Genome and Genetics Disccussions (Stay within SD Rules)

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Yes, Africans may have thicker muscle fibers to allow them to have more well-developed muscles. However, without enough oxygen, they cannot even walk.
Thanks to Taxiya's post, I saw this again. In this sentence, you already admitted to being wrong. If Africans have more well-developed muscles than others, and you're facing one without sickle-cell anemia (which I assume to be the case if you're at the Olympics), then what situation are you in? You're in a scenario where you face someone who has a genetic advantage over you because of his race, and he doesn't have a disease to bring him down. With equal training and coaching, you're toast... unless you find an advantage in your genes that allows you to undermine his muscular dominance by exploiting a different winning strategy!
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
I think in general, we should avoid equate genetics with individual capabilities, but rather think the genetic variations as probabilities of finding the good potential athletes. One can always find some exceptional individuals from a certain "racial" background to argue against genetic advantages, but genetic is a bell shaped distribution, not a clear cut square. The system (collection of people) compete (sport) by chance of finding the potentials, and genetic variations (a fact) affect the chance greatly.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
I think in general, we should avoid equate genetics with individual capabilities, but rather think the genetic variations as probabilities of finding the good potential athletes. One can always find some exceptional individuals from a certain "racial" background to argue against genetic advantages, but genetic is a bell shaped distribution, not a clear cut square. The system (collection of people) compete (sport) by chance of finding the potentials, and genetic variations (a fact) affect the chance greatly.
Excellent post! Exactly true. Genetic advantages among races applies to the average, not every individual (obviously, there are people who run or swim fast in every population). You will always find those several standard deviations from the average. The challenge of each country is to find those people 2-3+ SD's greater than the norm in their population and train them before they get too old to train. So does it mean that China has no naturally talented runners? No! In China's 1.4 billion population, there might be a guy who runs faster than Bolt because at that population size, statistically speaking, there is a guy who is 6 standard deviations above the average. Problem is, he's probably a farmer somewhere and never got to training (the villagers probably joke about how he's always the first one there when there's free food LOL). Jamaica has only a 3 million population but their average is so high (due to genetic advantages) that someone just 2 SD's from the norm can probably make sub-10 in the 100m dash with professional training, but they've probably got no one 4 SD's above the norm. China's just struggling to find that one rare guy while he's still in his diapers!
 

vesicles

Colonel
But what more easily demonstrates this fact is in the differences of appearance among the different races. Africans, Caucasians, Indians, middle-easterners, Asians, don't generally look like each other. If I find a random Caucasian, out of 100 other Caucasians, chances are, you will find someone who resembles him. But if I give you a pool of 100 Asians, you most likely cannot, not even in 1,000. Unique looks are the result of highly complex combinations of traits, just like physical ability, and these looks are prevalent in certain populations just like athletic ability is.

the differences in appearance has not contributed to any measurable differences in performing any tasks. Is there any unbiased statistical study showing certain race is better at certain task?

You claim to be a geneticist. Show me some published studies to support your claim. Everything that you have said has been hypothetical with opening like "I heard...", "If I find..." As a classically trained scientist, you can do better than this.

Your sickle-cell anemia example is an exception, where 1 mutation skews a population so that becomes bi-modal instead of resembling the normal bell curve. Statistically, it is an error to draw inferences from the mean when it is taken from a bi-model distribution.

Sickle cell anaemia is a fact that occurs among the African population. Since a lot of what we discuss centers on Africans performance at sports, it is an important factor that must be included in all consideration.


How wide the gap for height is actually between Asians and Caucasians, I don't know. Which Caucasians? Caucasians in the Alps are far taller than Caucasians in America. This is not my point at all; I only mentioned it because you talked about Asians getting taller with better nutrition and I rebutted with this to reflect that this does not mean all heights between races are equal.

My statistics show the heights among different races are equal.

Let's look at your statistics table. First of all, the average difference of 4kg between 2 pools of about 500 athletes is definitely quite significant, since it is almost a 6% difference in 2 groups with such high n-values and then, it comes down to sports where 0.01 seconds decides the victor.

OK, I hope you don't discuss statistics like this in your own publications...

We have a distribution range from as short as 144cm (gymnasts) to 210cm (basketball players). that is a gap of 66cm. With the mean located at 177-178cm, the standard deviation is about +/- 20% from the mean. And you believe a 6% difference means anything??

