Science Shatters The "Blondes Are "Dumb" Stereotype

Scientists have been puzzling more than the genetics behind hair color for a extended time, and now a staff from Stanford University has figured out why some men and women are blond. A new research published in Nature Genetics finds that a switch of a single letter of the genetic code is responsible for lighter hair: An A (adenine) is modified to a G (guanine) on a area of human chromosome twelve. The group says that since this certain genetic alter only impacts the hair follicle, other cell sorts — specifically, say, brain cells — are not impacted. This means that blond hair actually is “only skin deep.”

“We’ve been striving to track down the genetic and molecular basis of naturally taking place traits — this kind of as hair and skin pigmentation — in fish and humans to get insight into the common principles by which traits evolve,” explained research author David Kingsley. “Now we uncover that one of the most critical signaling molecules in mammalian improvement also impacts hair shade.”

Blond hair (Photograph credit: Moyan_Brenn DeLight (back once again))

The staff first had a clue that a distinct area of DNA may be accountable for hair shade from earlier genetic research of individuals in Iceland and the Netherlands. In the new examine, the staff pinpointed the exact genetic alter and then utilized mice to check the theory: And individuals with the single nucleotide alter did certainly have lighter coats.

What’s fascinating is that the gene in which the adjust will take area encodes a protein, KITLG, which is also recognized as stem cell element and is responsible for a host of distinct functions dependent on where it’s expressed. When the single “switch” responsible for hair color happens, it only affects hair follicles – not how the gene is expressed elsewhere in the physique. Understanding how one particular tiny change in this remote “junk” area of  DNA can impact different traits may possibly give researchers a clue about the roles of these regions in illness states.

The benefits also underline that the genetic change behind blond hair cannot be linked to other attributes, like skin shade or eye shade. And most importantly for blondes who have been the punchlines of jokes over the many years, it’s definitely not linked to intelligence.

“What we’re seeing is that this regulatory region workout routines exquisite handle above where, and how much, KITLG expression takes place,” mentioned Kingsley. “In this situation, it controls hair shade. In an additional circumstance — perhaps underneath the influence of a various regulatory region — it most likely controls stem cell division. Dialing up and down the expression of an crucial growth aspect in this method could be a common mechanism that underlies several various traits.”

So if you are possessing a “blond moment,” really don’t allow your pals to tease you about your hair colour – you may just be possessing a bad day.

“It’s clear that this hair color change is occurring via a regulatory mechanism that operates only in the hair,” mentioned Kingsley. “This is not anything that also has an effect on other traits, like intelligence or character. The change that brings about blond hair is, literally, only skin deep.”

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Science Shatters The "Blondes Are "Dumb" Stereotype

The "booze Britain" stereotype is flagging now let"s finish it off | James Nicholls

‘The dynamics of drinking culture are complex, but the political query is whether decreasing connected harms is a job for government, civil society or the alcohol industry.’ Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

This week the Well being and Social Care Details Centre released its most recent update on alcohol consumption and harm in the United kingdom. It showed that alcohol consumption in Britain was continuing to fall, as it has been for a amount of many years, but also that the harms caused by alcohol were starting up to show indications of dropping as well. These encouraging trends recommend we might be seeing a change in some facets of British consuming culture, but how most likely are they to be sustained?

To read a lot of the news reporting on alcohol, you might be forgiven for pondering the British are an incorrigible nation of boozers – and that most of these drinkers are young girls who finish up lying on benches or kerbs, such is the ubiquity of stock pictures in reporting nowadays. The actuality is considerably a lot more complicated.

For most of the 20th century, Britons drank moderately in comparison to our Victorian forebears and our continental neighbours. British consuming usually involved a lot more of the rapid binge than the long soak acquainted in parts of the continent, but our all round consumption was comparatively minimal.

Then, in the final two decades of the 20th century, there was a transformation. Amongst 1980 and 2004, per capita consumption in Britain increased by all around thirty%, a massive proportion of which was due to a large enhance in wine drinking between both men and women. Wine revenue rose more than 150% in that time period, even though beer consumption fell. We began consuming more at house than ever prior to, which meant a lot more corks popping at dinner parties but also more pub closures. Supermarkets led the way in selling the notion that alcohol was an indispensable part of the weekly store. All this added up to a cultural shift within a generation.

Even so, since 2005 average consumption has fallen to amounts close to people in 1992, a trend that appears most pronounced among the typically vilified sixteen-24 age group. The recession has been one particular factor in lowering consumption – people just have less money to devote on booze – but it is by no signifies the only one particular. For reasons that are not entirely clear, there has been a downswing in consuming amongst the younger age group.

Alcohol-related deaths have also dropped slightly, down 4% given that 2011. To place that fall in context, even though, alcohol-relevant mortality is still 19% larger than in 2001. That is not anything any society can be complacent about. In addition, there are many regional and social variations: consumption and harm degree are lowest in London, and significantly greater in Scotland, the north-west and the north-east.

Another issue is inequality. These in the poorest communities are numerous occasions much more probably to suffer alcohol-associated overall health problems – regardless of consumption becoming relatively increased, on typical, between the far more affluent – and in a number of deprived places harm charges continue to rise. There are a lot of plausible explanations for this – poor housing and diet regime, pressure, limited entry to healthcare, various patterns of consumption, larger prices of dependency – but the reality is that we don’t entirely comprehend why.

