"I think it's easier to explain all the boinking we did if there was a little bit of chat..." You've got a talent for humanizing evolution and making genetic science feel relatable, good job man!
Whenever there's talk about our ancestors' boinking I let out a little sigh... as I'm afraid the most likely scenario in most cases was rape. That would need no language and "robbing the other guys of their women" has been a widely used strategy in our species' history. And if we assume that our species was more prone to this behaviour than Neanderthals it would explain both, why hybridization happened and why the number of "pure" Neanderthals got smaller and smaller.
I had heard years ago that language came about because hominids began to walk upright and rape was less possible so "chatting her up" became a strategy.
@@barbarusbloodshed6347I agree completely. With the basic human intolerance for anyone different (real or imagined), I find it easy to imagine that rape and pillage and slavery were the predominant methods of interspecies reproduction.
Thank you so much for not using click baiting titles. It's great to know what I'm getting from the title. Instead of, "There's something strange about Neanderthal DNA" etc..
I only found your channel recently and have binge-watched everything. Please hurry up and make more videos to sate my self-absorbed sense of entitlement.
Let me tell you how refreshing it is to look at the about page for a RUclips channel and actually fine USEFUL information about the presenter and their credentials! Thank you for that, I wish more people gave the information we need to evaluate the information we are viewing.
😂 RUclips changing how our handles are seen to foil scammers must have shocked you, because you're no longer Mary (or whatever it was) you're now Yorkshire Pudding. 😂
The internet people say a lot of strange things about neanderthal genetics in humans, so thank you for setting the record straight!! you are doing the lord's work
Excellent video, as always. Your dedication to academic integrity and your hilarious sense of humor are a breath of fresh air. Appreciation for Mr. Skov's expertise, as well. Thank you for posting.
I've long suspected you had a more neandertalish prostate. I think it was the plastic spoon that gave it away. Definitely a marker. Great video as always! Thank you so much for this. I learn a ton from your videos.
Very interesting video, as yours always are, Stephan. I get a little tinge of excitement when I see you have put a new video out: always informative, and with a nice touch of humor. I do miss the spoon however 😂
I completely agree about the spoon. I had stopped mentioning it recently as I was getting the feeling that it was annoying Stefan. But I do still come to the comments every video to see how many of the older fans still mention it! 😉 R.I.P *_SpoonMic™_*
Excellent. The largest obvious impact from Neanderthal genes is in the immune system with the HLA-B27 gene. It codes for a robust immune system. However, it has a problem. Bacteria evolved along with Neanderthals to cause a susceptibility to severe arthitis (reactive arthritis, anklyosing spondylitis and others). It doesn't cause the diseases. It does lead to a susceptibility if infected by the offending organisms. More interesting is the huge variation in vision, and in CYP enzymes. Whether these are of Neaderthal or simply ancient human origin from the north of Europe is as yet unknown. The CYP enzymes can with the right mix lead to vastly higher levels of pregnenolone (and sex hormones in general). And this leads to more robust nerve sheaths and vastly faster nerve speed, higher IQ, and quicker responses. This appears to be related to improved night vision in low light. Other genetics leads to vastly better night color vision, much increased blue vision (and sensitivity), and more. It also leads to much faster repsonse to motion in the visual field and differences in repsonse to flicker. And no - none of this is in the science literature - yet. The Neanderthals had huge changes in brain structure related to vision, and hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to the far north and low light for long periods which strongly favored adaptation to those conditions. The high altitude genes come from three (maybe four) separate populations. Denisovan for the Tibetan version. Ethiopia for a Sapien version. And the Andes (e.g. Peru) for a different Sapien descendant version. Clearly Neaderthals had hugely advanced technologies for the time (evidenced by the pitch they used to cement their weapons), which require high temperatures to produce - that we have yet to reproduce today. Passing this on (along with nmany other things) required language. Erectus which preceeded Neaderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens had advanced tech as well. They had to have sailed to get to some places they went. That moves sailing and the tech for that back to a million years ago. That kind of tech all but requires language. Though there is a sapien bias toward the idea that Neaderthals, and Denisovans went extinct and there was limited breeding and interaction, the amount of their genes in us argues that rather than limited interaction, what really happened was that the severe events from major volcanic eruptions impact on climate 74,000 years ago, 39,000 years ago, and up to 12,000 years ago severely stressed and nearly killed off all of the homo lineages. They then all simply merged. And the result is sapiens sapiens made up of the sapiens from before, some remaining erectus, neaderthal, at least three different denisovan species, an unknown other speices from europe, as many as seven distinct strains from Africa, and possibly others. We never were truly seperate species in the gneetic sense. And we weren't all that genetically different. We were in some cases culturally and tribally quite different and adapated to very different climates. But when push came to shove, that geographic speciation fell by the wayside.
Wow, that was worth reading twice. I do believe that the found Neanderthal DNA in fossilized crap found in California that were dated at 250K old. So these people where all getting around by boat or on foot for a very long time. Have you seen any research about Neanderthal hearing? Finally, I always did see the possibility of a Neanderthal family or individual being the last of it's tribe joining the Human's that were passing through. Sort of a 'why don't you come with us' thing.
FASCINATING! According to 23&me I have a very high number of Neanderthal markers (>87% of their database). I also have a semi-mysterious autoimmune disease that has resulted in much arthritic damage that started when I was about 25. Anecdotally I think I have faster than average response to visual stimuli as well, and something about the shape and size of my optic nerves has freaked eye doctors out for my whole life. They think I’m about to go blind or something, but I’ve never had any problems except for age related presbyopia (I’m 50).
I have never done the 23 and Me thing but I Hear you. I was in amazing shape until my fifties. I didn't have any meds, no glasses never had a broken bone...But then the rot set in. I can still get by without glasses if I squint, but the arthritis - OMFG! They have known since 1960 that the stronger your bones are the more osteoarthritis you will have. I have a lot. I also have a long boody and short legs, I am bow legged, My eyesight was 20/60 when I was young. I could read at 60M what others could read at 20. and I didn't need reading glasses. My driver examiner was dumbfounded. I developed Sjogrens and it didn't go away it can cause arthritis in the hands and I have that. My question is do your feet get cold often? Do you get frostbite.@@rogerogrant
plus Neanderthals hunted and ate humans by night! And rape was widely practiced by both groups! The idea is humans invent the bow and arrow to fight off the Neanderthals. The first arms race!
I may not be neanderthal, but im proud of having denisovan dna- resistance of certain diseases, adaptation of high altitudes, increased immune response.
Stephan, nice to see you come out of your shell. Always informative and getting more and more entertaining. I trust you won't let the show get between you and you. Cheers.
