Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I am back in Atlanta after a grueling couple of flights from Stockholm, which wound up with me getting the MIDDLE seat on a two-hour United flight from Newark to Atlanta. I hadn’t realized how small the seats have become, especially in the middle where you can’t stretch out much; and on top of that I was seated next to a Person of Considerable Girth whose excess avoirdupois kept insinuating itself over the armrest, the blubbery exudate pressing up against my side. People need to learn ARMREST etiquette!
Oh, and the TSA security lines from Newark are a vision of Hell.
But I am here at last, and plan to sample some of the southern delicacies of this town. Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, it grows colder, and they’ve even had a few flakes of snow. Now that I’m gone, Hili is using Cyrus as a large hot water bottle.
Cyrus: It gets colder and colder outside.
Hili: Time for winter furs.
In Polish:
Cyrus: Na dworze robi się coraz chłodniej.
Hili: Pora na zimowe futra.
So if Hili starts looking a bit chunky over the next few months, remember that she puts on a few pounds in winter, accentuated by her thicker coat, but loses them come spring.
As Jerry is about to, or has just completed, a trip from Europe over the Atlantic to North America, I thought I’d share a photo of a fellow traveler– this hemipteran, or “true bug”, that arrived today at a furniture store in Racine, Wisconsin, in a shipment of furniture from Norway.
A Norwegian hemipteran, after it’s arrival in Racine, Wisconsin, USA.
Although many people call all insects (and other small creatures) “bugs”, only insects of the order Hemiptera are called “bugs” by entomologists, and hence are often distinguished from hoi polloi bugs as “true bugs”. Introduced organisms of all kinds– gypsy moths, rabbits, cane toads, brown snakes, goats, etc.– can cause ecologicalhavoc, and some, such as the zebra mussel, have, like this bug, hitched a ride on commercial shipments. I’ve seen lizards, frogs, snails, and ants that have arrived in nursery shipments. Our little friend above, however, will cause no havoc– he has been corralled, and is wending his way to me, for handing over to my department’s entomologist
Once it’s here, she’ll want to identify it, but as a Norwegian species, our local keys and ID guides might not get much past family-level identification. Are there any Norwegian or other European readers with an expertise in insects who would care to venture an identification? Please let us know in the comments.
[EDIT: IN JANUARY 2016, KEY POINTS OF THE STUDY DESCRIBED BELOW WERE DISCOVERED TO BE UNTRUE. Read this to see why.]
As regular readers will know, some of the most astonishing discoveries in the whole of science that have occurred over the last few years have been with regard to our understanding of recent human evolution.
In the last five years we have not only sequenced the genome of an extinct form of human, generally known as Neanderthal man, we have also used genomics to prove the existence of another human population, called the Denisovans after the name of the cave in Siberia where one tooth and a little girl’s finger bone – our only physical traces of this type of human – were found.
Studies of these genomes, using the kind of analysis we talked about yesterday, have revealed the amazing fact that our human ancestors mated with both Neanderthals and Denisovans. We know this because we can find traces of the genomes of both these extinct types in modern humans.
For example, it turns out that the gene that helps Tibetans live at high altitude was obtained from the Denisovans! There are only 95 genetic differences between humans and Neanderthals that would produce a difference in an amino acid (the building blocks of proteins), out of the 3 billion genetic bases in our genome.
This exchange of genes between humans and Neanderthals and Denisovans proves that, from a biological point of view, we were all part of the same species, whatever differences there may have been in our morphology (Neanderthals were generally stockier and stronger – their skeletons show many signs of fractures; we know nothing at all about Denisovan morphology beyond that tooth and finger).
Modern reconstructions of Neanderthals tend to look less like a cartoon caveman, and more like this:
Neanderthal reconstruction: Fabio Fogliazza/Human Evolution Museum (MEH)-Junta de Castilla y León (Spain)
These interactions with our extinct cousins may have gone one quite extensively. In spring this year the genome from a human skeleton from 40,000 years ago was analysed, showing that this person – who lived in what is now Romania – had as much Nenaderthal DNA as if he had had a great-great-grandparent who was a Neanderthal…
Up until last week, it was argued that all modern populations outside of Africa contained DNA from the encounters between the humans who left Africa around 60,000 years ago, and then met the Neanderthals in Europe and the Middle East. Those humans who migrated out through Asia towards the far East, Australia, and Oceania, also mated with the Denisovans.
