> HAR1A is active in the developing human brain between the 7th and 18th gestational weeks.
Anyone know of a resource that layouts the temporal activation patterns for all the genes for the life cycle of a human being?
tgbugs 1 hours ago [-]
Let's assume that you mean activation patterns at the level of single cells. Aside from the ethical issues which make it virtually impossible to obtain the full set of data, there is also the fact that the exact timing of expression is one of the major ways in which development produces variability in phenotype and so can vary wildly between individuals. The closest we have right now might be HUBMAP [0] or HCA [1], but I don't think that those had as objectives covering multiple developmental timepoints.
Interesting. So, the human brain is the scaled-up monkey brain with significant architectural changes.
timdiggerm 2 hours ago [-]
What did you think it was before you read this brief Wikipedia article?
graemep 1 hours ago [-]
Of course it is, and you could say the same with regard to mammalian brains in general. However the divergence starts very early in development (seven weeks) so is very big and very significant. By the time a human is born the brain is very different from a monkey's.
utopiah 7 hours ago [-]
What was the alternative?
lukeify 3 hours ago [-]
We didn’t have any. The project manager set it at 3 story points.
red75prime 7 hours ago [-]
Scaling-up without significant architectural changes.
mapleoin 6 hours ago [-]
Or significant architectural changes without scaling up.
ahartmetz 51 seconds ago [-]
Like birds, let's say? There have been some articles on HN about how crows can be so intelligent with such a small (absolute size) brain.
Nevermark 5 hours ago [-]
Or a single magic mutation.
And if we ran an experiment where we gave it to some apes…
cluckindan 4 hours ago [-]
Let’s observe their reactions to a big slab of obsidian.
curiousObject 3 hours ago [-]
Evolution would design the alternative to be something slightly less capable than the minimum. /s
Really, the likelihood is that these mutations must have had an impact that far outweighs their space in the genome.
That’s how all our close competition got murdered by Homo Sapiens. Just significant difference in mental abilities.
tclancy 2 hours ago [-]
Which is why we think we're the center of the universe.
xattt 2 hours ago [-]
There has to be a car analogy for this.
thesuperevil 8 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
samrus 8 hours ago [-]
Implies intelligent design
I think its rather some mutations that produced more reelin and created the most successful animal in earth's history
kryptiskt 8 minutes ago [-]
You're positing the existence of a far more advanced lifeform than merely a clever monkey with pretensions, which then somehow created said monkeys. That's like saying that it's easy to become a millionaire, just start with a billion dollars.
That's not an explanation, you just replaced a problem with another harder one.
Joker_vD 5 hours ago [-]
I'd really rather liked it if that supposedly "intelligent" designer took a bit more time at designing the urogenital tract of human males.
lexicality 4 hours ago [-]
I'd like it if the vagus nerve didn't do a loop around my neck for no particular reason. (Giraffes would probably like that even more)
dingdongditchme 2 hours ago [-]
Is that a big concern? I've been pretty happy with my vagus nerve functionality until now... although I have not given it much thought to be fair.
_joel 2 hours ago [-]
I'm going to stick my neck out and say no.
codeulike 4 hours ago [-]
mine seems ok what version are you on
ceejayoz 3 hours ago [-]
Y'all get firmware updates?!
ccozan 14 minutes ago [-]
I hope we don't vibe-evoluate....
hackrmn 4 hours ago [-]
Hey, $DEITY did its absolute best with the constraints and the requirements. But hey, can't please everyone apparently. Be happy you can relieve yourself well past the intended warranty period. The parts were designed to be easily _aftermarket_ replaceable with sufficient advances in technology, retaining the fundamental design without changes.
shmeeed 4 hours ago [-]
What's wrong with it?
MyelinatedT 3 hours ago [-]
Separation of functions/concerns is not great, for starters.
The testes are dangerously exposed, the plumbing is convoluted and failure-prone (and doesn’t recover well from mechanical insults).
The prostate, which serves no function outside of reproduction, lies inline with the urethra and quite consistently loses flexibility and becomes enlarged with age, causing all sorts of structural issues impacting basic urological function.
Female reproductive vs urinary anatomy is largely physiologically distinct (proximity and UTI risk notwithstanding). Though plenty of room for improvement there too — starting with endometrial tissue being far too prolific. Fun fact: endometrial tissue can migrate to the brain and cause haemorrhaging in severe cases of endometriosis.
Plenty of room for improvement across the board, I’d say!