Fantastic video this, great shout getting a geneticist in and making the video call flow really well (i imagine there must have been quite a hit of editing required on your part there)
This is why I love what science brings to light, we all may not have the best chances genetically, but where we are born in makes such significant changes to how we live.
I always eagerly await content from you, just yesterday I checked your channel to see if you had posted anything new, but then, to open RUclips today and see this stunning thumbnail... GLORIOUS.
14:46 I haven’t seen all of the literature on the subject, but my understanding is that the racial disparity in disease survival rates has more to do with environmental factors on different continents. Europeans have some of the best immune systems due to all of the selection pressure from medieval plagues. Same with China. It’s the same reason Native Americans were affected much more by European diseases in the early 1600s; their gene pool had no prior exposure because their culture was more isolated and farmed less (less opportunity for animal to human transfer of disease). It’s also why Africans are more resilient to malaria and some other tropical diseases but may be more susceptible to some many Eurasian diseases
I did find the systemic race argument weak, as 1) The study doesn't explain that, only a racial disparity. This can be explained by like you said, other genetic aspects in selection due to a history of overwhelming diseases. 2) cultural differences, different cultures interact with themselves differently, and that aspect was most definitely NOT included in the study to a sufficient degree. Laurits just outright stating an assumption like that as if it were fact; stating it is environment, but stating also that the only environmental factor for COVID is racism, is intellectually dishonest.
For 15:30, Id say since the info came out it's been a hypothesis that they were better at fighting plant toxins. There were many genes which let some of us pick up only a fragment. They could uptake, process, and let down those sorts of things quickly which is great until one of their human relatives only has the genes for one of those functions. It becomes frailty.
On the edge of my seat again Stefan, learned a bit more about my genetic past, think I'm good for prostate, the doctor confirmed that one. As for the nether regions, b@lls not so good. Thanks mate.
2% sounds small but it’s actually enormous. You have 64 great-great-great grandparents(subject to cousin marriage or closer inbreeding). They were all born 100-150 years before you and each contribute less than 2%. Archeological evidence suggests there haven’t been full blooded Neanderthals for 10s of thousands of years. 2% suggests a much larger amount of interbreeding back in the day than is comfortably imaginable.
I want to bet there was an advantage for accommodating the enlarged modern head. The neanderthal already had huge skulls as adults but there is also a chance both species were way more similar as young people.
It might, but not necessarily. If we had a small population (say, a few thousand) Sapiens who left Africa and they interacted with smaller populations of Neanderthals in different instances, then theoretically after only a few interbreeding events we might have a decent amount of Neanderthal DNA within every single individual in a population just because it spreads out, and by that point you don't need to inbreed to maintain the Neanderthal DNA, because no matter who you interact with they have it. Remember, this doesn't represent one or two Neanderthals who are common ancestors to all the Neanderthal DNA in us modern humans it might represent hundreds or thousands of Neanderthals giving tiny contributions each.
Didn't catch your genetics presentor's name, but congrats to both of you for an entertaining and informative presentation. Two things your presentor (perhaps wisely) side-stepped : 1) the ~21,000 human gene number issue is far, far, far beyond complicated, as any eukaryote's 'single' gene is comprised of numerous coding 'exons', which, depending on mRNA processing, provide a mechanism for 'one' gene to encode multiple protien products (of different functions?) from the same DNA template due to a process called 'alternative' mRNA splicing. mRNA-reassociation kinetics studies suggest the human genome can actually produce as many as 250,000 different protein products. 2) 98% of both genomes are non-coding, and the vast majority of base-pair differences between the sibling (opinion: hate to use that word, we're way closer than that) species reside in those regions of unknown (presumably regulatory) function. Interspecies DNA sequence alterations affect the actual peptide sequence of
Very interesting! Just it would be more precise to refer to "Neanderthal variants" here, not "Neanderthal genes", we all have these genes, just different variants of them. Btw I remember there was a family in my country with young brothers (under age 35) that had very severe Covid19, it was found a genetic variant they both carried was the reason for this, I don't know if this was a Neanderthal variant or not.
obesity rates were easily the biggest factor in covid, or really anything hospitalisation. Lived in California as an expat for 4 years, asians and whites there were far far less obese on average than black and hispanics.
With the FOXP2 gene, Laurits seems to imply that the modern family with notable variation in this gene was able to understand language and use words but just struggled to form sentences so, with Neanderthals having such a similar gene to us and with what we know about the way they lived, I think they must have had language even if their language was perhaps vastly different from our own.
Animals can communicate amazing things without baffle gab. Words may complicate things some but have you ever seen a bunch of wolves, or big cats heading out to hunt?
@@evasartorius9528 Fully agree but I still strongly suspect some vocal language capacity among Neanderthals, especially considering what is known about their hyoid structure.
Is difference in language type not amore cultural thing? I mean, I think we can ultimately learn all languages spoken but cannot speak them as a given: we also need to learn the language of our ‘tribe’. It’s not plug and play.
@@ivarbrouwer197 I was referring more to the implications of modern variations in the FOXP2 gene on the ability to form sentences. It is my understanding that most, if not all modern languages use sentences.
@@Where_is_Waldo well, I think genes aren’t very specific on how you string words together, as long as you do. I think it’s more context based and maybe originated already with the use of tools: referencing an object in combination with a tool… (let’s throw some shrimps on the Barbecue) if so, I would say language started with tool usage
Thank you for your videos. I always love seeing something new from you, constantly learning so much about where we came from. PS I am very much looking for to your Whitesands video! Edit after actually finishing this video... I watched another history video recently discussing a genetic resistance in some Europeans to the black plague. This was also connected to people who seem to be resistant to contracting HIV. They also made a loose connection to resistance to COVID. Could this be all connected to Neanderthal DNA? I can't wait to see wait DNA tells us next.
Another fascinating and entertaining video. Stefan, these are my favorites! Kudos too to Mr Skov -- who may have the fastest speech I've ever heard (outside of those rapid-fire tv commercials from some years back, and also a wonderful movie about high school debaters called Rocket Science). Please make more of these!
What is truly overwhelming for those of us still around who go back to the paleolithic of computer punch cards and endless perforated yellow tape, is the absolutely mind blowing advance in computing power without which modern genetics especially would still only be a few steps from Mendel's garden of wrinkled peas. It's incredible how we now take it as a normal, natural and essential part of everyday life. And to think that most of that potential capacity was contained and then expressed in possibly a single gene for language is simply mind boggling. And now computers are taking on a life of their own perhaps way beyond our capacity to comprehend and control! We may become, if it hasn't happened already, to them as neanderthals were once scornfully considered by us.