Alcohol Research United kingdom, with Liverpool John Moores University, is funding study into this “alcohol harm paradox” which will, hopefully, offer some answers. We are also supporting a study of the most severely dependent drinkers in Glasgow and Edinburgh. The part of cheap white cider and price reduction vodka in maintaining the habit of these desperately addicted individuals (many of whom have died in the course of the research) is an indictment of the firms that continue to make and supply this kind of products.

The dynamics of consuming culture are complex, but the political question is no matter whether minimizing related harms is a work for government, civil society or the alcohol sector. This government, getting initially manufactured fantastic play of its commitment to intervention, has opted for sector self-regulation. Minimal unit pricing has been abandoned, and the a lot-vaunted early-morning restriction orders and late-evening levies have been left to wither on the vine as trade bodies challenge neighborhood authorities across the nation when they try out to get them introduced.

We have also been advised that the alcohol industry’s “accountability deal” is working. Some 253m units – a quarter of the 1bn the industry pledged to remove from the market place among 2012 and 2016 – have been lower in 2012-13. Nonetheless, while a billion units sounds like a lot, our consumption yearly is closer to 50 billion. Furthermore, the vast bulk of that fall resulted from worldwide brewers cutting the power of their foremost lagers from five% alcohol to four.8% by volume to minimize the quantity of duty paid to the exchequer. It has subsequently been sold as a shining illustration of corporate social responsibility, and an illustration – contrary to the actuality – of why voluntary regulation is much more efficient than government policy.

It’s constantly tempting so say, “Ah the British drinker – plus ça modify“. In reality, considerably adjustments, and it modifications in response to vogue, advertising and marketing and economic trends – but also government action. Judging from their vociferous campaigns towards minimum alcohol pricing, alcohol taxation and stricter licensing powers, considerably of the market wants the recent declines in consumption to be stemmed. The question for our society is whether or not we agree – and that implies generating tough selections about our challenging relationship with alcohol.

The "booze Britain" stereotype is flagging now let"s finish it off | James Nicholls

Asian young children care for their dad and mom? Which is an outdated stereotype | Sarfraz Manzoor

“If it is assumed that [older Asians] are all getting taken care of by their families it means they do not get companies important for their quality of life’. Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Stereotypes are dangerous, whether or not benign or malignant. Simon Hughes was most probably hoping to commence a nationwide conversation about how very best to consider care of an ageing population when he suggested that individuals in Britain had lost a sense of “obligation” to care for loved ones. They necessary to find out from the Asian and African communities who understood the importance of “sacrifices” and a accountability to “search after your family members to the finish”, he explained.

Hughes’ suggestion that the rest of Britain can discover from other communities is not specifically authentic – Jeremy Hunt produced the really exact same point last October – and in fairness to him it is rooted in some reality. Asian households have tended to seem right after their own the notion of placing my parents into an outdated people’s residence would have been, and remains, unthinkable, and when I was growing up my late father would cite the reality that some white Britons did end up in care residences as yet one more example of Asian superiority.

The expectation of getting looked after was founded, of program, on fantastic slabs of guilt – our parents had struggled towards racism and endured fantastic hardship, and they created confident we knew about it. We were obliged to seem right after them when they have been not ready to appear right after themselves. That sense of duty partly explains why my brother chooses to reside subsequent door to my 80-12 months-previous mother, which is extremely widespread among those from my south Asian background but reasonably unusual for white Britons, and why I get in touch with property fairly considerably every single day and check out rather much every other week.

The difficulties with Hughes’ remarks are that they are simplistic, outdated and provide a very romanticised see of a far messier actuality: the occasions are modifying. For someone to be at house all day with their elderly mother and father they require to not be working. In the past it would have been the daughters and daughters-in-law who served as unpaid carers, but financial necessity and shifting household structures imply more girls are now in employment.

It was also less difficult to seem right after older parents when families had a big number of kids to share the burden. Asian families have tended to be large, but that is starting up to alter. When I visited a care house that specialised in seeking soon after elderly Asian individuals – for a Guardian write-up rather than for my mother – it was not surprising that most of the residents came from households with only one particular kid. That home was a rarity due to the fact there is a lack of culturally particular provisions for elderly Asians precisely due to the fact of the stereotype that they are currently being happily looked soon after by their young children. If it is assumed that they are all becoming taken care of by their households it implies they do not get companies vital for their high quality of lifestyle, such as organised social clubs the place they could go and spend time with other elderly folk from their own background.

Alternatively there are 1000′s of elderly Asian individuals, normally women, who are chronically lonely, sitting at residence viewing satellite television and waiting for 6pm when their kids may come house from perform and pay out them a visit. That is why Hughes’ remarks are so counterproductive. Although he is correct to stage out that Asians have a tradition of seeking right after their elderly relatives, his observations are outdated and neglect the extremely true challenges confronting British Asians.

Today’s teenage and twentysomething British Asians do not have mothers and fathers who went via hell battling racism like my father did, and so it is challenging to feel that they will be burdened by the exact same punishing load of guilt that my generation endured. Dispatching my mom to an outdated people’s property is not an selection, but I am not so hopeful that my own daughter will really feel the identical way about me when I am old.

Asian young children care for their dad and mom? Which is an outdated stereotype | Sarfraz Manzoor