Secondly, as this is the Olympics, only the best athletes out of massive pools are selected to attend; these athletes are specially selected for similar traits. This is just an example I made up; do not attack the specific numbers LOL

I will not attack your numbers, but I will attack your methods. Again, hypothetical examples. You challenged me to show you evidence. I have presented hardcore statistics to support my point. I show you the statistics of all athletes, which go through the same filtering process no matter which country they live. these athletes participate in similar events. So my statistics is a good way of comparing the demographics of athletes in different nations.

To this point, you have not shown any hard evidence to support your point. Where is your statistics?

As for your gymnastics example, very very good. You also did notice that gymnasts from Asia are generally very thin and light while those from America are stocky and strong.

Yet, none of them show any significant advantages over others with different body types. All 3 body types have dominated the gymnastics. This is consistent with my hypothesis: mechanisms of human body movement, which consequentially lead to sports, is so complex that any single difference does not lead to changes in overall performance.

This is how each population uses its genetic advantage to develop divergent strategies for competing (reaching the same objective). This is commonly demonstrated in convergent evolution (different solutions to the same problem such as when a bat evolves skin flaps to fly but birds evolve feathers). Doesn't mean they are the same; it actually means that they are different.

Convergent evolution is a good comparison. Africans may have thicker muscle fibers, but Asians may hold other advantages, which could allow them to compete in 100M dash.

You insist on focusing on a single trait while ignoring other factors. My point has always been that you need to look at sports as a highly coordinated event, where many parts come together to generate the final outcome.

As you mentioned, blacks from some regions (rich) dominate the dash while blacks from others (poor) dominate the distance runs and thus, it cannot be a genetic factor. I don't agree. First of all, is Jamaica a rich country?

No, Jamaica is not rich. However, most Jamaican athletes train in the US.

Secondly, not all blacks have the same genetics, although there are many similarities. Genetics will reflect what you need to survive.

You do know that all human on this planet evolved from a few thousand common ancestors. Such detailed genetic analysis will give you the differences that you want, but to what end will you stop the genotyping. Chinese are different from Japanese and Koreans. There are also 56 different ethnic groups in China. Do you need to analyze the difference among all of them to conclude anything about Chinese?

Again, hypothetic examples... Since you claim to be a geneticist, I will hold you to a professional standard. Show me unbiased statistics.

But all and all, the main point which you have not addressed, and it's a very very important one, is why there are such large differences noted on America's national teams. I thank America for completing this experiment because I feel it is my strongest piece of evidence for genetic differences among the races. In America's national teams, for all disciplines, Asians, whites, and blacks apply, compete, and do their best. When they are on the team, they are trained in highly similar if not identical conditions. Yet, year after year, the runners who make it to the Olympics are almost all black (despite blacks being a minority in the US); the swimmers are almost all white. If the genetic differences between the races are insignificant as you say, then how do you explain this? This has already been asked and was ignored. It is my most important point; if you address nothing else, address this point, please.

there is an apparent segregation in the sports world in the US. But it is not because of genetics. It is mostly social. If you look at the NBA and NFL, it's predominantly African Americans. If you look at baseball, it's mostly hispanics. If you look at tennis, golf, swimming, etc, it's mostly Caucasians. Asians don't do a lot of sports and focus on chess, piano, etc. It's not because different races are better at different events. Short distance swimming requires same level of explosiveness and muscle mass as short distance dash. Long distance swimming needs similar endurance as long distance running. It is the same traits that allows swimmers to be good at swimming and runners to good at running. Football and rugby are very similar contact sports. In fact, American football evolved from rugby. Yet, you see football teams consisted of mostly black players, but rugby teams almost all whites. If an African American player can be good at football, he has all the necessary tools to be good at rugby.

So why the distinct differences? Mostly social segregation and tradition. Wealthy neighborhoods can afford more expensive facilities, such as swimming pools, golf courses, tennis courts. Schools in wealthier neighborhoods usually have rugby teams, instead of football teams. Not because they are better at the former, but because of traditions. Poor neighborhoods can only afford cheap sports, where less equipment is needed. Unfortunately, large % of African Americans live in poor neighborhoods. This is why you see many African Americans pick up basketball and football.

If you want to dig a little deeper, there are differences as well. Most good college football teams are in the south. Why is that? Is there any genetic factors involved? Somehow Southerners are good at contact sports? It turns out that football is usually the only sport/entertainment in those small southern towns. People are obsessed with anything football, high school football, college football, NFL, etc. With such emphasis on football, it is obvious that they practice more and get better.
 

solarz

Brigadier
I already explained many times that there are a plethora of traits combined to make a great athlete and they can be more common and extreme in certain populations than others just like how certain populations look different than others. Physical appearance is also a combination of complex traits.

