Oh, boy. Look at these quotes from a recently published magazine article, and try to guess where they came from.
Scientists had also implicitly assumed that the X chromosomes in all women were identical.
We had? When?
The first comprehensive study of gene activity in the X chromosome of women reveals an unexpected level of variation among individual females. This extensive variation means there is not ONE human genome, but TWO – Male and Female.
This does not follow. There’s also individual variation in chromosome 7, and every other chromosome in the genome. Allelic and expression variation do not make for calling every variant a different genome.
Chromosomes are the set of genetic instructions that guide the creation of an organism. Every human embryo begins with two X chromosomes, but in order to be a male, one of the X chromosomes turns into a Y chromosome.
Wait, how? Could this happen even now? Watch out ladies: if you watch too much football, one of your X chromosomes might turn into a Y.
Depending on the gene, having two active copies can matter very little or very much. When genes on the second X chromosome that escape inactivation are expressed, this can create a stronger overall concentration of particular genes.
That started out just fine, and then degenerated into gobbledygook.
Have you figured it out? You’re probably thinking it’s some wacky creationist journal, because they are always written by people who don’t understand science and get the facts all wrong.
But no: it’s from Health & Wellness magazine, written by Angela Hoover. The editor of the magazine.
The title of the magazine is a clue. What the heck is “wellness”, and how is it different from “health”?
(Also on Sb)
LOL.
I’ll consider that my morning dose of humor, even if they weren’t intending to be funny.
The new site is finally working well.
So, what, somebody thought all women are exactly alike? And somebody finally noticed that we’re not? And men are just women who are missing a bit?
BTW, I really like the crocoduck. It’s Allatok-worthy…
First (and more importantly), the new site is much faster. All things considered, the move seemed to go pretty smoothly.
As to the article, I’m not really surprised. The article is published in a Health & Wellness Magazine that serves central Kentucky only. It is one of several free magazines published by Sampler Publications (http://www.samplerpublications.com/html/about.html) which is small business themselves. Unlikely to have searched very deep for the editor in this case…and probably not able to offer a decent salary to hire good talent.
From their website:
“Health and Wellness Magazine is FREE and available in over 19 central Kentucky counties in over 2500 locations!”
But you can now subscribe too…
uh… pass.
She’s ostensibly writing about this study -http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v434/n7031/full/nature03479.html
Which deals with gene expression in individual cells within the same female organism.
To summarize 1) we’ve known, correctly, for many years, that one copy of a female placental mammal’s X chromosome per cell is largely “silenced” via the process of X-inactivation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-inactivation 2) Which particular chromosome is inactivated, at the individual cell level, is a random process relatively early in development – some cells have one X chromosome inactivated, others have the other one. If this were not the case, and the same X chromosome were inactivated in all cells, women would have a 50% (or slightly less due to the findings of the study referenced above) chance of expressing an X-linked disease that they are a heterozygote for. In fact, such women almost never express the disease; what we see is the pattern we would expect in autosomal heterozygotes. 3) The extremely important and interesting thing discovered in the 2005 study is that some genes on the inactivated X chromosome in a cell are still expressed.
There is no apparent connection between the findings of the study in question and the weird claims. The claim about an X chromosome “turning into” an Y chromosome may represent a misunderstanding of X-inactivation.
I have never read “Health and Wellness”. If they advocate exercise and healthy diet, more power to them, but this is needlessly inaccurate.
The word “creation” is used and “both genders had to be created simultaneously” is a common creationist falsehood (“they have different genomes” could imply this falsehood); however, I will assume that this is merely a case of innocent, non-creationism-related misunderstanding unless shown otherwise.
“people who don’t understand science and get the facts all wrong.”
Articles by and for the same crowd. Unfortunately, this is the majority of people in the U.S. “Wellness” is the feeling you get after dropping coinage out for this magazine, you read it and then think, dang I should have just threw my money in a well and made a wish. You walk away with the same thing, your money less, but you feel your wellness is in order. Wellness sounds better then snake-oil too!
I guess Angela Hoover never heard of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to name a single very well-known X-linked disorder.
Also, science textbooks, asking someone who knows, or even freaking googling.
Sadly, I was expecting this to be New Scientist, although the “X chromosome turning into Y” seemed too out there for it.
Clearly, the way the X chromosome turns in to a Y chromosome is by losing a leg.
It’s so wrong. “Scientists had also implicitly assumed that the X chromosomes in all women were identical.” I just winced the entire way through. No, no, no that’s not how it works! This is what happens when there are no qualified science writers on staff.
I never, ever watch football. Will my Y chromosome change into an X and turn me into a lady? Not yet, anyway.
That account so misleads people. I mean, what are readers supposed to think, that Y chromosomes have genes that are on the X chromosomes as well? Hardly. There aren’t a lot of genes on the Y, but historically male-to-female organ transplants have been less successful than female-to-male organ transplants, because Y chromosomes produce proteins that are foreign to females. And we all have X chromosomes.
Drugs today generally allow male-to-female transplants to be quite successful.
I would guess that the thought is that one might be well, yet not healthy, and you want the latter, too. But it’s not just about well people being healthy, it’s also about people becoming well when folk ail. It’s not all that clear, of course, however I think that it does at least have a rationale.