I have shovel teeth, this comes from My Father's Side, I've actually asked my mom if I could feel her teeth and that is what normal Sapient teeth are like,, I highly doubt that I've never had a broken bone and that I have shovel teeth because of a meager 2%,, some of us have a lot more. And in regards to never having a broken bone I have done things that doctors are questioning why I'm alive and yet no broken bones no hematoma and I heal from things that should kill normal people,, I buggered up my knee they wanted to do surgery I said no, here I am a few years later with a perfectly healed knee. Yeah I might be a little bit Ginger and I'm very very passionate but I don't think those are bad things at all😊
Great video, Stefan. You know, speaking about neanderthals, I was thinking that a breakdown of the film "Quest for fire" (1981) would be super interesting. There are very few movies depicting human prehistory, and I rather like this one, but is also super wierd and I don't know how accurate it is. I'm sure you would have interesting stuff to say about it. Kudos and keep up the good job.
Haven't seen it (though I've heard of it) and I'm only as knowledgeable as you can expect a non expert with a personal interest in this subject to be but, being made in 1981, this is guaranteed to be rife with inaccuracies. I would definitely love to see Stefan pick it apart... although anyone who has been a long time fan of Stefan Milo and/or North02 and/or Gutsick Gibbon would surely be able to pick out many points of inaccuracy on their own.
Very nice discussion. I'm sorry being late for the party. As a layman (but interested) i think it is very likely explanation that the Neanderthal desert is there (mostly) because it wasn't different in the three human groups at all. As you have pointed out with the talking related gene. And i do believe that all Denisovan, Neanderthal and EMH had the same genes in these parts because it was inherited from the common ancestor of the three subspecies. And all the groups had equally capable and had equally advanced languages. And learning the languages and costume was similar to learning Chinese for an European (and vice versa) in the classical age or the middle ages, for example (meaning no will established language schools, learning tools and bilingual dictionaries). I wouldn't be surprised if we would found out that many of those were around since erectus or habilis times and were very beneficial to the species.
Hi Stefan! I remember Robert Sapolsky in one of his lectures saying that the FOXP2 gene in humans made vocalisations more complex. Birds and other animals also share this gene. So it could make sense if the neanderthals had a less structured communication? Great video!
As a geneticist by education, I am 99% sure (after just spending 30 mins on additional academic search to check) that we don't know that Neanderthals didn't have that gene. We have surprisingly good Neanderthal genome reconstructions, but the best are far from complete.
So awesome to see someone mention my favorite science bro! Love Sapolsky. Fun fact he has a lecture series on the Stanford RUclips channel if you haven't seen it yet.
Love this topic and how you and Laurits present it with enthusiasm. I too suspect that Neanderthals had language but doubt it would have been a factor in mating with Homo sapiens that arrived recently or Denisovans they encountered. Their languages would have been intelligible to each other. Animals manage to mate just fine too without language.
I am Emberá Native American and my results came in at 3.1% even though I am also mixed blood so it’s not as high as full-bloods at 4-5% but not as low as Spaniards at 1-2%, so yea it’s pretty high for the average
This channel hasn't been the same since the loss of the spoon mic. Really, that's the only major change to the channel but it's not the same nonetheless!
Did you/do you know Gérard Depardieu? Was it intentionally that you put a picture of him at 21 seconds. It would be kinda funny, but I can imagine that a LOT of French folks would NOT like the association between Neanderthals and Gérad! Makes me smile.
Hi Stefan, what an interesting video. The things you were discussing about the foxp2 gene showed just how difficult it is ascribing a particular function to a specific gene. My area of focus is autism, and as you would be aware, many autistic people experience developmental delays with speech. Yet I am sure we would all have the foxp2 gene. So other factors are obviously capable of affecting speech development. This could explain why there are large Neanderthal ‘deserts’ in our dna today. Because we know that autistic people are actively and systematically targeted with a range of prejudices that make survival significantly more difficult. Our life expectancy is, for example, twenty years lower than the rest of the population. What this means for me, is that any children born from a Neanderthal parent would have a better chance of survival if they have a gold standard prostate or immunity from colds or whooping cough. But if these admixtures of dna strayed into those areas involved in social skills (or perhaps social aggression) these children would be quickly targeted for prejudicial treatment, alienation and rejection - like a lot of today’s autistic people. So the genes that enhance your resistance to whooping cough provide a mechanical advantage and are still present in the modern human genome, but those that more visible in the form of social skills, for example, or competitive aggression, would have been eradicated by humans themselves. Thus explaining the tendency of most humans to be intolerant of otherness. I wonder if this explains why Neanderthals became extinct? Because something about their general appearance or tendencies were actively eliminated from the combined gene pool? So, instead of looking at two seperate species competing for the same resources, perhaps the infiltration of people from Africa was more subtle, and they all intermingled into a giant genetic glump, and then most of the Neanderthal traits were systematically weeded out over time? That’s probably a ridiculous idea. But then we are still doing it aren’t we? Like American scientists trying to find the genetic signature of autism, so they can do tests on foetuses and abort those that have a higher chance of being either down or autistic.
I do not think that the Neanderthal had the monopoly on aggression. I believe that human's have a great love of that vice. It may in part be cultural the way that Europeans treat the locals when the roll in and 'civilize a place is responsible for many many mass murders and genocides. Also there is something that many overlook. The introduction of virus's and illnesses that Neanderthal had no exposure to when the Sapiens showed up. It has been called death by diarrhea at times.
The video is great, and very entertaining, well done! What puzzled me however, was the omittance of genes that affect overweightness and obesity. The thumbnail suggested that kind of content and it didn't appear anywhere in the video. So perhaps they did not discuss those genes on purpose because just knowing about them is quite an infohazard, both for yourself and for potential health insurance. So there is an argument for keeping your genes a secret unless you absolutely need to know.
OK, I'm confused. When he says blacks have higher rates of hospitalization for covid than whites or whites with the Neanderthal gene variant, he immediately jumps to the conclusion that this is due to environment and systemic racism. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, blacks in the US have significantly different recent ancestry than whites, and yet he makes no attempt to verify how that genetic difference might be affecting the results, and immediately jumps to 100% environment (ie, nurture, not nature). I'm a typical American mutt with ancestors from a few different European countries as well as Native American and African ancestry. His statement sounds like the kind of thing that allows certain types of idiots to occasionally be right when complaining about '"liberal academics".
Its very likely that human Neanderthal hybrids were like some fish hybrids, some fish hybridize and for example only the females between species A and species B are fertile but only when species B is the male and Species A is the female while all other combos fail to be fertile.
