Thursday, May 29, 2003

random comments

I read once that scientists had discovered genetic evidence for a common "Eve" ancestress to all humanity. In addition to the DNA that is split up through cellular meiosis to create gametes for reproduction, there is a separate amount of DNA found in the mitochondriae. This mitochondrial DNA is passed unchanged from mother to daughter, generation after generation.

About 12 or 15 years ago, I read an article in Newsweek about a team of researchers who had discovered that mitochondrial DNA is virtually identical in women from a broad range of ethnic groups around the world. It didn't matter if you were a m'Butu pigmy living in Africa; an Innuit fisher living north of Haines, Alaska; a Maori attorney in Rotorua, New Zealand; or a computer programmer in Buenos Aires. They checked the mitochondrial DNA of hundreds, if not thousands, of women, and it was all the same.

This doesn't prove the biblical account of creation, of course; it does indicate that humanity has a common ancestress, though. The article noted a number of possibilities for why this may be so, mostly involving variations on natural selection and plain old human luck.

Separately, I also recall reading about the parting of the Red Sea that a computer simulation of the sea at the point where the Bible indicates they crossed the sea, given the wind conditions the Bible describes, really would part so there would be a wall of water on each side wide enough for them to pass through.

I've also heard that archaeologists discovered tons of bones and armor at the bottom of the sea, but I don't recall more details, so I'm inclined to view it in the vein of NASA proving that Joshua stopped the sun for 24 hours.

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