Modern Africans, it was argued, had no Neanderthal DNA, for the simple reason that their African ancestors did not leave the continent, and so did not encounter our Neanderthal cousins. Intriguingly, there are hints that African DNA may contain unique signs of mating with yet another, completely unknown, form of human, in Africa. These DNA sequences are apparently not shared by modern people from outside Africa.
The story has now become even more complicated, following the publication of an article last week studying the DNA from a man who lived in what is now Ethiopia, around 4,500 years ago. This man, who the scientists called Mota, is the first ancient DNA to have been isolated from Africa – most skeletal remains from the continent have been too degraded by bacteria to be useful. So researchers deliberately sought a skeleton in arid mountainous conditions, hoping it would be in a good state to be analysed.
Apart from the technical prowess involved (and the promise of future studies of other, older African skeletons), analysis of Mota’s genome provided a big surprise.
It had long been known from archaeological data that people from Middle East had migrated into Africa around 3,000 years ago, in what is known as ‘back-flow’. So the researchers expected that Mota, who predated this migration, should not have had any genetic connection with Europe. But it turned out that his closest relatives would have come from Sardinia, off the coast of Italy. This suggested that the ‘back-flow’ from West Eurasia into Africa was of far greater duration and extent than archaeologists had previously suspected.
When they compared Mota’s DNA with those of modern African populations, they found that the European sequences he carried were also present deep in the continent, even amongst the Pygmies of the Congo. Even ‘reference’ African genomes, such as those from the Yoruba and Mtubi peoples, which were thought not to have been affected by interbreeding with Europeans, turned out to have around 6% of their DNA from European DNA, like Mota.
This indicates that there was substantial migration into Africa by people from Europe and the Middle East, and that their offspring – and their DNA sequences – mixed deep into the Continent. It should be noted that most of that DNA probably did not code for proteins (only 5% of our DNA does this) but will either have been regulatory DNA that controls gene expression or, more, like, the other 85% of our genome, which apparently does nothing and is ‘junk DNA’.
Map showing the distribution of genetic similarities across the African continent, in comparison to Mota (Gallego Lllorente et al. in press)Map showing the proportion of West Eurasian component, λMota,LBK, across the African continent. (Gallego Lllorente et al. in press)
The final novelty came when the researchers looked at Neanderthal DNA. Mota carried that DNA, just like me, because his ancestors had mated with Neanderthals tens of thousands of years earlier.
And it turned out that some of those Neanderthal sequences could also now be detected in African populations, too. They were very dilute – around 0.5% – but they were clearly there. They do not indicate that there were Neanderthals in Africa, but rather that when the offspring of Mota and others carrying migratory European sequences spread their DNA into Africa, they also spread small amounts of Neanderthal DNA, too.
Those sequences had always been seen, but they had been misinterpreted – because they were present in Neanderthals, Europeans and Africans, researchers had assumed that they were ‘ancestral’, that is, traces of our deep common ancestry in Africa. Now we know that at least some of them were the consequence of distant matings with Neanderthals, carried into Africa by people migrating into the continent.
It is even possible that those rumours of strange DNA sequences in African populations may in fact relate to matings elsewhere in the world, the consequences of which were then carried back into Africa by migrants, leaving their traces in the DNA of today’s populations.
This is a momentous time in the study of human evolution. Sadly, I’m too late in my career to start over, but students should seize the moment and flock into this area. As Wordsworth said with regard to the French Revolution:
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!
I keep hearing from Templeton that I’ve severely misjudged them—that they’re really about science and not woo. (I don’t think they like the way I described them in Faith versus Fact.) And I keep waiting patiently for them to keep their promise deep-six the woo. I’m sure that, like the promised “research” of the Discovery Institute, those changes are right around the corner.
But how can I believe their claims of “we’re off in a different direction now” when I get announcements like this, sent by a reader What’s below is sadly typical of much of Templeton’s activity, and comes from an email sent to Oxford University’s Department of Philosophy mailing list (my emphasis)
Essay prize: Metaphysics of the Trinity
The Metaphysics of Entanglement project, based in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and directed by Dr [NAME REDACTED TO AVOID EMBARRASSING THE PARTY IN CHARGE], offers a series of essay prizes open to students and early career researchers.
