When I first subscribed to the RSS for the People’s Daily, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, I was hoping for loony propaganda galore. Instead, it’s been mostly boring stories about Chinese leaders meeting foreign leaders. That is, until today, when this article showed up in my reader: “Philosophical revelations of the Chinese path.” (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Panchen Lama’
A brief scientific interlude
Posted in International news, tagged China, genome, Han, Jian Wang, mountain sickness, Panchen Lama, Science, Tibet, Tibetan, Xin Yi on 07/02/2010| Leave a Comment »
Tibetans live at altitudes of 13,000 feet, breathing air that has 40 percent less oxygen than is available at sea level, yet suffer very little mountain sickness. The reason, according to a team of biologists in China, is human evolution, in what may be the most recent and fastest instance detected so far.
Comparing the genomes of Tibetans and Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, the biologists found that at least 30 genes had undergone evolutionary change in the Tibetans as they adapted to life on the high plateau. Tibetans and Han Chinese split apart as recently as 3,000 years ago, say the biologists, a group at the Beijing Genomics Institute led by Xin Yi and Jian Wang. The report appears in Friday’s issue of Science.
Fascinating stuff. I’ve often wondered about evolutionary processes at work today.
If I wanted to be cheeky and wrap science and politics together, I would ask whether the Beijing-selected Panchen Lama has become more susceptible to mountain sickness since he was spirited away for education in the capital. Or maybe they could even tell us about changes in mountain sickness susceptibility encountered by the then-6-year-old Panchen Lama Beijing kidnapped in 1995 and whose whereabouts are still unknown.
But hey, it’s Friday…I’ll just stick to enjoying the science.
The Country Estate 