The "Neanderthal deserts" thing does suggest that hybrids had reduced fitness. I think that justifies calling them different species even when they can interbreed.
@@LimeyLassen Well a species is a pretty arbitrary classification overall, there is no point at which two populations become different species but instead its a gradient as shown by how impossibly hard classification of species gets in insects and fish. What It probably was is that Hybrids in human settlements would presumably need to live by human rules and therefore if the genes in these deserts harm their ability to socialize smoothly or otherwise function by human rules than they will be selected against. If the hybrid is too neanderthal it may get bullied, become an outcast, or otherwise be disadvantaged by the social atmosphere.
The covid thing is interesting, something funky is going on in my family genetics in that area. Me, my mom, and my brother are all still either covid-free or asymptomatic at most. My dad and my sister both had typical covid experiences, all while we were living with them. My brother and I were even working in hospitals w/covid patients at the beginning of the panny, still nothing. By now pretty much all the rest of our family and friends have had it. We're all black, btw.
Could just be that you’re all pretty healthy and among the large group of people who aren’t really affected by it. Aside from that, Africa as a continent has more (excluding Neanderthal and Denisovan contributions) genetic diversity than the rest of the world combined, so you may have just won the lottery as far as which African variants you have of certain genes. Or if that’s not the reason, perhaps there’s a distant Eurasian ancestor somewhere in your family tree
There are plenty of people that didn't have covid yet or had it really late and as you wrote you could just have been asymptomatic. My wife works in a psychiatric ward where they have covid outbreaks all the time and she just had (symptomatic) covid for the first time a month ago. She also thought she has been somewhat immune as she also lived with me when I had covid or she has been with friends that had it before they knew.
I've heard that these days the nature vs nurture debate has kind of come to the conclusion that it's about 50/50, so 50% of what makes you you is your dna, so if we're on average 2% neanderthal then the average person's personality, appearance, etc. is probably 1% neanderthal
So according to Skov, differences between races in susceptibility to COVID must be due to racism. Have differences in diet, lifestyle or the role of other non-Neanderthal genes all been analyzed and discounted, leaving racism as the only reasonable explanatory factor? I doubt it. I can't imagine how racism could influence somebody's immune response to a virus. So for now I'll reject Skov's claim as conjecture.
I don't know if it is due to racism or not, but we know with certainty that African countries have the lowest mortality rate in the world. Regarding Hispanics, I am not at all sure, South America has the highest mortality rate in the world with respect to its population, Hispanics also have higher levels of Neanderthals
The geneticist is right. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_racism_in_the_United_States en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_health_in_the_United_States The socioeconomic factors that poorly affect the health of black Americans, makes them more susceptible to death from Covid, as does their treatment in the American medical establishment.
Go to ground.news/stefan to stay fully informed. Subscribe through my link for as little as $1/month or get 40% off unlimited access this month only.
@@ansfridaeyowulfsdottir8095dude chill, stef wont awe you on every video.
Dude is deep on the dad bod though, need to do some diet and exercises
@@ansfridaeyowulfsdottir8095 get lost
@@Madferreirowhy be a dick he’s not doing fitness channel is he?
why is everyone assuming we had the Neanderthal gene through sex? Could it be we have their genes through an evolutionary process??
Gerard Depardieu!!! So funny I literally LOL'd
I'm always happy to find another thing to blame my flaws on!
Well if you watch to the end you might find a hidden Neanderthal strength
Oh hey
@@StefanMilonice prostate
Positively glowing
@@StefanMilo its certainly something you can brag about to a potential mate.... or anybody else that will listen.
"I think it's easier to explain all the boinking we did if there was a little bit of chat..."
You've got a talent for humanizing evolution and making genetic science feel relatable, good job man!
Gotta take me to dinner before you can take me dancing good Neanderthal sir
Note that the bit of chat may have been done in sign language.
Whenever there's talk about our ancestors' boinking I let out a little sigh...
as I'm afraid the most likely scenario in most cases was rape.
That would need no language and "robbing the other guys of their women" has been a widely used strategy in our species' history.
And if we assume that our species was more prone to this behaviour than Neanderthals it would explain both,
why hybridization happened and why the number of "pure" Neanderthals got smaller and smaller.
I had heard years ago that language came about because hominids began to walk upright and rape was less possible so "chatting her up" became a strategy.
@@barbarusbloodshed6347I agree completely. With the basic human intolerance for anyone different (real or imagined), I find it easy to imagine that rape and pillage and slavery were the predominant methods of interspecies reproduction.
Thank you so much for not using click baiting titles. It's great to know what I'm getting from the title. Instead of, "There's something strange about Neanderthal DNA" etc..
Tibet mentioned!! I am both Tibetan and Sherpa, and it's so interesting to see this. Hopefully, someday I get to do a deep dive in my genes, too.
With that combination, you can live on top of mt Everest easy!
That's cool! My graduate paper was on Denisovan gene influence on Sherpa oxygen metabolism and interstitial lung liquid concentration.
Beautiful thumbnail as always Stefan, very memeable, thank you for blessing us on this day
Bro, what is UP with that thumbnail 😅😅😅
@@AlexFairchild the human-neanderthal-potato link is undeniable!
@@josephd.5524 it's not a potato it's his thumb!
Sontaran
I only found your channel recently and have binge-watched everything. Please hurry up and make more videos to sate my self-absorbed sense of entitlement.
It seems like he's been binge eating.
@@john.premose with all that popcorn, he must be close to bursting...
welcome, I am obsessed with this mans videos
"Stephan Milo, neanderthal prostate" is a phrase that 100% goes on a business card, period
Shrieking with laughter.
Come at me, prostate! 😂
AussieMav, That’s what s h e said.
Let me tell you how refreshing it is to look at the about page for a RUclips channel and actually fine USEFUL information about the presenter and their credentials! Thank you for that, I wish more people gave the information we need to evaluate the information we are viewing.
We can't blame Gérard Depardieu on the Neanderthals.
huh
His placement was hilarious
😅
😂 RUclips changing how our handles are seen to foil scammers must have shocked you, because you're no longer Mary (or whatever it was) you're now Yorkshire Pudding. 😂
Pudding by name, Pudding by nature. @@RobVollat
Personally, I can't see a Neanderthal drinking 14 bottles of wine per day, every day, and not extinct themselves.
What a great discussion with a very personable,and knowledgeable, guest! Loved it!
All the best Jules 💕👍
The internet people say a lot of strange things about neanderthal genetics in humans, so thank you for setting the record straight!! you are doing the lord's work
Excellent video, as always. Your dedication to academic integrity and your hilarious sense of humor are a breath of fresh air. Appreciation for Mr. Skov's expertise, as well. Thank you for posting.
