Recent comments in /f/askscience

Octavus t1_j1wd7i8 wrote

Reply to comment by WilliamMorris420 in What is the ‘widest’ ancestral generation? by vesuvisian

Cheddar Man lived before the human isopoint, if he has one living descendant then every single person on the planet is also his descendant. At some point 7,300 to 5,300 years ago if someone had a living descendant, then all of humanity is their descendant.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/humans-are-all-more-closely-related-than-we-commonly-think/

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SpezPoop t1_j1wbcbs wrote

Reply to What is the ‘widest’ ancestral generation? by vesuvisian

Oddly, I subscribe to many local photographer pages. The girls from different areas of the US usually have a few distinct features common to many of the other local models of each area of the US the photographer has access to. I speak with one regularly and I can almost always point out which models of his don't have much family history in an area.

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guynamedjames t1_j1w0dsr wrote

Reply to comment by PicardTangoAlpha in What is the ‘widest’ ancestral generation? by vesuvisian

You'll get your widest from interracial households, especially when you get multiple generations of interracial mixing. So your African grandma, dutch grandpa, Chinese grandma and Indian grandpa type families are realistically going to be very far apart generically. And within that, historically people from cities will have more diverse genes than those from the country

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knyghtmaireA66 t1_j1vpdu1 wrote

Reply to Why are norovirus symptoms so short-lived? by SuiSca

I believe it is more severe when you're young, but norovirus is something which people tend to catch multiple times as they grow up, building more and more of an immunity. So basically, your immune system is just more ready for it than other illnesses, and so it can fight it very quickly.

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IsraelinSF t1_j1vmxx2 wrote

Reply to comment by Captainzabu in AskScience AMA Series: I'm Here to Talk About Roots and Shoots: How Plants Prosper in the Desert and What it Means for Agriculture and Biodiversity, AMA! by AskScienceModerator

There are many desert plants that are rich in unique biochemical compounds that can be used for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. For example, the Commiphora Gileadensis, that was mentioned in the Bible, has sap that can be used as an important essence for perfume. We have found specific anti-cancerous effects in the sap as well, for three different types of cancer.

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