Category: Science

Who says nerds don’t have a sense of humor? “Science Now” is way hip:

Scientists today announced they have located a gene apparently responsible for a person’s sense of humor. The finding may provide potential drug targets for those who “just don’t get it.”

Scientists have debated for years whether humans are really unique among other animals in their ability to find things funny. One thing that most researchers do agree on, however, is that, though widespread, the ability is not shared by all people. “Just look at undertakers and politicians,” says Horace Epstein, a geneticist at the Lachen Institute in Trenton, New Jersey. Reasoning that these differences between people might be due to variations in the DNA sequence of a “funny gene,” Epstein looked for families with a strong humor history.

Epstein’s team found a large family in Gobblers Knob, Kentucky, that had demonstrated lightheartedness over several generations. “By comparing family members who loved Seinfeld with members who had a fondness for C-SPAN, we were able to narrow down the gene’s location to a large track of DNA sequence on the X chromosome,” says Epstein. After using computer databases to locate candidate genes, the researchers homed in on three stretches where the Seinfelders had a DNA sequence that differed from that of the C-SPANners.

The researchers then expressed the genes in mice. Two had no effect, but the third caused the mice to emit a high-pitched squeak when they were shown a picture of a cat being hit by an anvil. “I think we can safely assume the mice were laughing at the cat’s misfortune,” says Epstein, whose group will publish its work in an upcoming issue of Genes and Behavior.

Because the gene’s protein contains a large number of histidines and alanines, the researchers have settled on calling it HAHA-1. “I expect we’ll find that comedians like Robin Williams express high levels of the protein, while individuals such as Dick Cheney likely have HAHA-1 mutations,” says Epstein.

“It’s a remarkable discovery,” says Sarah Haugton, a molecular biologist at River Glen University in Burlington, Vermont. “There’s a funny bone, so why not a funny gene?” Robert Chadwick, a genome researcher at London’s Northhaven University believes the study could lead to potential gene therapy treatments for those without a sense a humor. “Think of all of those people who don’t get April Fools jokes,” he says. “Now they may finally be able to laugh.”

–DAVID GRIMM

Heh.

The Harvard Arts & Sciences faculty better get on the BBC’s case for this piece of gender heresy:

New Scientist reports that although men are more likely to be mentally retarded, they are also more likely to be geniuses.

Although the average IQ of men and women is equal, men are more frequently found at both extremes of intelligence.

This is because, if you have very good intelligence genes on your X chromosome, it pays not to have them muffled by more average genes on another X chromosome.

The gist of the story is that women have more genes than men because the X chromosome is bigger and more varied than the Y. But the two X’s that women have tend to average each other out, hence the higher and narrower female bell curve.

But this isn’t known to most Nigerian dictators, and hence not known to the Harvard faculty.

From the annals of improbable research we learn more about ducks that we ever wanted to know:

The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker.

My brother the avid duck-hunter adds this:

For some odd reason Mallard drakes are notoriously horny. There are numerous examples of trans-species copulation (rishathra?) among the male of Anas platyrhynchos. Homosexuality? Unknown. Since they lack hands, they may be unable to beat off (masturbate). The desire for orgasm may be so great they literally don’t care what they do it with, as long as it is a duck. The female (as usual) doesn’t appear to have the same level of desire as the male. I personally have seen many examples of hybrid pintails and teal in the taxidermist shop. A rare trophy indeed. Other ducks do not appear to have this somewhat distracting level of horniness. The drake mallard call is more of a ‘dweeb dweeb’ than a’ raeb raeb’ but that may be dialect. Cardinals for example have regional dialect.

Now you’re a fuckin’ duck expert, so to speak.

Go see the Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam for some real-time pictures of the current ash-and-steam eruption.

If you want your children to be impaired, feed them a strict vegetarian diet.

This one is 195,000 years old, according to somebody who dated him.

No wonder social security?s in trouble.