David, that does interest me. Especially this bit: <In describing what they see as the result of the Ashkenazic mutations, the researchers cite the fact that Ashkenazi Jews make up 3 percent of the American population but won 27 percent of its Nobel prizes, and account for more than half of world chess champions. They say that the reason for this unusual record may be that differences in Ashkenazic and northern European I.Q. are not large at the average, where most people fall, but become more noticeable at the extremes; for people with an I.Q. over 140, the proportion is 4 per 1,000 among northern Europeans but 23 per 1,000 with Ashkenazim >
Note that there are 9 times as many Ashkenazi Nobel winners but only 6 times as many Ashkenazi IQs over 140.
For decades I've thought that there is more than meets the eye to "intelligence".
At school, what seemed quite dull people could learn a whole lot of stuff and do well at exams. Now I would call that the Google effect. Great memory, low intellect, like Google.
Also, some people could have high problem solving ability once they'd learned the rules, but low creativity. A curve ball would bamboozle them.
I suspect the Ashkenazi [the right ones] have got great memories, great problem solving ability and excellent creativity [such as coming up with the theory of relativity which is a curved space ball coming at us].
What I'm really interested in is hunting down the genes which make that super-duper combination and plugging them into my low-wattage bulb to make a search light. Yes, I know my brain would probably burn out as soon as I flicked the switch as high voltage and current in a 12 volt car tail light isn't conducive to illumination from a light house.
So, maybe it wouldn't be useful for me, but maybe future generations could benefit from a spot of genetic tinkering. Most of us would like to have had an extra dose of brainpower at birth, which would have saved a lot of mistakes not to mention struggle to pass examinations.
Take out gene 314159265 and replace it with gene 271828183 so the person wouldn't spin their wheels in intellectual circles, but would be able to figure out e = mc2 = 42 [the answer to life, the universe and everything].
It's obvious that the wandering Bedouin under a starlit sky, and the Utar Pradeshi linguistically complex socially crowded Indian got together, one starlit night, and made the first Ashkenazi, then eloped on a camel, ending up in Europe.
When Arabia was leading science and all that stuff, it wasn't any old Arab doing it, it was obviously the Ashkenazis. When they left town, the great civilization they'd underpinned couldn't keep itself going. A bit like the British bailing out of Zimbabwe and the rest of Africa. The local yokels thought they could do it too, but couldn't.
So, now all we need to do is round up those genes and start selling eggs and sperm loaded up with them. Or maybe those genetic engineers can get a fertilized cell and swap the dud genes for the good ones. Brainpower is very useful. It should sell like hot-cakes to Eskimoes.
Mqurice |