I've long suspected you had a more neandertalish prostate. I think it was the plastic spoon that gave it away. Definitely a marker.
Great video as always! Thank you so much for this. I learn a ton from your videos.
Very interesting video, as yours always are, Stephan.
I get a little tinge of excitement when I see you have put a new video out: always informative, and with a nice touch of humor.
I do miss the spoon however 😂
I completely agree about the spoon. I had stopped mentioning it recently as I was getting the feeling that it was annoying Stefan. But I do still come to the comments every video to see how many of the older fans still mention it!
😉 R.I.P *_SpoonMic™_*
He's too big for the spoon now, he's forgotten his humble start 😂 (just to clarify I'm just joking)
Yes, the spoon is the brand! Spoon on!
Excellent. The largest obvious impact from Neanderthal genes is in the immune system with the HLA-B27 gene. It codes for a robust immune system. However, it has a problem. Bacteria evolved along with Neanderthals to cause a susceptibility to severe arthitis (reactive arthritis, anklyosing spondylitis and others). It doesn't cause the diseases. It does lead to a susceptibility if infected by the offending organisms.
More interesting is the huge variation in vision, and in CYP enzymes. Whether these are of Neaderthal or simply ancient human origin from the north of Europe is as yet unknown. The CYP enzymes can with the right mix lead to vastly higher levels of pregnenolone (and sex hormones in general). And this leads to more robust nerve sheaths and vastly faster nerve speed, higher IQ, and quicker responses. This appears to be related to improved night vision in low light. Other genetics leads to vastly better night color vision, much increased blue vision (and sensitivity), and more. It also leads to much faster repsonse to motion in the visual field and differences in repsonse to flicker. And no - none of this is in the science literature - yet. The Neanderthals had huge changes in brain structure related to vision, and hundreds of thousands of years to adapt to the far north and low light for long periods which strongly favored adaptation to those conditions.
The high altitude genes come from three (maybe four) separate populations. Denisovan for the Tibetan version. Ethiopia for a Sapien version. And the Andes (e.g. Peru) for a different Sapien descendant version.
Clearly Neaderthals had hugely advanced technologies for the time (evidenced by the pitch they used to cement their weapons), which require high temperatures to produce - that we have yet to reproduce today. Passing this on (along with nmany other things) required language.
Erectus which preceeded Neaderthals, Denisovans and Sapiens had advanced tech as well. They had to have sailed to get to some places they went. That moves sailing and the tech for that back to a million years ago. That kind of tech all but requires language.
Though there is a sapien bias toward the idea that Neaderthals, and Denisovans went extinct and there was limited breeding and interaction, the amount of their genes in us argues that rather than limited interaction, what really happened was that the severe events from major volcanic eruptions impact on climate 74,000 years ago, 39,000 years ago, and up to 12,000 years ago severely stressed and nearly killed off all of the homo lineages. They then all simply merged. And the result is sapiens sapiens made up of the sapiens from before, some remaining erectus, neaderthal, at least three different denisovan species, an unknown other speices from europe, as many as seven distinct strains from Africa, and possibly others.
We never were truly seperate species in the gneetic sense. And we weren't all that genetically different. We were in some cases culturally and tribally quite different and adapated to very different climates. But when push came to shove, that geographic speciation fell by the wayside.
Wow, that was worth reading twice. I do believe that the found Neanderthal DNA in fossilized crap found in California that were dated at 250K old. So these people where all getting around by boat or on foot for a very long time.
Have you seen any research about Neanderthal hearing?
Finally, I always did see the possibility of a Neanderthal family or individual being the last of it's tribe joining the Human's that were passing through. Sort of a 'why don't you come with us' thing.
FASCINATING! According to 23&me I have a very high number of Neanderthal markers (>87% of their database). I also have a semi-mysterious autoimmune disease that has resulted in much arthritic damage that started when I was about 25. Anecdotally I think I have faster than average response to visual stimuli as well, and something about the shape and size of my optic nerves has freaked eye doctors out for my whole life. They think I’m about to go blind or something, but I’ve never had any problems except for age related presbyopia (I’m 50).
I have never done the 23 and Me thing but I Hear you. I was in amazing shape until my fifties. I didn't have any meds, no glasses never had a broken bone...But then the rot set in. I can still get by without glasses if I squint, but the arthritis - OMFG! They have known since 1960 that the stronger your bones are the more osteoarthritis you will have. I have a lot. I also have a long boody and short legs, I am bow legged, My eyesight was 20/60 when I was young. I could read at 60M what others could read at 20. and I didn't need reading glasses. My driver examiner was dumbfounded. I developed Sjogrens and it didn't go away it can cause arthritis in the hands and I have that.
My question is do your feet get cold often? Do you get frostbite.@@rogerogrant
plus Neanderthals hunted and ate humans by night! And rape was widely practiced by both groups! The idea is humans invent the bow and arrow to fight off the Neanderthals. The first arms race!
Lies
im really proud to have Neanderthal DNA - they were an amazing species - strong bones, bigger brains than cro-magnons - whats not to love?
I may not be neanderthal, but im proud of having denisovan dna- resistance of certain diseases, adaptation of high altitudes, increased immune response.
Pride is a sin.
exactly bro - they arent "lesser" because theyre an ancient group - theyre adapted and strong. @@marionetteproject508
@@gregoryl.levitre9759Ok? Then I'm sinful.😂
@@Nepetita69696 I'm not religious, but the 7 deadly sins were considered bad before Christianity existed, for good reason.
I thought this was like a 6-7 minute video when it finished. Amazing job( as always )stefan
Been waiting for new Stefan Milo content 🙌🙌🙌👌👌 it's a Christmas miracle
yup always a nice watch, even if it all went in one ear and out the other
It's November.
Stephan, nice to see you come out of your shell. Always informative and getting more and more entertaining. I trust you won't let the show get between you and you. Cheers.
You're my favourite thing to watch these days Stefan ❤
he's the coolest thing
I’m so early Australopithecus would be giving me a high five.
Came to watch but then realized I should wait for my fiancée because she loved your videos when I introduced her to them
Fantastic video this, great shout getting a geneticist in and making the video call flow really well (i imagine there must have been quite a hit of editing required on your part there)
Best thumbnail on the channel
Thank you Stefan
Love this channel. Great to be early to an upload
This is why I love what science brings to light, we all may not have the best chances genetically, but where we are born in makes such significant changes to how we live.
stefan youre the only youtuber i know who has researchers making absurd jokes about butts by the end of your interviews, you're doing god's work
I always eagerly await content from you, just yesterday I checked your channel to see if you had posted anything new, but then, to open RUclips today and see this stunning thumbnail... GLORIOUS.
