Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren vogal Bomb here with another classic episode.
Speaker 1: In this one, we talk about how race really is
Speaker 1: a social construct, not a biological fact, based on increasing
Speaker 1: scientific evidence. Hi brain Stuff, Lauren vogal Bomb here. For ages,
Speaker 1: humans have divided our species into groups based upon skin color.
Speaker 1: The shade of one's complexion has been a powerful influence
Speaker 1: upon human culture, affecting everything from where we live and
Speaker 1: how much money we make, to how much political power
Speaker 1: we have. And throughout history, racial divisions based upon skin
Speaker 1: color have led to violence and war. That's all persisted
Speaker 1: because people cling to the belief that people of different
Speaker 1: skin colors are inherently different from one another, even though
Speaker 1: scientists have been telling us for years that raises a
Speaker 1: distinction that we invent in our minds, that there isn't
Speaker 1: much actual difference in the genetic makeup of humans of
Speaker 1: various hues. Now, an international team of researchers has published
Speaker 1: a groundbreaking study in the journal Science that may demolish
Speaker 1: the concept of race as a biological concept once and
Speaker 1: for all. It found that genetic variations for lighter skin
Speaker 1: color neither exists solely nor originate in European populations, challenges
Speaker 1: the idea of using skin color as a racial classification
Speaker 1: and shows that skin color may only be skin deep.
Speaker 1: The scientists examined the genetic origins of skin color in Africans,
Speaker 1: who vary widely in shade, from the dark skin of
Speaker 1: the Dinka people in South Sudan to the light complexions
Speaker 1: of the sun in South Africa. As an accompanying news
Speaker 1: story in the journal Science explains, the team used a
Speaker 1: light meter to measure the degree to which more than
Speaker 1: two thousand individuals skin reflected light. They also gathered blood
Speaker 1: samples for genetic studies. The focus upon Africans was significant
Speaker 1: because most studies of the genetic underpinnings of race have
Speaker 1: been based upon European subjects, a choice that's provided an
Speaker 1: incomplete and perhaps misleading picture. We spoke with the studies
Speaker 1: corresponding author, Sarah Tishkoff, who's a genetics and biology professor
Speaker 1: at the University of Pennsylvania, via email. She said this
Speaker 1: is part of a general bias that exists in human
Speaker 1: genetic studies, which focus primarily on European populations. This results
Speaker 1: in a bias in our knowledge about genetic factors influencing
Speaker 1: both normal variable traits like skin color as well as
Speaker 1: disease risk. Specifically, studies that focused only on Europeans missed
Speaker 1: many of the genetic variants which we identified as associated
Speaker 1: with skin color. This is because there's less genetic and
Speaker 1: phenotypic i e. Skin color variation in that population compared
Speaker 1: to Africans. Also, many of the variants identified in Europeans
Speaker 1: are of recent origin. Prior to our study, it wasn't
Speaker 1: recognized that variants associated with both light and dark skin
Speaker 1: are common in Africa, and many are very old. Also,
Speaker 1: our study shows that both light and dark skin has
Speaker 1: been evolving in humans. Prior to our study, the emphasis
Speaker 1: has been only on why light skin is adaptive in Europeans.
Speaker 1: Our study changes our understanding of the evolutionary history of
Speaker 1: variation in skin color. The scientists identified h etic variations
Speaker 1: in four regions of the human genome that influenced skin shade.
Speaker 1: Using genetic information from nearly one thousand, six hundred people.
Speaker 1: They examined more than four million single nucleotide polymorphisms, that is,
Speaker 1: places where the familiar DNA code made up of proteins
Speaker 1: represented by the letters G, A, T, and C may
Speaker 1: differ by only one letter. Those genes turn out to
Speaker 1: be the ones that have spread all over the planet,
Speaker 1: showing that many of the gene variations that cause light
Speaker 1: skin color in Europeans actually originated in Africa. The ubiquitous
Speaker 1: nature of skin color genes and their persistence over thousands
Speaker 1: of years makes racial divisions seem pretty much meaningless from
Speaker 1: a biological viewpoint. Tishkov said, I think that work strengthens
Speaker 1: what so many geneticists and sociologists already know that race
Speaker 1: cannot be defined based on genetic criteria. There have been
Speaker 1: many abuses committed in the past and in the present
Speaker 1: based on that assumption, so hopefully this and other studies
Speaker 1: will help dispel the notion of genetically defined racial groups
Speaker 1: due to genetic variants shared among populations around the world.
Speaker 1: The new data also shines a light on human evolution,
Speaker 1: supporting the notion of an early history migration of biologically
Speaker 1: modern humans out of Africa following the southern coast of
Speaker 1: Asia into Australo Melanesia, plus a secondary migration into other regions.
Speaker 1: Tishkov hopes to build upon the study and explore other
Speaker 1: questions that remain about the genetics of skin color. She
Speaker 1: said in her email. We want to better understand the
Speaker 1: biological mechanisms by which these variants are impacting skin pigmentation.
Speaker 1: Our study has implications for better understanding skin pigmentation disorders
Speaker 1: and melanoma risk. We're also looking at the genetic basis
Speaker 1: of other adaptive traits, as well as genetic and environmental
Speaker 1: factors influencing disease risk in ethnically diverse African populations. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Patrick J. Kaiger and produced by
Speaker 1: Tristan McNeil and Tyler Klang. Or More on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other topics, visit how stuffworks dot com. Brain
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