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Ontario scientist locates 'selfish gene'
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by Barry Artiste | June 25, 2008 at 05:14 am
410 views | 22 Recommendations | 7 comments
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Well this certainly explains why some are Selfish, while some are more giving. Women being the more "Catty" when together or scrambing at a Sales Bin, certainly explains it. Course I could be wrong, though raising a son and two daughters gives me some insights. My boy does not share these traits.
So next time you pass by a Homeless person with Hat in Hand, you can safely say "Sorry, my Genes prohibit me from giving today".
Ontario scientist locates 'selfish gene'Becky Rynor, Canwest News ServicePublished: Tuesday, June 24, 2008Hailing it as a big step forward, a biologist at the University of Western Ontario has isolated the selfish gene.
"This basically provides a validation for a huge body of sociobiology," says Graham Thompson, who researches the biological basis of how social behaviours evolve.
Thompson studied honeybee communities in which the queen is the only female able to reproduce.
"The workers are totally sterile and so that is a classic, textbook example of reproductive altruism. So the workers forego their own reproductive output in order to help the queen reproduce."
But Thompson says that doesn't mean it's all about the queen. It's about the gene's drive to survive.
"What is driving that altruism is a gene that ultimately is being selfish in that it is trying to get itself into the next generation" through the queen bee's success in reproducing, he explained in a telephone interview from London, Ont.
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Barry Artiste
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (7)
at 05:38 on June 25th, 2008
Similarly, our territorial instinct actually compels us to linger when we see someone else waiting for our parking space... even though we don't need it anymore. Hey, we can't help it. We're ultimately just a bunch of monkeys, albeit monkeys who have to shave and go to work.
at 05:46 on June 25th, 2008
Barry Artiste, thanks for a very interesting read!
at 06:37 on June 25th, 2008
Thanks to you both for your comments. And Jordan, as Al Bundy used to call his wife Peggy, "The Queen B"~!
at 07:44 on June 25th, 2008
Barry Artiste, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 07:55 on June 25th, 2008
Thanks Azzay, much appreciated and thanks for visiting
at 09:19 on June 25th, 2008
Truly a breakthrough. I always thought that selfishness is caused by environment's conditioning.
at 09:25 on June 25th, 2008
You would think so, with the ego, superego, middle child crap, Guess it rings true about the Birds and the Bees. Only if you are the Queen though