They buried the lede: Even if the driving mutation identified in the study could be undone, “it still wouldn’t bring back the tail.” Oh well.
There are some people who are born with tails, though:
Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
161–170 of 247 posts
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
i suspect there would be adaptations to a variety of other things like sleep, bipedal locomotion, defecation, etc.
I suspect our tailed ancestors slept, locomoted, and defecated.
Could just ask this guy how well things work for him:
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/114937-lo...
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#163Meanwhile, 140k years ago, our 3rd civilization approached our current level of tech. Fashion designers, specifically a group lead by Argot the Great, decided the tail made pants difficult, and broke the lay of suit jackets. So they hired radicals to genetically engineer a retrovirus, to remove the tail. This worked, but due to unconsidered balance issues, all tail devoid children lost the capability for bipedal bala…
What is this referencing?
The dehydrate comment is a reference to the three body problem - a great book!
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#164I believe this suggests that we could CRISPR an embryo to knock-out the offending Alu element in the TBXT gene and the child will develop a tail.
Rarely is human genetics this simple. For ages geneticists thought large swaths of the human genome were "junk" and over time more and more of it has been proven to have a purpose or function, it just wasn't readily apparent for various reasons.
Think of the human genome as sort of the ultimate dependency hell...
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#165Neat. Now could they please do the same for hair loss? :)
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#166Neat. Now could they please do the same for hair loss? :)
It would be terrific not to have any hair on my head as a male. I'm so sick of shaving my cranium every morning.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
The greatest thing on this thread is how disappointed we all are for some bizarre reason lol. It would be cool to get them back for better balance.
A prehensile tail would do so much for my cooking skills... the possibilities are infinite. Wait - I finally found a use case for Neuralink that I can cheer for!
Exactly! And why stop at only one extra appendage?
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#168Probably good that we lost them. Judging by photos [1] of some of the rare cases of humans who were born with tails human tails wouldn't be aesthetically pleasing. Although perhaps human tails that are the result of something going awry might not be a good indicator of what human tails would be like if we had kept them. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3263034/
Clearly you haven't heard of catgirls.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
But imagine if your tail was hairless :/
That sounds like an opportunity for a whole industry to emerge tbh. Hi we are Tailstyle! For far too long we’ve been accepting that our tails need to be naked like the rest of our bodies. Today I am offering you a share in our company for a very good price. Sharks, listen, everyone knows that wigs and toupees are amazing. What if I told you that my company we can put semi-permanent hair on your tail to look like a ti…
There are already companies that make tails. Not much of a jump to styling existing tails.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#170I believe this suggests that we could CRISPR an embryo to knock-out the offending Alu element in the TBXT gene and the child will develop a tail.
Rarely is human genetics this simple. For ages geneticists thought large swaths of the human genome were "junk" and over time more and more of it has been proven to have a purpose or function, it just wasn't readily apparent for various reasons. Think of the human genome as sort of the ultimate dependency hell...
Nature does not refactor. There's the laryngeal nerve somewhere in the neck of mammals that has to go around a blood vessel. On Giraffes, this runs all the way down the neck, around said blood vessel, than back up, all that just to connect two places in the upper neck that are inches apart. Evolution writes the ultimate spaghetti code.
More info: https://berto-meister.blogspot.com/2011/08/unintelligent-des...