Miraltar 7 hours ago [-]
The most successful animal by what metric?
menno-dot-ai 7 hours ago [-]
Tetris high scores, obviously
totomz 6 hours ago [-]
Some of us don't spend days looking for food, don't die of cold, and survive the flu...
aaand we have Quake and Comand&Conquer - Red Alert
tomxor 4 hours ago [-]
> aaand we have Quake and Comand&Conquer - Red Alert
Agreed, it would seem that evolutionary biology peaked in the late 90s then
randallsquared 3 hours ago [-]
As related in the documentary _The Matrix_.
Nevermark 5 hours ago [-]
The most successful at communicating their view that they are the most successful. Whether they are or not. But that means they are. By that metric.
Has another animal proposed they are more successful by a different metric?
Crickets?
vintermann 4 hours ago [-]
> The most successful at communicating their view that they are the most successful
To who? Other humans?
It's seagull mating season where I am, and I don't speak seagull, but I'm pretty sure one of the things they're trying to convey to their fellow seagulls is that they're extremely successful.
Can't argue with it either. They're very much alive, which is the best you can be in this particular competition.
robbomacrae 5 hours ago [-]
You sound like you’ve never been disdainfully stared at by a cat..
Really interesting article though. I’m very hopeful AI can help work out how all these things interact.
dingdongditchme 2 hours ago [-]
Corn, albeit not an animal has been pretty successful in terms of number of individuals. Their bi-pedal underlings have cleared swathes of land and take meticulous care of their well-being so they can bask in the sun undisturbed.
ArekDymalski 28 minutes ago [-]
Until they are cut down and bombarded with micro waves by the very same bi-pedal underlings.
pegasus 4 hours ago [-]
So, the most successful at arrogance? In other words, the least successful at humility? Ironically, since humble and human share a common root. Just playing devil's advocate here, but what you propose is not a good metric to maximize.
incognito124 3 hours ago [-]
I fail to see that, it's simply one of all other random mutations, it's just that this one has a big downstream effect of enabling other more complex mutations
woadwarrior01 5 hours ago [-]
Merely implies a very good fitness function.
littlestymaar 4 hours ago [-]
Yes. Though according this fitness function we're not necessarily more successful than a jellyfish or a tapeworm.
somewhatgoated 3 hours ago [-]
Arguably much less successful since jellyfish have been around 700+ million years ands it’s not clear if humans will make it even the next couple thousand.
But the jury is still out on that one
cindyllm 3 hours ago [-]
[dead]
borborigmus 8 hours ago [-]
So Steely Dan documented this first?
nurettin 3 hours ago [-]
Intelligent mutations? How does that work?
5 minutes ago [-]
Rendered at 14:35:45 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Anyone know of a resource that layouts the temporal activation patterns for all the genes for the life cycle of a human being?
0. https://portal.hubmapconsortium.org/ 1. https://data.humancellatlas.org/
> It's not an obvious problem in lots of ways.
Care to expand on this?
Link for others:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl4896
https://maayanlab.cloud/Harmonizome/dataset/Tabula+Sapiens+G...
And if we ran an experiment where we gave it to some apes…
Really, the likelihood is that these mutations must have had an impact that far outweighs their space in the genome.
That’s how all our close competition got murdered by Homo Sapiens. Just significant difference in mental abilities.
I think its rather some mutations that produced more reelin and created the most successful animal in earth's history
That's not an explanation, you just replaced a problem with another harder one.
The testes are dangerously exposed, the plumbing is convoluted and failure-prone (and doesn’t recover well from mechanical insults).
The prostate, which serves no function outside of reproduction, lies inline with the urethra and quite consistently loses flexibility and becomes enlarged with age, causing all sorts of structural issues impacting basic urological function.
Female reproductive vs urinary anatomy is largely physiologically distinct (proximity and UTI risk notwithstanding). Though plenty of room for improvement there too — starting with endometrial tissue being far too prolific. Fun fact: endometrial tissue can migrate to the brain and cause haemorrhaging in severe cases of endometriosis.
Plenty of room for improvement across the board, I’d say!
aaand we have Quake and Comand&Conquer - Red Alert
Agreed, it would seem that evolutionary biology peaked in the late 90s then
Has another animal proposed they are more successful by a different metric?
Crickets?
To who? Other humans?
It's seagull mating season where I am, and I don't speak seagull, but I'm pretty sure one of the things they're trying to convey to their fellow seagulls is that they're extremely successful.
Can't argue with it either. They're very much alive, which is the best you can be in this particular competition.
Really interesting article though. I’m very hopeful AI can help work out how all these things interact.