31–40 of 72 posts
"Nobody 10,000 years ago had blue eyes," Hawks said. "Why is it that blue-eyed people had a 5% advantage in reproducing compared to non-blue-eyed people? I have no idea." Now that's interesting. Any theories?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Novelty? I have red hair, which I'm not sure is adaptive (eg it puts me at greater risk for skin cancer) but which partners have rated highly as an attractive feature specifically because it's unusual. Then again I have a compulsive draw towards partners from outside my own ethnic group, so there's some selection bias going on with that interpretation.
I think being attracted to different ethnic groups might have an advantage, too - keeping diversity in the gene pool up is probably beneficial.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Nobody 10,000 years ago had blue eyes," My reaction is that he misspoke here or he overstated his claim to make a point. I know nothing about the proportion of people with blue eyes back then or right now for that matter. But I think at the very least, you could only make that claim with a tiny, tiny, tiny amount of confidence. Maybe the proportion of humans with blue eyes was smaller back then, maybe it was larger,…
All blue eyed people traced to 10000 year old ancestor: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-511473/All-bl...
Although I'm not convinced from the results of one study, now I understand what the genesis of the original comment was.
Evolution is a fascinating subject. I think it would be neat if all our schools taught 12 years of Reading, Writing, Arithmetic and Evolution.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Novelty? I have red hair, which I'm not sure is adaptive (eg it puts me at greater risk for skin cancer) but which partners have rated highly as an attractive feature specifically because it's unusual. Then again I have a compulsive draw towards partners from outside my own ethnic group, so there's some selection bias going on with that interpretation.
I think being attracted to different ethnic groups might have an advantage, too - keeping diversity in the gene pool up is probably beneficial.
"Nobody 10,000 years ago had blue eyes," Hawks said. "Why is it that blue-eyed people had a 5% advantage in reproducing compared to non-blue-eyed people? I have no idea." Now that's interesting. Any theories?
You could just attribute it to the attractiveness of blue eyes. Most people consider blue (and green) eyes more beautiful than eyes with a different color. But this will get you only as far as the next inevitable question: why are blue eyes attractive?
"Nobody 10,000 years ago had blue eyes," Hawks said. "Why is it that blue-eyed people had a 5% advantage in reproducing compared to non-blue-eyed people? I have no idea." Now that's interesting. Any theories?
Edit: posted this before I saw the other thread and the excellent answer here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=824543 My mistake.
And Cochran and Harpending, the "Utah colleagues" mentioned in the article, have already written a book about this accelerated human evolution: http://www.amazon.com/000-Year-Explosion-Civilization-Accele...
I was confused by the part that said white skin allows more sun light to be absorbed. I'm quite sure this is wrong: Dark skin means more light is absorbed, and therefore doesn't bounce back at the viewer's eyes. the only explanation I can think of is that the rules are somehow different for light outside the visible range?
Melanin inhibits the above reaction, so blacks need more sun to get the same amount of vitamin D.
More details: http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Vitamin-D.html
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think being attracted to different ethnic groups might have an advantage, too - keeping diversity in the gene pool up is probably beneficial.
Except that in practice, it hardly ever happened until very recently. Ethnic groups lived far apart, and those folks who lived near a boundary between two different ethnic groups would hardly ever interbreed with the others (whether that's mostly cultural or a lack of attraction, though, I'm not sure). Even now, it happens surprisingly infrequently.
If you are talking about prehistory, how can you know this?