well, no a classic case of nonsense (about genes)
From: A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Genes (the author is a geneticist from University College, London)
In July 2014, the world woke to the shocking news that the perfect storms of climate change and genetics had conspired to mark ginger hair for extinction. The first headline I saw was from the Scottish paper the Daily Record, with understandable concern given the prevalence of ginger in Caledonia. A scan revealed that every mainstream British newspaper carried the story, the Daily Mail, the Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Mirror, and the Sun, with various pictures of sexy redheaded celebrities, frequently the actors Christina Hendricks, Julianne Moore, and Damian Lewis. Or Prince Harry.
Social media and news websites were ablaze with horror. Around the world, National Geographic, the Week and a host of other apparently sensible magazines and news outlets reprinted the story. The headline in the Independent was typical:
GINGERS FACE EXTINCTION DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE, SCIENTISTS WARN
Broadly, the newspapers were reporting that, according to researchers, climate change is going to make Scotland less cloudy and more sunny. Therefore, the selective pressure that nurtured the allele for red hair is eliminated, and red hair will no longer be of any use to bearers, and will drift off into the great evolutionary dustbin of once-useful traits. This is an excerpt from the article in the Independent, followed by a gallery of famous redheads:
Dr Alistair Moffat, managing director of Galashiels-based ScotlandsDNA, said: “We think red hair in Scotland, Ireland and in the North of England is an adaption to the climate. “I think the reason for light skin and red hair is that we do not get enough sun and we have to get all the Vitamin D we can. “If the climate is changing and it is to become more cloudy or less cloudy then this will affect the gene. If it was to get less cloudy and there was more sun, then yes, there would be fewer people carrying the gene.”
Well, no
.
Who is Alistair Moffat, and what is ScotlandsDNA? In fact, it is a genetic ancestry testing business, a partner company to Britains-DNA (see Chapter 4), and Alistair Moffat is their founder and chief executive. The story was drawn from a press release from ScotlandsDNA, which coincided with the promotion of a new additional service that tests for the presence of red-hair alleles in a customer’s genome.
Alas, a fiction can fly around the world before the truth has managed to pick the sleep from its eyes in the morning. Many condemned the errors inherent in the content quickly, and focused on the discomfit of PR dressed up as research that journalists sometimes fall for.
In July 2014, the world woke to the shocking news that the perfect storms of climate change and genetics had conspired to mark ginger hair for extinction. The first headline I saw was from the Scottish paper the Daily Record, with understandable concern given the prevalence of ginger in Caledonia. A scan revealed that every mainstream British newspaper carried the story, the Daily Mail, the Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, Mirror, and the Sun, with various pictures of sexy redheaded celebrities, frequently the actors Christina Hendricks, Julianne Moore, and Damian Lewis. Or Prince Harry.
Social media and news websites were ablaze with horror. Around the world, National Geographic, the Week and a host of other apparently sensible magazines and news outlets reprinted the story. The headline in the Independent was typical:
GINGERS FACE EXTINCTION DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE, SCIENTISTS WARN
Broadly, the newspapers were reporting that, according to researchers, climate change is going to make Scotland less cloudy and more sunny. Therefore, the selective pressure that nurtured the allele for red hair is eliminated, and red hair will no longer be of any use to bearers, and will drift off into the great evolutionary dustbin of once-useful traits. This is an excerpt from the article in the Independent, followed by a gallery of famous redheads:
Dr Alistair Moffat, managing director of Galashiels-based ScotlandsDNA, said: “We think red hair in Scotland, Ireland and in the North of England is an adaption to the climate. “I think the reason for light skin and red hair is that we do not get enough sun and we have to get all the Vitamin D we can. “If the climate is changing and it is to become more cloudy or less cloudy then this will affect the gene. If it was to get less cloudy and there was more sun, then yes, there would be fewer people carrying the gene.”
Well, no
.
Who is Alistair Moffat, and what is ScotlandsDNA? In fact, it is a genetic ancestry testing business, a partner company to Britains-DNA (see Chapter 4), and Alistair Moffat is their founder and chief executive. The story was drawn from a press release from ScotlandsDNA, which coincided with the promotion of a new additional service that tests for the presence of red-hair alleles in a customer’s genome.
Alas, a fiction can fly around the world before the truth has managed to pick the sleep from its eyes in the morning. Many condemned the errors inherent in the content quickly, and focused on the discomfit of PR dressed up as research that journalists sometimes fall for.
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