Longlin 1 again!

The first version of the Longlin 1 skull was still made under the assumption, that this could be part of a new species. But meanwhile I am rather convinced, that he is quite in the middle of a normal range of east asian people.

On a blogsite I found this picture, supporting my estimation:
https://blogs.wellesley.edu/vanarsdale/files/2012/03/Slide2.jpg

in another blog Maju commented:
     " I think that the nose of both Longlin and Mai Da Nuoc have remarkably small triangular nasal holes and neither have the "bridge" of the nose (nasal bone) too prominent. They could well have noses similar to those of modern East Asians: rather flat and small but actually most modern Mongoloids have broader nose holes and these are remarkably small and triangular. I've tried to find comparisons but no luck but they must have got very small noses, probably narrow, as well as very strongly marked cheeks. "

As I offered open to correct me in my partly exeggerated approaches of selfmade reconstructions I made a second version of Longlin 1.

Homo Mousteriensis Hauseri faces

Reflections about the uncertainties of reconstruction

In my first high school year at the age of ten I could enjoy a privileged status concerning Biology. My appreciated teacher Dr. Krieger knew to use my drawing abilities for his lessons at a time without tons of copies and without a beamer, giving me his private books to blow up the illustrations with color charcoal on a board of one to three square meters. I remember gigantic drawings of single cells, plants and insects. In the huge archive of the biology collection I first met the famous skull of one of the latest Neanderthal people, found 1908 in Moustier, Dordogne and considered to have lived about 40000 years ago. I met him again in 2005 in the Anatomy Institute of Cologne, hold him in hands, made a drawing and quickly noticed, that he must be wrong recomposed (done by Hermann Klaatsch, Breslau).

In 2005 I ommited to do a more detailed drawing and added it now, imagining, this could be a half bald man with freckles and full of testosterone. The green sculpture, I found some days ago, obviously is based on the wrong replica too.

I made a second drawing trying to correct the exaggerated prolonging of the face. This replica was probably spreaded throughout Europe a thousand times, being the first complete skull of a Neanderthal man, giving a chance to visualize this new species. Otto Hauser was not only a skilled amateur archaeologue, but also very good at promoting and merchandising his findings.

It was a luck, that they divided the original parts (brown) from the additions (grey - the small skull in the upper left). A study by Thomson, I later found, which worked with computer tomography, recombining all known pieces into a plausible skull, showed no significant difference to my initial sketching. 

After looking for a possible version of the newly found Maludong skull I remembered my own elder reflections about the subjectivity of reconstructions. Even when we face a complete skull without errors like above and can turn him around in hands, we know nothing about all the fleshy and psychic facts, that determine a person. We can only guess, wether he is healthy or sick, vivid or timid, selfconfident, kind or mean, bright or dull, handsome or ugly. The simple fact, that there sometimes is only one version of a head - and often a very expensive one, when a sculpture - can lead to the misleading impression, if you have a scientific method like "Three millimeters flesh on the cheekbones", you will automatically reach an objective version of a skull. The truth is far from that!
The most important determinants for an empathic and real looking version is a well founded prejudice, a guiding idea. I simply played with those possibilities to show, that we could imagine our famous Hauseri skull both as european or rather african or asian.

At http://s4.zetaboards.com/Sciences_and_History/forum/3841977/
I opened up a thread to discuss this and to start a project, I will offer to run series of drawings after your proposals.

Maludong versions

collecting different possibilities of ancient faces will perhaps create a weird thing like a "morphological difference" to head for probable faces without anatomical proof like those of Denisovans!

Two actual versions of the Maludong samples. Not that far away, I think!

Professor Koebke and the old man of La Chapelle

I sadly have to announce, that Professor Juergen Koebke, former director of the anatomic institute of Cologne, was found yesterday suicided in the south of Cologne, obviously no longer bearing unfair accusations against him and his responsability. Last week it became public, that up to 80 corpses in his institute have not been buried as usual. It was the guilt of a staff member with a lot of private problems. Since Koebke was known as extremely human, he did not want to destroy that member, but it came to an official warning, signed with the designated next professor (who is not reachable anymore).