Laurits and Stefan are a charismatic pair!
Hands down, best prostate on YT! I don't care what the haters say
.?!
The photo of Gerard Depardieu when mentioning Neanderthal was priceless
my jeans are usually tight
My jeans are loose fitting, I work in construction
Buy new ones
Keep up the great work man! Absolutely love your channel.
14:46 I haven’t seen all of the literature on the subject, but my understanding is that the racial disparity in disease survival rates has more to do with environmental factors on different continents. Europeans have some of the best immune systems due to all of the selection pressure from medieval plagues. Same with China. It’s the same reason Native Americans were affected much more by European diseases in the early 1600s; their gene pool had no prior exposure because their culture was more isolated and farmed less (less opportunity for animal to human transfer of disease). It’s also why Africans are more resilient to malaria and some other tropical diseases but may be more susceptible to some many Eurasian diseases
I did find the systemic race argument weak, as 1) The study doesn't explain that, only a racial disparity. This can be explained by like you said, other genetic aspects in selection due to a history of overwhelming diseases. 2) cultural differences, different cultures interact with themselves differently, and that aspect was most definitely NOT included in the study to a sufficient degree.
Laurits just outright stating an assumption like that as if it were fact; stating it is environment, but stating also that the only environmental factor for COVID is racism, is intellectually dishonest.
I hope im not the ONLY person to laugh hysterically at the thumb upon reading the title...im sorry im only human....but i laughed till i hurt.
Stefan, Congratulations on your Neanderthal prostate, and many happy returns !
Super interesting. My 23&me says I have more neanderthal DNA than 85% of their customer base.
I'm more Neanderthal than 97% of their customers 😅
@@Mommyof4AAAB Haha congratulations!
@@Mommyof4AAABGerard depardieu is your father!
@@laxman90210 I don't know who that is
This is neat! Thanks Stefan & Laurits Skov!
Hi stefan. Love your presentations. Bot your book. Keep truckin'
my favorite youtuber is back!!!!! love ur vids
For 15:30, Id say since the info came out it's been a hypothesis that they were better at fighting plant toxins. There were many genes which let some of us pick up only a fragment.
They could uptake, process, and let down those sorts of things quickly which is great until one of their human relatives only has the genes for one of those functions. It becomes frailty.
On the edge of my seat again Stefan, learned a bit more about my genetic past, think I'm good for prostate, the doctor confirmed that one. As for the nether regions, b@lls not so good. Thanks mate.
I think this is my first time commenting on one of your videos! This was fascinating & makes me want to go down a proper genetics rabbit hole.
2% sounds small but it’s actually enormous. You have 64 great-great-great grandparents(subject to cousin marriage or closer inbreeding). They were all born 100-150 years before you and each contribute less than 2%. Archeological evidence suggests there haven’t been full blooded Neanderthals for 10s of thousands of years. 2% suggests a much larger amount of interbreeding back in the day than is comfortably imaginable.
I want to bet there was an advantage for accommodating the enlarged modern head. The neanderthal already had huge skulls as adults but there is also a chance both species were way more similar as young people.
It might, but not necessarily. If we had a small population (say, a few thousand) Sapiens who left Africa and they interacted with smaller populations of Neanderthals in different instances, then theoretically after only a few interbreeding events we might have a decent amount of Neanderthal DNA within every single individual in a population just because it spreads out, and by that point you don't need to inbreed to maintain the Neanderthal DNA, because no matter who you interact with they have it. Remember, this doesn't represent one or two Neanderthals who are common ancestors to all the Neanderthal DNA in us modern humans it might represent hundreds or thousands of Neanderthals giving tiny contributions each.
Yeaaaah New Stefan Milo vid is always a good omen.
Didn't catch your genetics presentor's name, but congrats to both of you for an entertaining and informative presentation. Two things your presentor (perhaps wisely) side-stepped : 1) the ~21,000 human gene number issue is far, far, far beyond complicated, as any eukaryote's 'single' gene is comprised of numerous coding 'exons', which, depending on mRNA processing, provide a mechanism for 'one' gene to encode multiple protien products (of different functions?) from the same DNA template due to a process called 'alternative' mRNA splicing. mRNA-reassociation kinetics studies suggest the human genome can actually produce as many as 250,000 different protein products. 2) 98% of both genomes are non-coding, and the vast majority of base-pair differences between the sibling (opinion: hate to use that word, we're way closer than that) species reside in those regions of unknown (presumably regulatory) function. Interspecies DNA sequence alterations affect the actual peptide sequence of
The name is Laurits Skov. It is also written in the title of the video 🙂
Yay! He's back!
Smash that like button for our beautiful boy Stefan Milo!!!
Absolute legend of a thumbnail photo.
YAY more Stefan :)
Thanks very much for this upload ! Very interesting like all your docus, and still lot of fun to watch.
Very interesting! Just it would be more precise to refer to "Neanderthal variants" here, not "Neanderthal genes", we all have these genes, just different variants of them. Btw I remember there was a family in my country with young brothers (under age 35) that had very severe Covid19, it was found a genetic variant they both carried was the reason for this, I don't know if this was a Neanderthal variant or not.
Thank you!! Excellent work- watched all your work. Really coming into your own style. Thank you editor! ♥️🇨🇦♥️
Lost it when you phased to Gerard Depardieu 😂😂
Good lord!
I didn't recognise that as Gerard Depardieu.
Love your vids, Stefan. Keep on keeping on.
Glad someone found a way for an income from their degree. 😅
obesity rates were easily the biggest factor in covid, or really anything hospitalisation. Lived in California as an expat for 4 years, asians and whites there were far far less obese on average than black and hispanics.
Milo… you are a wonderful human being.
With the FOXP2 gene, Laurits seems to imply that the modern family with notable variation in this gene was able to understand language and use words but just struggled to form sentences so, with Neanderthals having such a similar gene to us and with what we know about the way they lived, I think they must have had language even if their language was perhaps vastly different from our own.
Animals can communicate amazing things without baffle gab. Words may complicate things some but have you ever seen a bunch of wolves, or big cats heading out to hunt?
@@evasartorius9528 Fully agree but I still strongly suspect some vocal language capacity among Neanderthals, especially considering what is known about their hyoid structure.
Is difference in language type not amore cultural thing? I mean, I think we can ultimately learn all languages spoken but cannot speak them as a given: we also need to learn the language of our ‘tribe’. It’s not plug and play.
