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White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 8:16 am
by Rokcet Scientist
White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
LONDON: A black couple has amazed genetics experts, as their newly born baby is a white, blue-eyed blonde.
Doctors at the Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup told the parents that Nmachi Ihegboro is definitely not an albino. However, the child has baffled the genetics experts because neither Ben nor wife Angela has any mixed-race family history.
Bryan Sykes, the head of Human Genetics at Oxford University and Britain’s leading expert, called the birth ‘extraordinary’.
“In mixed race humans, the lighter variant of skin tone may come out in a child — and this can sometimes be startlingly different to the skin of the parents,” the Sun quoted Sykes as saying.
“This might be the case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, as in Afro-Caribbean populations. But in Nigeria there is little mixing,” Sykes added.
Sykes said both parents would have needed “some form of white ancestry” for a pale version of their genes to be passed on.
But the researcher added, “The hair is extremely unusual. Even many blonde children don’t have blonde hair like this at birth.”
Sykes expert said some unknown mutation was the most likely explanation.
“The rules of genetics are complex and we still don’t understand what happens in many cases,” he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home ... 193439.cms
Some "experts"...
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:28 am
by kbs2244
In my boyhood one of my fathers best friends was a man from a respectable, multi generation, middle class, black family.
(Those families existed back then.)
He had the typical kinky hair.
But it was red.
And he had a very pale skin with freckles.
He would joke about his appearance.
“There must be an Irishman in the woodpile somewhere.”
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:40 am
by Rokcet Scientist
kbs2244 wrote:In my boyhood one of my fathers best friends was a man from a respectable, multi generation, middle class, black family.
(Those families existed back then.)
He had the typical kinky hair.
But it was red.
And he had a very pale skin with freckles.
He would joke about his appearance.
“There must be an Irishman in the woodpile somewhere.”
That was an albino, kb.
In the 3 years that I lived in Africa I've seen at least a hundred.
Albinism is more common among Africans than it is among Caucasians.
And of course it also sticks out like a sore thumb among Africans.
In some southern African nations – notably Tanzania – they kidnap and kill albinos and chop them up to sell the parts as "muti" (nearest translation: 'medicine', 'magic cure' or 'talisman') for all kinds of ailments. And for luck...
Welcome to the real world.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:54 am
by Minimalist
I suspect that there is a much simpler answer.
The husband should hire a private detective.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:46 pm
by Rokcet Scientist
Minimalist wrote:I suspect that there is a much simpler answer.
The husband should hire a private detective.
How about running a basic DNA test? 1) To check whether the legal daddy is also the biological daddy, and 2) run that test also on the half dozen white men that are nearest to the couple in daily life...
I'll bet a 100 bucks daddy will turn up.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:37 pm
by Minimalist
Occam's Razor is a bitch.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:04 am
by kbs2244
“That was an albino, kb.”
I don’t think so.
He wasn’t that white.
And he had brown eyes.
I think he had his ancestry figured out.
A whole lot of the Southern U S plantation owners were from Ireland.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 7:01 pm
by Rokcet Scientist
kbs2244 wrote:“That was an albino, kb.”
I don’t think so.
He wasn’t that white.
African albinos aren't white, they are pink.
And he had brown eyes.
African albinos either have brown, hazel, or light blue eyes. A measure of their 'albiness': 'albinish', albino, and hardcore.
All of them have an abundance of freckles.
I think he had his ancestry figured out.
A whole lot of the Southern U S plantation owners were from Ireland.
Sure, and that couple has no whites in its ancestry for 7 generations yet this baby has slack, blond hair, white skin and Caucasian features. Well anyway: at least
your acqaintance had thought of
an explanation. He apparently either didn't know or was embarrassed about the albinism. I suspect the latter. So he constructed an explanation as plausible as possible. And as American as possible.
And you bought it.
That lady's husband probably is a born again christian again now: he's witnessed a miracle firsthand, after all.
His wife is the new Maria!
It is true of course that
very few African Americans today have unmixed blood.
But that has nothing to do with albinism. Albinism is caused by a 'recessive gene' (an unfortunate nomenclature, imo). That is a lot more prevalent in negroes than it is in caucasians.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:48 am
by Rokcet Scientist
If anyone knows the couple's postal address they might want to send them this postcard:
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 11:00 am
by Digit
Theoretically such must have happened in the past if we were all black at one time.
Roy.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:14 pm
by Rokcet Scientist
Digit wrote:Theoretically such must have happened in the past if we were all black at one time.
"Theoretically"? Look around you...
Anyway, of course that happened. But it took 196,000 years to happen! That's so gradual that nobody noticed.
It wasn't that somebody 40,000 years ago threw a switch and SHAZAM! a fifth of humanity was suddenly born white...
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:39 pm
by Digit
So how would you introduce a genetic change into a population without starting with a single specimen?
Can you suggest a natural mechanism that causes thousands of individuals to undergo the same genetic change?
If so explain why it hasn't happened recently.
Roy.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:14 pm
by Rokcet Scientist
Digit wrote:So how would you introduce a genetic change into a population without starting with a single specimen?
I wouldn't. I'm not God.
Can you suggest a natural mechanism that causes thousands of individuals to undergo the same genetic change?
Yes: that natural mechanism is called 'evolution'.
If so explain why it hasn't happened recently.
You're assuming "it" hasn't. But "it" has, only you haven't observed "it". That's because you (we all) don't have a helicopter view over time
and you're/we're slap bang in the middle of "it". Evolution never stops.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:21 pm
by Digit
So you agree that it starts with one individual, as per OP?
Roy.
Re: White, blonde baby born to black couple baffles experts
Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:50 pm
by Rokcet Scientist
Digit wrote:So you agree that it starts with one individual, as per OP?
Of course it starts with one individual. But you wouldn't know it, because the change in that one individual relative to its environment is so minute as to be unnoticeable. Only DNA analysis, under a channeling tunneling electron microscope, would show a difference, an aberration. IF (not when) that aberration proves to be evolutionary advantageous it will automatically replicate/procreate better than the originally 'non-aberrant' DNA, over time replace the originally 'non-aberrant' DNA individuals, and become the new 'norm'. That process would be reinforced by similar DNA aberrations mixing. Only to be irressistibly replaced by another DNA aberration becoming the norm, again. And so on and so forth.