Anthropology.net

One of my favorite papers from last year was the investigation of FOXP2 allele in Neandertals. It seems like it was one of your favorite papers too, that post gets a lot of hits still! That being said, I think we’ll all appreciate a brand new paper (in works) on this specific topic. It was caught first by Dienekes, and then Razib.

The authors behind the new paper, “The Timing of Selection at the Human FOXP2 Gene,” don’t accept that the FOXP2 allele modern humans and Neandertals carry coulda originated over 300,000 years ago — in a shared common ancestor of both species. Instead, they wonder if the sequence similarity observed is attributed to low rates of gene flow between modern humans and Neandertals, or even contamination.

The issue of contamination was raised last year, at the same time by Sung Kim and Jeffrey Wall, but on a much larger scale… Sung Kim and Jeffrey Wall had beef with quality of the 1 million base pair sequence of Neandertals.

The authors of this new paper,

“collect additional data and introduce a modeling framework to estimate levels of modern human contamination of the Neandertal samples. We find that, depending on the assumptions, additional control experiments may be needed to rule out contamination at FOXP2.”

I don’t have advance access to the manuscript, but from what I can read in the abstract, I know I’ll appreciate it a lot. Why? Well, I’ve personally been doing a lot of research on FOXP2 and know how conserved it is. There are very few differences in the sequence of FOXP2 alleles from chimps and humans, so there maybe even fewer differences in the sequence of FOXP2 alleles of other hominins to humans. The ways Neandertal fossils are collected, even in the most sterile conditions, could introduce modern human DNA that will alter conclusions and the fact that the authors of this new paper hone in on that, is something I look forward to reading.

I wanna know your thoughts on this issue. The issue is about cognitive differences between the sexes, which is always a hot anthropological issue. Recently, Sheril Kirshenbaum from The Intersection posted some examples of NSF’s Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 report. The results of the report indicate that females are much less adept in answering science and engineering questions compared to males.

Don’t believe me? Here’s some egregiously outstanding examples:

The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move. (Correct answer: True)

85% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
75% of all females answered this correctly.

All radioactivity is man-made. (Correct answer: False)

77% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
64% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

The universe began with a huge explosion. (Correct answer: True)

40% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
27% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

The center of the Earth is very hot. (Correct answer: True)

85% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
75% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

Electrons are smaller than atoms. (Correct answer: True)

61% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
48% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

How long does it take for the Earth to go around the Sun? (Correct answer: One year)

66% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
46% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

Lasers work by focusing sound waves. (Correct answer: False)

62% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
32% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. (Correct answer: True)

47% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
40% of all females surveyed answered this correctly.

A doctor tells a couple that their genetic makeup means that they’ve got one in four chances of having a child with an inherited illness. Does this mean that if their first child has the illness, the next three will not? (Correct answer: No)

90% of all males surveyed answered this correctly.
84% of all females surveyed answered this correctly

There’s been a lot of discussion on threads of each of Sheril’s posts, where people questioned if this disparity between the sexes was because the test makers were male, or something about the test environment affected the ability of females to perform as well. These situations could be a factor, but when about 75% of of female respondents incorrectly answer how the universe was started, or when over half of females surveyed don’t know the span of 1 cycle of the Earth around the Sun… I begin to think if there’s something much larger going on — it could be biological, or it could be something cultural. What do you think?