, "It is ridiculous to think on weighing the soul, it is madness."
         Pyl touched Yermey's hand in compassion, "It is madness, we do not think like that. We don't find the mind or even the soul as nearly as mysterious as the human heart."
         "That is another subject," commented Justin. "What can we say about the soul that we earthlings agree with, or at least can accept? That the soul is immortal, can we agree on that?
         "We can," declared Yermey as he slapped his hands on the table. "The soul is immortal."

597 words
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