Let me give one example of an obvious difference. When Asian or Caucasian weightlifters perform the clean and jerk, typically, they throw the weight onto their shoulders and jerk it up from the same hand position. But all/nearly all Africans must first clean it onto their shoulders, then adjust their hands for wider grip while balancing it on their deltoids and clavicles before jerking it up. Because on average, Africans have longer arms and if they were to jerk from the same hand position as the clean, they must send the weight much higher. This trait alone gives Africans a disadvantage in weightlifting (extra step, extra time under the weight, strain on clavicles/delts) and the only black weightlifting champion I can think of in history is Vencelas Dabaya of France. He was champion for only 1 year. No others. (Of course, this trait is an advantage in other sports such as basketball.)

You are seriously suggesting that white people are not as good at running as black people are because it's too cheap and white people like to do expensive things like swimming? The black population of the US is under 15% yet every 100m runner representing the US, or any other country in the world who made it to this year's 100m finals is black, and you are trying to use this as a possible explanation? The coaches and coaching styles are all different so just by luck, all the black people happen get the best coaches every year?

Why are people deliberately ignoring the elephant in the room that different races of people have different advantages? Are you all so in love with the narrative that every race is exactly the same and you can be anything you want, limited by only your dreams?

Nope, not at all, but for every explanation you can come up with for genetic factors, I can come up with an explanation based on socio-economic and cultural factors.

The point is, it is impossible to separate the two.

Take the example of running vs swimming. Blacks represent only 12% of the US population. However, if 50% (hypothetically) of them pursue a sports-related career compared to 5% from the non-black population, then they already have a number advantage. Then, if 50% of that 50% go into running (again, hypothetically), compared to 25% of the 5% of non-blacks, then they will represent a large majority.

African nations are among the most disadvantaged nations in the world, and running is one of the cheapest sports you can train at. You don't need an expensive swimming pool, you don't need expensive equipment, hell, you don't even need a dedicated venue. If these nations concentrated their talent at running, then obviously they will achieve better results than other nations who might have spread their talents and resources into many other kinds of sports.

There is no denying that different ethnic groups have different physiology. However, you said yourself that athletes adapt themselves to their chosen sport by using different strategies. Training and nutrition are integral parts of that strategy. Everyone thought East Asians performed poorly at athletic sports due to physiological reasons until Liu Xiang won gold.

With the proper nutrition, training strategy, and determination, you can overcome any physiological disadvantage. Now I know what you're going to say: what if all those elements were equal? Wouldn't physiology be a determinant factor then?

The thing is, those elements are *never* equal. Usain Bolt is incredibly fast due to a combination of great genes and excellent conditioning. Even if you could clone him, you cannot replicate his training, experience, and mental focus. Currently, Bolt is the fastest runner in history. However, how do you know that in 20 years, the fastest runner won't be asian? Population selection, combined with improved conditioning techniques, could very well make that a reality.
 

solarz

Brigadier
Excellent post! Exactly true. Genetic advantages among races applies to the average, not every individual (obviously, there are people who run or swim fast in every population). You will always find those several standard deviations from the average. The challenge of each country is to find those people 2-3+ SD's greater than the norm in their population and train them before they get too old to train. So does it mean that China has no naturally talented runners? No! In China's 1.4 billion population, there might be a guy who runs faster than Bolt because at that population size, statistically speaking, there is a guy who is 6 standard deviations above the average. Problem is, he's probably a farmer somewhere and never got to training (the villagers probably joke about how he's always the first one there when there's free food LOL). Jamaica has only a 3 million population but their average is so high (due to genetic advantages) that someone just 2 SD's from the norm can probably make sub-10 in the 100m dash with professional training, but they've probably got no one 4 SD's above the norm. China's just struggling to find that one rare guy while he's still in his diapers!

But that's exactly what environmental factors are! The ability to bring out the best, whether in individuals or in populations, through methods other than natural selection.

This whole discussion is centered on olympic athletes, which represent 0.0001% of a nation's population. Maybe Jamaica has 1000 kids with the potential to be as fast as Bolt, and China has only 100, but what if China was able to find and train 90 of those 100 kids, while Jamaica could only find and train 30 of those 1000 kids?
 

vesicles

Colonel
Another fact is that China has a practice of sending certain athletes to Yunnan about one month prior to big games because Yunnan is a plateau of 3000 meters above sea level. The reason was to enhance the blood cell's ability to carry oxygen. We also know that ethnic Tibetans are naturally adapted to high altitude over 4000 meters, therefor they are naturally advantageous in certain sports if all other factors are equal to other ethnics. The reason that Tibetans do not perform well in Chinese sport teams is the remoteness, poor fundamental facilities and maybe nutritions. But the fact that Chinese teams train at high altitude says that Tibetan gene is advantageous.