The 2016 prize is run in conjunction with the project’s conference on ‘The Metaphysics of the Trinity: New Directions’, taking place from March 14th – 16th 2016 at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The winning essay or essays will be presented at this conference. Details of the conference can be found here.
The proceedings of the conference will be published, edited through the research group, and it is expected that the winning essay will be published with the invited papers.
Submission requirements:
Submissions are invited from postgraduate students and from early career researchers (understood as being within 8 years of receipt of PhD, though exceptions will be considered – please email for advice in the latter case). Since it is expected that the winning essay will be published with the invited papers, entries should not be under consideration for publication elsewhere.
The topic of the prize is: The Metaphysics of the Trinity. We are especially interested in papers developing new approaches to the Trinity informed by contemporary metaphysics.
The limit is 8000 words.
Anonymised submissions should be sent to EMAIL REDACTED; on or before Monday 1st February 2016 (GMT).
The monetary value of the prize is £250. Papers will be judged by a blind peer-review process by relevant experts. Please contact EMAIL REDACTED with any queries.
The Project, and the prize, is funded by the generous support of the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
Yes, Templeton’s got its sticky hands into the Oxford Philosophy Department now! Note that this project is part of the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF), one of three organizations funded by Sir John Templeton’s mutual-fund billions, the other two are the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) and the Templeton Religion Trust. Here is the “core funding area” of the TWCF:
The Core Funding Area that receives a majority of TWCF’s funding is Humility-in-Theology. This title does not refer to a conventional meaning of theology, but stems from Sir John’s belief that theology encompasses all the Big Questions about reality, the universe, and the nature of human beings. Projects suitable for funding under this area therefore include investigations about the Big Bang, origins of life, quantum theory, and ultimate reality. To find out more about Humility-in-Theology, click the link below:
The theme of “Big Questions” surfaces again in the statement of purpose of the more “science-y” part of Templeton’s activities, the John Templeton Foundation’s “Science and the Big Questions” funding arena. Note that the idea of “humility” also surfaces in the science wing:
In posing the Big Questions, Sir John stressed the need for humility and openness, and he saw the possibility of important contributions from various modes of inquiry. He especially wished to encourage researchers in the natural and human sciences to bring their rigorous methods to bear on the sorts of subjects that he identified, but he was also enthusiastic about the insights that might come from new approaches in philosophy and theology. Whatever the field, he expected research supported by the Foundation to conform to the highest intellectual standards.
For Sir John, the overarching goal of asking the Big Questions was to discover what he called “new spiritual information.” This term, to his mind, encompassed progress not only in our conception of religious truths but also in our understanding of the deepest realities of human nature and the physical world. As he wrote in the Foundation’s charter, he wanted to encourage every sort of opinion leader—from scientists and journalists to clergy and theologians—to become more open-minded about the possible character of ultimate reality and the divine.
Clearly, Templeton’s strategy is to farm out the more science-y stuff to the JTF itself, leave the woo and religion to the other two branches. This strategy, which deceives nobody, enables them to claim that they’re really interested in promoting science. But what they’re really interested in is fulfilling Sir John’s own Big Question: seeing how science can tell us about the divine.
My response is simple: it can’t. Can I haz Templeton Prize now?
But this essay project is small potatoes compared to the ongoing multi-year “The Metaphysics of the Trinity: New Directions” project at Oxford, with a big conference scheduled for next March at Corpus Christi College. That must have cost Templeton some dosh, as three of the six “researchers” are being flown in from the U.S. Why isn’t this embarrassing endeavor run through the University’s Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford (yes, there is one, described as a “faculty of researchers”). Aren’t philosophers supposed to be mostly atheists?
I mean, folks, seriously? Templeton wants new approaches to the Trinity informed by contemporary metaphysics? Why not new approaches to Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu—the Trimurti of Hinduism—informed by metaphysics? Or new approaches to John Frum and Cargo Cults informed by metaphysics? Before one takes new metaphysical approaches to the Trinity, one should make damn sure there IS a Trinity.
It’s stuff like this that makes me not only doubtful of Templeton’s promises to reform, but also amazed that they have the guts to purvey woo like this—and pay people money for it! It’s a completely worthless exercise in making up stuff about Christianity. And what kind of “charity project” is this? Think of how many children’s lives could be saved if that money were donated to African relief instead! This “Metaphysics of Entanglement Project,” which lasts for several years, must have been expensive, and is part of Templeton’s World Charity Foundation,
Since I know that some of Templeton’s officials read this site, I ask them: how can you be serious about this stuff? Aren’t you ashamed to look at yourself in the mirror when you run competitions like this? And what happened to your repeated assurances that you’re moving away from this kind of stuff.
