The 10,000 Year Explosion is a book written by Dr. Gregory Cochran (physicist and anthropology professor) and Dr. Henry Harpending (anthropology professor and population geneticist). This post has notes from the book featuring some of the research cited in the book. The website for the book is located at http://the10000yearexplosion.com/
• Genes affecting the inner ear show signs of recent selection.
• The caspase 12 gene increases the risk of sepsis and is inactivated in most populations.
• Some populations have extra copies of the gene producing amylase, an enzyme that helps digest starch.
• The rate of genetic change between humans and chimpanzees over the past few thousand years is 100 times greater than it was over the past few million years.
• Very large genetic datasets from huge numbers of individuals may reveal traces of neutral Neanderthal genes.
• Skeletal details characteristic of Neanderthals were common among the humans who were their immediate successors but declined in frequency over time.
• A study estimated that 5 percent of genetic variation among both Europeans and sub-Saharan Africans originated in archaic humans such as Neanderthals.
• A study found that MCPH1 (a gene that regulates brain size) originated recently.
• A study found that FOXP2 (a gene that plays a role in speech) existed in Neanderthals and was replaced with a variant 42,000 years ago.
• The amount of carbohydrate in the diets of early farmers was three times more than hunter-gatherers, while the farmers ate less protein.
• Average height dropped by almost five inches in humans who adopted agriculture.
• Research found that new variants of a gene regulating blood sugar protect against diabetes.
• Research on DNA from skeletons of people in central and northern Europe who died between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago found that none of ancient Europeans had the lactase-persistence allele, while 80 percent of modern Europeans have the allele.
• A form of OCA2 albinism has gene frequencies as high as 4.5 percent among the Navajo and neighboring tribes.
• The skulls of Australian aborigines are about twice as thick as the skulls of other peoples.
• The height of the cranial vault (which contains the frontal lobes) is about 15 percent larger in the skulls of modern people in England than it was in the skulls of English people 700 years ago.
• A study found evidence of selective sweeps in a number of centromeric regions.
• In medieval England, the richest members of society had approximately twice the number of surviving offspring as the poorest.
• Research found a form of Y chromosome in 8 percent of Ireland’s male population, which appears to be a marker of direct male descent from the king Niall of the Nine Hostages.
• Mice with the endurance version of the ACTN3 gene can run 33 percent farther than standard lab mice before they become exhausted.
• Poets have higher rates of bipolar disorder.
• Blood tests on 1,000 inhabitants of an Italian village identified 43 people with a rare blood lipid profile and used church records to discover that they were all descended from a couple who had married in 1780.
• People with the ApoA-Im variant have a greatly reduced risk of heart attack or stroke, and they often reach an advanced age.
• Research found that the average marital distance was only 6 or 7 miles 150 years ago in a densely settled part of rural England.
• Research found that some human populations in Tuscany have Near-Eastern mtDNA.
• There are a few Greek Y chromosomes among the Pathans, the dominant ethnic group in Afghanistan.
• There are some Y chromosomes descended from Genghis Khan among the Hazara in Afghanistan.
• Blue eyes are caused by a change in a DNA sequence that regulates the expression of the OCA2 sequence embedded in HERC2.
• Some estimates suggest that the indigenous population of the Americas dropped by more than 90 percent over several centuries, mainly due to infections diseases.
• Mutations leading to lactose tolerance in the Arabian peninsula may have been an important cause of the rapid growth of Islam and the Arab conquests of the seventh century AD and later.
• IQ is the best available predictor of success in academic subjects and in many jobs.
• Jewish people account for about a fifth of CEOs and 22 percent of Ivy League students.
• IQ tests predict academic performance with the same accuracy in different ethnic groups.
• Studies have found that Ashkenazi Jews have IQ 0.75 to 1.0 standard deviations above the general European average, which corresponds to an IQ of 112-115, though another study found only half a standard deviation.
• In Israel, Ashkenazi Jews score 14 points higher than average on IQ tests compared to Oriental Jews, almost a full standard deviation.
• Third-generation Ashkenazi Jews in Israel are 2.5 to 3 times more likely to have graduated from college than third-generation Mizrahi Jews.
• A study of patients in Israel with Gaucher’s disease found that they were eleven times more likely to be engineers or scientists than the average Israeli Ashkenazi Jew.
• A study of Jewish torsion dystonia patients found that their average IQ before the onset of symptoms was 121, compared to an average score of 111 in a control group of unrelated Jewish children.
• Seven studies show high IQ in patients with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, as well in their parents and siblings. The gene frequency of CAH among the Ashkenazim is nearly 20 percent.