Yeah, that myth has been debunked long ago. The extract oxygen-carrying capacity can only last a couple days once you come down to the sea level. So by the time you get to the competition site, your red blood cells go back to normal capacity. So it's actually useless. Even if it is true, it should be categorized as environmental factor and training technique, not genetics.

Since Tibetans have such genetic advantage, how come we don't see many Tibetans on Chinese teams at any level of competition? What about Nepal? How many gold have they won? they live in the same high altitude environment as the Tibetans.
 

vesicles

Colonel
Thanks to Taxiya's post, I saw this again. In this sentence, you already admitted to being wrong. If Africans have more well-developed muscles than others, and you're facing one without sickle-cell anemia (which I assume to be the case if you're at the Olympics), then what situation are you in? You're in a scenario where you face someone who has a genetic advantage over you because of his race, and he doesn't have a disease to bring him down. With equal training and coaching, you're toast... unless you find an advantage in your genes that allows you to undermine his muscular dominance by exploiting a different winning strategy!

Note that I said "may". I was trying to push your argument to the extreme and show you that, even if that is the case, it still cannot affect the final outcome.

As you challenged me last night, I am challenging you now. Show me hardcore data. Stop coming up with hypothetic scenarios. Go to PubMed and find a paper or two published within the past 10 years about how one race is better at one physical activity than others.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
the differences in appearance has not contributed to any measurable differences in performing any tasks. Is there any unbiased statistical study showing certain race is better at certain task?

That's not the point. I didn't say that differences in appearance equaled superiority at different tasks. You said that superiority at these tasks is a result of complex multi-gene effects and those cannot be sustained in populations. I countered saying that appearances are also the result of complex multi-gene effects and have been sustained in the races.

You claim to be a geneticist. Show me some published studies to support your claim. Everything that you have said has been hypothetical with opening like "I heard...", "If I find..." As a classically trained scientist, you can do better than this.

This cannot be done. It's unethical to do experiments like this on humans. The closest there is to a study is when you see all black runners in the 100m, and all-black teams in the Olympics/worlds representing a country like the US, which is white-dominated even though there are many white sprinters on the US team. Same for swimming.

Sickle cell anaemia is a fact that occurs among the African population. Since a lot of what we discuss centers on Africans performance at sports, it is an important factor that must be included in all consideration.

Well, you can include it, but it creates a bi-modal distribution and you can only conclude that blacks with SSA do not, on average, perform as well as their peers while those who are unaffected can perform better.

My statistics show the heights among different races are equal.

No, they don't. Your statistics show that when athletes are cherry-picked out of tens of thousands of people, they tend to be the similar.

OK, I hope you don't discuss statistics like this in your own publications...

I've never had to because people didn't say stupid things to me like all races are exactly the same except for appearance.

We have a distribution range from as short as 144cm (gymnasts) to 210cm (basketball players). that is a gap of 66cm. With the mean located at 177-178cm, the standard deviation is about +/- 20% from the mean. And you believe a 6% difference means anything??

Ah, you have gymnasts, basketball players, etc... that are vastly different. I see. In that case, your statistics should be scrapped yet again because when dealing with data like that, height should be stratified by sport before being compared. BUT, once again, those statistics come from cherry picked athletes selected to do the same tasks by each side.

I will not attack your numbers, but I will attack your methods. Again, hypothetical examples. You challenged me to show you evidence. I have presented hardcore statistics to support my point. I show you the statistics of all athletes, which go through the same filtering process no matter which country they live. these athletes participate in similar events. So my statistics is a good way of comparing the demographics of athletes in different nations.

Your statistics are invalid because of how the participants were selected. Read again on my example of sport X Netherlands vs. China and how 2 completely different populations can field almost identical numbers when they do statistics your way.

To this point, you have not shown any hard evidence to support your point. Where is your statistics?

As I said, there are no published studies, but the statistics are there. In the past 2 years, what percent of swimming champions were white? What percent runner champs were black? OK, you can play the socio-economic card; it may have some effect, but it cannot skew it so badly that exactly 0 sprinting champs are white and 1 swimmer is black!

Yet, none of them show any significant advantages over others with different body types. All 3 body types have dominated the gymnastics. This is consistent with my hypothesis: mechanisms of human body movement, which consequentially lead to sports, is so complex that any single difference does not lead to changes in overall performance.

Dominated by different strategies. Did you even read the post?

