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Monday, November 16, 2009

The Hat Gene

 
Humans have always had a urge to cover their heads with various forms of headgear. There must be a hat gene in our genomes and it probably evolved in the human lineage after it split from chimpanzees. Chimps don't wear hats.

If you believe this then you've probably fallen for the idea that FOXP2 is a gene for language and that there's a gene for God/religion. See The hunt for the Hat Gene for a good discussion of where you're going wrong.


3 comments :

burntloafer said...

Thank you, I was bothered by that god-gene nonsense.

SteveF said...

OT, but Larry have you seen the new finch paper by the Grants in PNAS. Published online today. It will please you as they emphasise the importance of chance in speciation:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/11/12/0911761106.abstract

Unknown said...

Hahaha that picture cracked me up!