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Re: Change from 48 to 46 chromosomes
pete (VINCENT@REG.TRIUMF.CA)
13 Oct 1995 20:21:39 GMT
donald e. tyler (dtyler@ednet1.osl.or.gov) sez:
`Any evolutionary guesses
`as to how apes with 48
`chromosomes were changed
`to homo sapiens with 46?
This relates only peripherally to your question, but I remember reading
an article I believe by Art Clarke, (it's been about 25 years,
so I'm not sure, but it was nonfiction by an author sometimes guilty
of sci-fi) wherein he relates that people for years thought they knew
how many chromosomes we had. They had the photographs, and they'd
counted them. Textbooks had been published containing the photographs,
and the matter was considered well understood. Then one day someone
looked at some normal human cells and saw two extra chromosomes.
They thought this was extraordinary, so they looked around to see
how often this incredible event occurred, and were baffled and
horrified to discover that *every* sample they looked at had two
extra chromosomes. So they went back to look at all the textbooks,
and the photographs that had been published, and lo and behold,
they *also* had the two extra chromosomes. They'd been there all
along. This anectdote was offered as proof of the first principle
of science, to wit: Scientists can't see. (^:
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vincent@triumf.ca <== faster % Pete Vincent
vincent@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca % Disclaimer: all I know I
% learned from reading Usenet.
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