fandomhigh | Introduction to Anthropology

"Good morning. I'm expecting projects in from Samuel Anders, Chihaya, Harry Potter and Willow Rosenberg in, so if you could leave those in the tray on my desk please.

Continuing on with our lessons on popluation genetics, today we're looking at genetic drift.

Genetic drift is the constant tendency of genes to evolve even in the absence of selective forces. Genetic drift is fueled by spontaneous neutral mutations that disappear or become fixed in a population at random. Inbred lines separated from a common ancestral pair can drift rapidly apart from each other.

The survival and reproductions of organisms is subject to unpredictable accidents. It doesn't matter how good your genes are if you get killed before producing offspring.

An ant gets stepped on.
A rabbit gets swept up by a tornado.
An elephant drinks up a protozoa living in a puddle.
A plane crashes killing a Nobel Laureate.

None of the above events has anything to do with the dead organism's genotype or phenotype - these events occurred purely by chance.

"Your homework tonight is to do the five questions on this Driftworms simulation, which I want in on Friday. You can read about the simulation here

Any questions?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sam started laughing so hard she almost fell off the desk. "I bet," she snorted, when her laughter had tapered off to chuckles.

"We might, but it's not a competition. Who cares if we can drink more? It's not like you're going to be driving home."

Daniel thought back, and flushed bright scarlett. "Oh God," he muttered.

"No, I won't be," he grinned. "As soon as I get there I'll be claiming my corner to pass out in."

Sam laughed again, enjoying Daniel's discomfort for the moment.

"It's good to have these things picked out ahead of time. Saves on the confusion." She winked. "They've got extra beds in there, though, so it's possible you wouldn't need to sleep in a corner."

Daniel just blushed even brighter red if that was at all possible.

"Even if I tried to reserve a bed, I'm sure I'd still end up in the corner," he said, nodding wisely.

"Oh, yeah, I could see that happening," she grinned. "Yep. You in the corner, Janet in her bed, staring at you mournfully. Not in a million years."

Daniel just blushed again. "It might," he mumbled.

Sam raised her eyebrow at him. "Indeed." Teal'c would be proud that she carried it off so well.

Daniel mumbled something which might have sounded like "Bite me."

Sam stuck her tongue out at Daniel and hopped off the desk. "I've got to go. Talk to you later?"

"Yeah, sure. Thanks for the coffee, Sam. It's always appreciated."

"No problem. Have fun talking about your dig." She waved and walked out.

Introduction to Anthropology

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