@@ivarbrouwer197 I was referring more to the implications of modern variations in the FOXP2 gene on the ability to form sentences. It is my understanding that most, if not all modern languages use sentences.
@@Where_is_Waldo well, I think genes aren’t very specific on how you string words together, as long as you do. I think it’s more context based and maybe originated already with the use of tools: referencing an object in combination with a tool… (let’s throw some shrimps on the Barbecue) if so, I would say language started with tool usage
Just starting the video, but truly...chef's kiss with that thumbnail.
Thank you for your videos. I always love seeing something new from you, constantly learning so much about where we came from.
PS I am very much looking for to your Whitesands video!
Edit after actually finishing this video... I watched another history video recently discussing a genetic resistance in some Europeans to the black plague. This was also connected to people who seem to be resistant to contracting HIV. They also made a loose connection to resistance to COVID. Could this be all connected to Neanderthal DNA?
I can't wait to see wait DNA tells us next.
Another fascinating and entertaining video. Stefan, these are my favorites! Kudos too to Mr Skov -- who may have the fastest speech I've ever heard (outside of those rapid-fire tv commercials from some years back, and also a wonderful movie about high school debaters called Rocket Science). Please make more of these!
What is truly overwhelming for those of us still around who go back to the paleolithic of computer punch cards and endless perforated yellow tape, is the absolutely mind blowing advance in computing power without which modern genetics especially would still only be a few steps from Mendel's garden of wrinkled peas. It's incredible how we now take it as a normal, natural and essential part of everyday life. And to think that most of that potential capacity was contained and then expressed in possibly a single gene for language is simply mind boggling. And now computers are taking on a life of their own perhaps way beyond our capacity to comprehend and control! We may become, if it hasn't happened already, to them as neanderthals were once scornfully considered by us.
An incredible video as always. Fascinating stuff Stefan!
I have shovel teeth, this comes from My Father's Side, I've actually asked my mom if I could feel her teeth and that is what normal Sapient teeth are like,, I highly doubt that I've never had a broken bone and that I have shovel teeth because of a meager 2%,, some of us have a lot more. And in regards to never having a broken bone I have done things that doctors are questioning why I'm alive and yet no broken bones no hematoma and I heal from things that should kill normal people,, I buggered up my knee they wanted to do surgery I said no, here I am a few years later with a perfectly healed knee.
Yeah I might be a little bit Ginger and I'm very very passionate but I don't think those are bad things at all😊
I like how the thumbnail is a thumb
Great video, Stefan. You know, speaking about neanderthals, I was thinking that a breakdown of the film "Quest for fire" (1981) would be super interesting. There are very few movies depicting human prehistory, and I rather like this one, but is also super wierd and I don't know how accurate it is. I'm sure you would have interesting stuff to say about it.
Kudos and keep up the good job.
Haven't seen it (though I've heard of it) and I'm only as knowledgeable as you can expect a non expert with a personal interest in this subject to be but, being made in 1981, this is guaranteed to be rife with inaccuracies. I would definitely love to see Stefan pick it apart... although anyone who has been a long time fan of Stefan Milo and/or North02 and/or Gutsick Gibbon would surely be able to pick out many points of inaccuracy on their own.
My teacher had me watching that movie as a kid. Never forgot.
It’s based on a Belgium book written in 1911 in French. It’s an interesting read (I spoke about it on my channel), but I wouldn’t call it accurate 😂
Not completely accurate. The movie bills itself as Science Fantasy. I saw it in a theater when it was first released, and I have a digital copy of it.
Very nice discussion. I'm sorry being late for the party.
As a layman (but interested) i think it is very likely explanation that the Neanderthal desert is there (mostly) because it wasn't different in the three human groups at all. As you have pointed out with the talking related gene.
And i do believe that all Denisovan, Neanderthal and EMH had the same genes in these parts because it was inherited from the common ancestor of the three subspecies. And all the groups had equally capable and had equally advanced languages. And learning the languages and costume was similar to learning Chinese for an European (and vice versa) in the classical age or the middle ages, for example (meaning no will established language schools, learning tools and bilingual dictionaries).
I wouldn't be surprised if we would found out that many of those were around since erectus or habilis times and were very beneficial to the species.
Hi Stefan! I remember Robert Sapolsky in one of his lectures saying that the FOXP2 gene in humans made vocalisations more complex. Birds and other animals also share this gene. So it could make sense if the neanderthals had a less structured communication? Great video!
As a geneticist by education, I am 99% sure (after just spending 30 mins on additional academic search to check) that we don't know that Neanderthals didn't have that gene.
We have surprisingly good Neanderthal genome reconstructions, but the best are far from complete.
So awesome to see someone mention my favorite science bro! Love Sapolsky. Fun fact he has a lecture series on the Stanford RUclips channel if you haven't seen it yet.
stefan, you never miss. banger after banger
That thumbnail kills me. Lookin like a hairy thumb of ancient knowledge.
Love this topic and how you and Laurits present it with enthusiasm. I too suspect that Neanderthals had language but doubt it would have been a factor in mating with Homo sapiens that arrived recently or Denisovans they encountered. Their languages would have been intelligible to each other. Animals manage to mate just fine too without language.
Ron Perlman has a LOT more than 2%.
What about Andre the Giant?
Hahaha the thumbnail. Great video as always!!
I am Emberá Native American and my results came in at 3.1% even though I am also mixed blood so it’s not as high as full-bloods at 4-5% but not as low as Spaniards at 1-2%, so yea it’s pretty high for the average
Thumbnail game is spot on!
Please do a full 30 minute episode with your mustache being the only hair on your entire head and I’ll subscribe!
Rarely do I ever laugh at a thumbnail.
I definitely lol’d at that 🦭
Fresh as always... love your style 😊
This channel hasn't been the same since the loss of the spoon mic. Really, that's the only major change to the channel but it's not the same nonetheless!
R.I.P *_SpoonMic™_*
This was a great watch
1980: "I bet there'll be flying cars in the future."
2023: Double chin clikbait to smuggle in lessons on Neanderthal genes.
Award winning thumb nail. ☝️
Love ye man!!
Does the gene 'reduce your risk' as you said, or is it more correct to say the gene is correlated with a lower risk?
I’m afraid you’re right. This is epidemiology. There’s no way of knowing whether a person will have a correlated trait or disease.
Did you/do you know Gérard Depardieu? Was it intentionally that you put a picture of him at 21 seconds. It would be kinda funny, but I can imagine that a LOT of French folks would NOT like the association between Neanderthals and Gérad! Makes me smile.
You know what the ladies say, "Once you go Neanderthal, you don't go back"
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Another great one Milo!
