'Race Is Not Skin Color'

[Guest guest]

I think only the brown skinned with survive the future at least down this end of the globe. Yesterday I sat in the sun with my back to it for about 3 mins but had to come in as my arm nearly needed a skin graft from the burn. Then my friend said ah the sun does you good, you should toughen up to it. But last night on the TV they had a prog on how easy us kiwis can get skin cancer and the reason being because though we might be 40 deg south, corresponding northern climes at 40 north get 40% less ultraviolet. This is because of the hole in the ozone layer, the clean air and the fact that the earth is closer to the sun in summer in the southern hemisphere, than when it's summer in the north. I guess solar flares don't help. I'm sure every year it gets worse, but it might just be my skin not able to take the sun less. Nicky

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1408890

By AMANDA ONION

 

Dec. 14, 2005 — In a discovery that begins to shed light on what makes one person brown and another white, scientists have identified a gene that appears to be a key player in human pigmentation.

People share 99.9 percent of the same genes, yet pinpointing the very minor genetic variations that cause skin-color differences long has been a mystery to scientists. This discovery, published in the journal Science, marks a significant step toward understanding what's behind the paThe gene we found seems to modulate the number, size and density of cellular packets that contain brown pigment," said Keith Cheng, a geneticist at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa.

Cheng's team found that people with the normal form of the gene SLC24A5 had brown skin, while fair people of European descent carried a modified form of the gene that led to having fewer and smaller pigment packets, known as melanosomes.

 

Skin-Tone Genes May Help in Understanding Obesity, Blood Pressure

 

Understanding what causes differences in skin color may seem like a straightforward task, but in fact it's much more complex than understanding variations such as eye color. This is because skin pigmentation is a continuous trait — people aren't simply brown or white, but many shades in between.

Finding the genes behind skin variations could help scientists find new cures for skin cancers and possibly even identify safer ways of tanning than lying in the sun, but more importantly it might help in understanding other critical health conditions. Health factors such as blood pressure, obesity and dementia are all considered to be continuous traits and may be caused by a similar concert of genes.

"Something like gestational diabetes — it's not whether you have it or not — it's how serious it is," explained Gregory Barsh, a geneticist at Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. "Part of understanding pigmentation is understanding how genes interact to create a trait. Pigmentation is one trait where we can begin to understand how this works."

 

The Hunt: From Fish to People

 

Cheng and his colleagues stumbled upon SLC24A5 by accident — while searching for a cancer-causing gene within a common aquarium pet, the zebrafish.

The researchers were looking at the genetics of different versions of the fish to locate genes possibly involved in cancer. It turns out people and zebrafish share many genes, including those that code for pigment. Cheng's team found that a kind of zebrafish called "golden" had fewer, smaller, and less heavily pigmented melanosomes than normal fish. This suggested the same gene may be at play among golden zebrafish and fair-skinned people.

To locate a similar gene in people, Cheng turned to colleague Mark Shriver of Pennsylvania State University to scout through new resource the HapMap. This free database lists genetic variations in the human genome as they're discovered. Shriver zeroed in on SLC24A5 when he found that the same slight variation in the gene was carried by fair people in European populations.

While this gene may cause skin-color differences between West Africans and Europeans, it doesn't seem to play a role in determining the fairer skin tones of Asian people. Cheng, who is ethnic Chinese, says he's now scouting for that gene.

"I have a personal interest," he said, since it would explain his own skin color.

 

'Race Is Not Skin Color'

 

Shriver argues that because this newly found gene doesn't explain Asians' fairer skin color, there is a lot yet to learn about skin-color genetics.

"The fact that Europeans and East Asians are similar [in] skin color for different reasons tells us that we still don't know much," he said. "There are more genes to locate."

Finding a gene behind skin pigmentation may be a big step in science, but researchers caution it has no implications for understanding race. Skin color may lie near the root of much controversy and unrest — such as the recent violence in Sydney, Australia, where white youths attacked people they believed to be of Middle Eastern descent. Still, Barsh of Stanford cautions this work is just about deciphering pigmentation.

"Skin color is not race," Barsh said. "Race is a much more complicated concept that involves culture, religion and where your parents are from. It's an important part of society, but it's not about pigment alone."

[Guest guest]

You know, you Kiwis have come up with some explanations for things, such as 'predilection for things wooly', but that one takes a bit of beating.

Firstly, the difference in distance is so infinitesimal, considering the distance the rays have travelled, as to matter nought.

Second, to be effective, at that latitude, the sun's rays would have to do a 90 degree turn to focus just on you...., as they stream through the 'hole in the Ozone layer"

Why do the PTB not tell us that they blasted a couple of nuclear devices in that region in the 1956 IGY, and perhaps THAT caused the 'hole"?

Why do they NOT tell us that the holes were discovered and measured in THAT year by a UK scientist .... not much CFCs around then, as refrigerant was Ammonia Gas.......

Just in passing, not many plastics around either.........

I also, in Hervey Bay , Qld, have commented on the apparent "ferocity" of the sun's rays, but I would like to know whether the energy output from the sun, and the type of ray - wavelength etc, and composition has changed in the past 4 - 5 decades.....

I would bet a Possum to a Kiwi, that THIS is the case, but we are NOT being told about it , and THIS is the reason for the weather patterns, ice-cap melting [see that Mars is suffering the same problem... but there are no 'sheep farting in the paddock to blame for this...]

Would REALLY like to know what the PTBs [MBs] REALLY know, but are withholding from us, whilst peddling SF30+ chemicals which we slavishly absorb into our system......!!!

Jorge