Glen Davidson
Hey guys, quick question.
I was talking to the Trophy Girlfriend a week or so ago and I said the word Gobbledygook in conversation. She’s Indonesian, and said that that’s actually a racial slur. Anybody know any background on this term? I’ve stopped using it the term, but would like to know more about the word’s history.
Watch out ladies: if you watch too much football, one of your X chromosomes might turn into a Y.
No! No! No! That would make the planet uninhabitable. My first thought: never let any females watch football again evah!
But that’s intolerably sexist, and would get SGBM on my case again.
So: ban football! Now! Forevah!
Not that you can’t Google it, but I did:
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=gobbledygook
She thinks it’s racial because of the “gook” part, no doubt. “Gooks” in Vietnam and all. How that racial epithet arose I wouldn’t know, and haven’t cared enough to find out.
Glen Davidson
“How that racial epithet arose I wouldn’t know, and haven’t cared enough to find out.”
It comes from the Korean War, American soldiers overheard Koreans saying “Meiguk” (“America”) which unfortunately led to “yes, you gook.”
Does wellness have to do with the end result of digging wells? First a particular location was well-free but now there’s a hole in the ground from which one can obtain water, the location has wellness?
Holy shit, DiceGhost is awesome.
Also, the person who wrote that is stupid, ignorant, whatever
Man let’s talk some more about DiceGhost.
lol. If that were true, I’d be colorblind; or my brother wouldn’t be.
no, really?! women are different from each other?! they’re not interchangeable clones?!?!
*faints from shock*
thus confirming what every MRA already knew: women are aliens.
I’ve got nothing; that’s so stupid, I don’t even know how to properly ridicule it
“Wellness” is one of those words that puts me on guard. So is “healing.” “Holistic,” on the other hand, is out front enough to makes me reach for my gun. Beware the Woo.
It’s like the word “Family” in the title of an organization. Ok, it may be perfectly innocuous — but we all know what to watch out for. Certain perfectly fine terms have acquired a bad reputation.
Did anybody besides me read this and think it sounded like another way of putting gender selection on the woman’s end of conception and gestation? “It’s not your sperm deciding whether or not you have a boy, it’s totally her inability to transform her embryo’s X chromosome.” This almost sounds like a lead in to a magical boy producing pregnancy powder. I’m surprised it’s not followed up with an ad for a magic sugar pill to transform your X chromosomes.
Wellness is something they can try to sell you if you’re completely healthy but still have disposable income.
The concept of wellness is completely reasonable. Getting your teeth cleaned by the dentist* prevents gingivitis, one of the most common diseases in humanity. Teeth cleaning is preventive medicine, a part of wellness.
Unfortunately, the word “wellness” has been highjacked by the wackaloons and is used to justify almost every kind of woo and alt-med.
*Or more likely the dental hygenist.
Arrgh!!! I hate to see such stupidity in my own backyard (but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised since Ham’s Creation Museum is just a little north of here). I live in Lexington, KY where this magazine is published. I have seen it at the local food co-op near the front door with the other free local newspapers. They are mostly the typically vacuous newsletters of local woo spirituality organizations. Health & Wellness appears to be mostly a vehicle for advertisements by the local health industry (doctors, dentists, chiropractors, hospitals, etc.).
I will pay closer attention to Health & Wellness in the future because this type of writing is so misleading. The writers may not be local but they should be called out on crap like this. According to their website, this rag is distributed to (among the usual venues such as grocery stores) colleges and universities. I hope it would only be read as a bad example in a genetics, science writing or journalism class.
Well, that certainly was painful.
When will Monty Python and Comic Sans be back?
Do they not have fact checkers over at health & wellness magazine? Pathetic!
Has anyone seen a paper copy of the edition in question? It’s not remotely unexpected in a free paper of this kind that editorials and advertising would go together.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it …
That was rather painful. We’re used to bad science from newspapers and magazines, but that was worse than the usual crap.
Seems to me to be setting up for a gay gene/cure. But then I am feeling negative this morning. But as they say, if it’s not published in Nature or similar publication, then it’s not worth the scroll it’s scribed on.
I have always argued that the free magazines you get at Organic/”Natural” food stores are highly overpriced. This nonsense confirms I am correct. The publisher should pay people to read something this offensively ignorant.
The term “wellness” (even more than quantum*) is a good sign that what follows is probably going to be unmitigated bullshit.
*outside of physics and really really small stuff
Health is an absence of harmful symptoms whereas wellness is the presence of balance between things like environmental, occupational, physical, mental, and spiritual health, among others. It’s a kind of “quality of life” thing that searches for the source of unhealthiness rather than just treating the symptoms as they come up (like maintaining a good exercise schedule before you’re told by a doctor that you’ll die otherwise). Of course, like anything that’s misunderstood, it has turned into an extremely subjective thing muddled with pseudoscience. For example, not everyone sees spiritual health as a thing. You need to come up with a definition for spirituality which is always difficult and, for some, unbearable.
It may help to understand the difference between skepticism and cynicism when considering things like thinking.