Hi Stefan, what an interesting video. The things you were discussing about the foxp2 gene showed just how difficult it is ascribing a particular function to a specific gene. My area of focus is autism, and as you would be aware, many autistic people experience developmental delays with speech. Yet I am sure we would all have the foxp2 gene. So other factors are obviously capable of affecting speech development. This could explain why there are large Neanderthal ‘deserts’ in our dna today. Because we know that autistic people are actively and systematically targeted with a range of prejudices that make survival significantly more difficult. Our life expectancy is, for example, twenty years lower than the rest of the population. What this means for me, is that any children born from a Neanderthal parent would have a better chance of survival if they have a gold standard prostate or immunity from colds or whooping cough. But if these admixtures of dna strayed into those areas involved in social skills (or perhaps social aggression) these children would be quickly targeted for prejudicial treatment, alienation and rejection - like a lot of today’s autistic people. So the genes that enhance your resistance to whooping cough provide a mechanical advantage and are still present in the modern human genome, but those that more visible in the form of social skills, for example, or competitive aggression, would have been eradicated by humans themselves. Thus explaining the tendency of most humans to be intolerant of otherness. I wonder if this explains why Neanderthals became extinct? Because something about their general appearance or tendencies were actively eliminated from the combined gene pool? So, instead of looking at two seperate species competing for the same resources, perhaps the infiltration of people from Africa was more subtle, and they all intermingled into a giant genetic glump, and then most of the Neanderthal traits were systematically weeded out over time? That’s probably a ridiculous idea. But then we are still doing it aren’t we? Like American scientists trying to find the genetic signature of autism, so they can do tests on foetuses and abort those that have a higher chance of being either down or autistic.
I do not think that the Neanderthal had the monopoly on aggression. I believe that human's have a great love of that vice. It may in part be cultural the way that Europeans treat the locals when the roll in and 'civilize a place is responsible for many many mass murders and genocides. Also there is something that many overlook. The introduction of virus's and illnesses that Neanderthal had no exposure to when the Sapiens showed up. It has been called death by diarrhea at times.
The video is great, and very entertaining, well done! What puzzled me however, was the omittance of genes that affect overweightness and obesity. The thumbnail suggested that kind of content and it didn't appear anywhere in the video. So perhaps they did not discuss those genes on purpose because just knowing about them is quite an infohazard, both for yourself and for potential health insurance. So there is an argument for keeping your genes a secret unless you absolutely need to know.
OK, I'm confused. When he says blacks have higher rates of hospitalization for covid than whites or whites with the Neanderthal gene variant, he immediately jumps to the conclusion that this is due to environment and systemic racism. At the risk of pointing out the obvious, blacks in the US have significantly different recent ancestry than whites, and yet he makes no attempt to verify how that genetic difference might be affecting the results, and immediately jumps to 100% environment (ie, nurture, not nature). I'm a typical American mutt with ancestors from a few different European countries as well as Native American and African ancestry. His statement sounds like the kind of thing that allows certain types of idiots to occasionally be right when complaining about '"liberal academics".
it's the type of stuff that is killing science...
They may have other heath issues due to lack of access of healthcare.
Wealth is a massively more important factor in terms of health outcomes in pretty much every way
Man I love your videos.
Its very likely that human Neanderthal hybrids were like some fish hybrids, some fish hybridize and for example only the females between species A and species B are fertile but only when species B is the male and Species A is the female while all other combos fail to be fertile.
The "Neanderthal deserts" thing does suggest that hybrids had reduced fitness. I think that justifies calling them different species even when they can interbreed.
@@LimeyLassen Well a species is a pretty arbitrary classification overall, there is no point at which two populations become different species but instead its a gradient as shown by how impossibly hard classification of species gets in insects and fish. What It probably was is that Hybrids in human settlements would presumably need to live by human rules and therefore if the genes in these deserts harm their ability to socialize smoothly or otherwise function by human rules than they will be selected against. If the hybrid is too neanderthal it may get bullied, become an outcast, or otherwise be disadvantaged by the social atmosphere.
I'm pretty proud to be in the top like, 5% for Neanderthal DNA. It honestly explains a bit more about how I am the way I am.
Very cool video 👍
How do you know? Did you watch it 3x speed?
@@nettlarryIdk I just thought the concept of the video was cool
@11:20-
"Half environment/ and half heredity/ what I'm born with/ and what's been fed to Me" -Lyrics from The Halobenders.
The covid thing is interesting, something funky is going on in my family genetics in that area. Me, my mom, and my brother are all still either covid-free or asymptomatic at most. My dad and my sister both had typical covid experiences, all while we were living with them. My brother and I were even working in hospitals w/covid patients at the beginning of the panny, still nothing. By now pretty much all the rest of our family and friends have had it. We're all black, btw.
Could just be that you’re all pretty healthy and among the large group of people who aren’t really affected by it. Aside from that, Africa as a continent has more (excluding Neanderthal and Denisovan contributions) genetic diversity than the rest of the world combined, so you may have just won the lottery as far as which African variants you have of certain genes. Or if that’s not the reason, perhaps there’s a distant Eurasian ancestor somewhere in your family tree
There are plenty of people that didn't have covid yet or had it really late and as you wrote you could just have been asymptomatic. My wife works in a psychiatric ward where they have covid outbreaks all the time and she just had (symptomatic) covid for the first time a month ago. She also thought she has been somewhat immune as she also lived with me when I had covid or she has been with friends that had it before they knew.
You always have the best videos. Thanks for this fascinating content!
God I’ve never been this early
I've heard that these days the nature vs nurture debate has kind of come to the conclusion that it's about 50/50, so 50% of what makes you you is your dna, so if we're on average 2% neanderthal then the average person's personality, appearance, etc. is probably 1% neanderthal
So according to Skov, differences between races in susceptibility to COVID must be due to racism.
Have differences in diet, lifestyle or the role of other non-Neanderthal genes all been analyzed and discounted, leaving racism as the only reasonable explanatory factor? I doubt it.
I can't imagine how racism could influence somebody's immune response to a virus. So for now I'll reject Skov's claim as conjecture.
I don't know if it is due to racism or not, but we know with certainty that African countries have the lowest mortality rate in the world. Regarding Hispanics, I am not at all sure, South America has the highest mortality rate in the world with respect to its population, Hispanics also have higher levels of Neanderthals
The geneticist is right.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_racism_in_the_United_States
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_health_in_the_United_States
The socioeconomic factors that poorly affect the health of black Americans, makes them more susceptible to death from Covid, as does their treatment in the American medical establishment.
Great subject! I really enjoyed this.