Convergent evolution is a good comparison. Africans may have thicker muscle fibers, but Asians may hold other advantages, which could allow them to compete in 100M dash.

But it couldn't allow them to win LOL. Anyone can compete!

You insist on focusing on a single trait while ignoring other factors. My point has always been that you need to look at sports as a highly coordinated event, where many parts come together to generate the final outcome.

No one, I understand that all traits play a role, which is why I brought up the point about different strategies to win.

No, Jamaica is not rich. However, most Jamaican athletes train in the US.

So if China sent its athletes to train in the US, we'd suddenly be sprinting champs? OK, the US doesn't like us. Fine. How about Japan, South Korea, India? They can all just send some guys to the US to train. No? No winners? Or they didn't care to win? How come the white guys who already train in the US didn't make the cut but Jamaicans who train in the US get maximal benefits?

You do know that all human on this planet evolved from a few thousand common ancestors. Such detailed genetic analysis will give you the differences that you want, but to what end will you stop the genotyping. Chinese are different from Japanese and Koreans. There are also 56 different ethnic groups in China. Do you need to analyze the difference among all of them to conclude anything about Chinese?

Don't know what I'm being asked here or how it pertains to the discussion.

Again, hypothetic examples... Since you claim to be a geneticist, I will hold you to a professional standard. Show me unbiased statistics.

What exactly are you looking for? A full experiment with human babies raised exactly the same way like mice? You can't get that. I've said it before, if you want unbiased statistics, looking at Olympic, World champion records is as good as it gets.

there is an apparent segregation in the sports world in the US. But it is not because of genetics. It is mostly social. If you look at the NBA and NFL, it's predominantly African Americans. If you look at baseball, it's mostly hispanics. If you look at tennis, golf, swimming, etc, it's mostly Caucasians. Asians don't do a lot of sports and focus on chess, piano, etc. It's not because different races are better at different events. Short distance swimming requires same level of explosiveness and muscle mass as short distance dash. Long distance swimming needs similar endurance as long distance running. It is the same traits that allows swimmers to be good at swimming and runners to good at running. Football and rugby are very similar contact sports. In fact, American football evolved from rugby. Yet, you see football teams consisted of mostly black players, but rugby teams almost all whites. If an African American player can be good at football, he has all the necessary tools to be good at rugby.

No, they are not the same. Some people are better at some sports, as you pointed out. Swimming and running are wayyy different. They require different muscle density, different physiques (example: long arms, long trunk are ideal for swimming but long legs and short body are best for running), etc... Saying running and swimming are the same is like saying a boat and a car are the same. Yeah, they require the same engine power, but they require vastly different forms. Rugby and football are pretty much the same, I give you that.

So why the distinct differences? Mostly social segregation and tradition. Wealthy neighborhoods can afford more expensive facilities, such as swimming pools, golf courses, tennis courts. Schools in wealthier neighborhoods usually have rugby teams, instead of football teams. Not because they are better at the former, but because of traditions. Poor neighborhoods can only afford cheap sports, where less equipment is needed. Unfortunately, large % of African Americans live in poor neighborhoods. This is why you see many African Americans pick up basketball and football.

White people can't afford to run? Too rich? Not acceptable? LOL

If you want to dig a little deeper, there are differences as well. Most good college football teams are in the south. Why is that? Is there any genetic factors involved? Somehow Southerners are good at contact sports? It turns out that football is usually the only sport/entertainment in those small southern towns. People are obsessed with anything football, high school football, college football, NFL, etc. With such emphasis on football, it is obvious that they practice more and get better.

Oh, cultural factors are also very important, of course, just like genetic factors. India's got 1 gold in Olympic history and a population almost as large as China's; it can't be because they're unfit for everything!

I think I posted my responses inside your post. My bad; I don't know how to do it the other way.
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Note that I said "may". I was trying to push your argument to the extreme and show you that, even if that is the case, it still cannot affect the final outcome.

As you challenged me last night, I am challenging you now. Show me hardcore data. Stop coming up with hypothetic scenarios. Go to PubMed and find a paper or two published within the past 10 years about how one race is better at one physical activity than others.
The final outcome is that only black people win the dash events and nothing that China or any other country (USA included) does can put a white/Asian/Latino man there, not anywhere on the podium, and most of the times, not even in the finals. Your "What if the black dude was sick with sickle cell?" example shows how desperate you are to get a grasp.

You challenge me to find an experiment done on humans raised in the same conditions as lab rats and raced to find out their distinct advantages? LOL You know better than to ask for that. Don't process information like a machine; use your brain to extrapolate from the best data you can get and that's what I just wrote to you in the last paragraph.
 
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