All I can say is that all three branches of Templeton’s activities appear to be an enormous waste of money. Imagine if all the brainpower and money devoted to reconciling science and religion, and trying to answer the Big Questions through either science and theology, were devoted to real humanitarian questions instead. Imagine no accommodationism: it’s easy if you try.
Regular contributor and satirist Pliny the in Between has a new cartoon offering a rebuttal to an overused and rather tired criticism often “New Atheists” i.e. those that had the unforgivably bad manners to publicly mention that they were unbelievers in the 21st century.
“You haven’t read enough theology” is a constant refrain, and no amount of actual reading of theology is ever sufficient. You can be assured that if you ever do embark on a mission of reading Sophisticated Theology(™), you will read the wrong ones, or will miss the ones you really should have read, or just won’t understand what you are supposed to understand.
Here’s a sweet little lagniappe to go with your morning coffee, or lunch time sandwich or evening cup of tea, depending on where in the world you are today.
My name is Brandon and I began Humans of New York in the summer of 2010. I thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants, so I set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map. I started collecting quotes and short stories from the people I met, and began including these snippets alongside the photographs.
“I try to come out here in the mornings before work. I know what it’s like to be hungry and not have a voice. I grew up 50 years ago in the housing projects of London. We didn’t starve, but a lot of times we had nothing for dinner but beans, or maybe some ham on toast. So I went to bed hungry a lot. And when you’re a kid, you don’t really have a say in the matter. So I feed the animals because they can’t really tell you if they’re hungry. I’m not changing the fucking world. But it’s better than not doing it.”
WEIT stalwart Stephen Barnard sent Jerry some more gorgeous photos from Idaho with his comments.
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). The first two photos show the difference in size between the female and the male. That’s Desi on the left and Lucy on the right.
This American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) has been patrolling my backyard. It likes to perch high in a 40′ spruce that gets good evening sun. This same perch is favored by many other birds — Red-tails, Flickers, kingbirds, and doves — as in the last photo I shot moments before the Kestrel showed up. It’s good hunting here. I keep my feeders full.
This large bull moose was getting frisky with some cows. A smaller, less well endowed bull tried to horn in and the big guy chased him off.
There were at least eight moose in the field across the creek and in my yard — by far the most I’ve seen at once.
Thank you, Stephen, for sharing these amazing photos.
PCCE here; I’m posting Hili as I’m sitting at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport with time to kill. My visit was, I think, a success, and was certainly enjoyable. I met all kinds of scientists, from grad students to professors, and most were interested in or working on speciation. Further, atheism is the default worldview here, and Swedes simply can’t understand both the pervasiveness of and respect for religion in America. It was really refreshing to be around rational people who have no truck with superstition, and to hear how incredulous they were at America’s religiosity. And, as far as I can see, Sweden is moral and law-abiding, putting the lie to religionists’ assertions that you can’t have a moral society without God. I had two good meals during my visit, one Italian and the other Swedish (photos to come), nice breakfasts (Swedish pancakes with FRESH lingonberries this morning); and my talk was well attended, so that people were sitting in the aisles and lining all the walls.
It’s been a short two days here, and now it’s time to head to Atlanta for the AAA convention. It will be a long day today, what with a 9-hour flight to Newark, a four-hour layover, and then a 2.5-hour flight to Atlanta. Sadly, I have a window seat across the Atlantic (I much prefer the aisle) and a dreaded MIDDLE SEAT to Atlanta, despite my request otherwise. (This is known as a First World Problem.) The good news is that the Swedish equivalent of the TSA didn’t grope me or even touch me.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has her own concerns: about noms, of course (Hili always perks up when she nears noise in the kitchen):
Hili: Let’s change our location, there is some movement over there.
Cyrus: Cool it. It’s just dish washing.
In Polish:
Hili: Zmieniamy lokal, tam jest jakiś ruch.
Cyrus: Spokojnie, to tylko zmywanie naczyń.
p.s. The Swedes love licorice: the airport stores are jammed with it. A big favorite appears to be SALTY LICORICE, which I tried but found pretty unpalatable. But it must be better than lutefisk.