In 2005 we both organized an exhibition in the big lounge of the anatomic institute and buying the above painting he even enabled the printing of the invitation cards. He was highly educated and interested, was repeatedly in the list of top three beloved teachers and was so generous, that he gave me free access to all parts of a huge collection. For the course of three weeks I was able to have all the original sculls and repliquas in hands to draw them.

This is a real tragedy!

iWulff

aus dem Nachlaß von Steve Jobs:
das rote Präsidententelefon für besondere Anlässe.

POIESIS & TECHNE

Comments about 23andme's new terms of subscription

Repeatedly the question arise, who owns our genome and I think, it is worth a notion, that greek philosophers around 500 bc already developed a rather appropriate distinction about two different powers, how things can be produced. One is named POIESIS and it means the power to let natural things grow and evolute into their own shape. The other is related to human intelligence and means the power to transform given things and to invent something completely new. It is called TECHNE.
Applying this to the field of genetics, we can easliy see, that a "Genome" is undoubtly part of the natural world, is a result of the power of POIESIS and belongs both to all of us and nobody as does the air around us, we can breath. Nobody can claim, it is his creation or invention or propriety. What of course not means, that someone else has the right to put his hands on information about my genome!
On the other hand we have to agree, that all methods of Genome investigation, sequencing and chip technologies, tools like Relative and Ancestry Finder are part of TECHNE and must be regarded as unique inventions, innovations of the several companies, who owns them.
In so far I have to agree to the new terms of subscription, they mostly correspond to what I think about the freedom of a companies business strategy.

The problem is the timing. What seems to be ok for the future, must not be ok for the past!
The current consumers for the V3 technology ordered under different conditions and will be blamed with the new TOS.
I wanted to know, how it will look like, when the new terms are not taken back!

This is the current situation for each participant of Relative Finder. There are distant cousins, tested with the V2 chip, those with V3 and about 3/4 are non responders ( coloured icons! ). I omitted decliners and the chaotic fact, that some accept contact, but decline sharing.

The new TOS will only concern the users of V3 and those unlucky ones, who paid for an update to V3. If they decide to continue paying the subscription fees, they will lose all the non payers of V3.

Who cancels the subscription, will maintain the access to his raw data, but will face a situation, anybody can have for free installing a simple demo account. He will see this:

I deeply recommend to sign a petition, compiled by Larry Vick against the new terms of subscription.

http://www.change.org/petitions/23andme-dont-take-away-our-relative-finder-matches#

Respecting Synthia

since 23andme recently changed almost unnoticed their terms of subscription, most of V3 chip accounts after cancelling will turn into a sort of demo-accounts with only access to their rawdata.
When Jim McMillan put together a virtual person as a reference for a northwesteuropean person and I added a face to that, we both installed a demoaccount at 23andme and I even asked the staff for the possibility to upload Jims data to their database - as usual with no response.
Well, I have the impression, that 23andme is losing their capacity to differenciate between real and virtual people.
Installing a facebook account for Synthia Zaender, as I called her, I used the following text for my invitations:
 
"hi,
I'm Synthia, a synthetic woman, who's genome (about 570000 basepairs) was  compiled by Jim McMillan, using the most common segments,  he could find in the databases of 23andme testees of european descent. According to my snpedia/promethease results, as he could define, I'm light skinned, prone to freckling, lactose tolerant, with type A blood, red or light blond hair, blue eyes, would pick up 4 IQ points if breast feed, and more.
Following this, Hartmut Zänder made my portrait, including my possible mtdna haplogroup H1.

 

You can see my comparisons at:
http://www.box.net/shared/oskds8h9by"

This is, was Synthia ( not the real me! ) got today at her account:

"You really are as fascinating as you think you are.

23andMe in 2011: Helping Customers Tell Their Stories
   
Dear Synthia,
The 23andMe team made great strides this year in our mission to bring the world of genetics to you. Thank you for taking part in the personal genetics revolution, and making this possible. We take inspiration every day from the stories you share about the positive impact of our unique service. Here are the highlights of 2011, including some of the most inspiring of these stories:

New and Updated Content
   
    * Our scientists selected the highest quality information from thousands of research articles to deliver 78 new and updated reports about your health and traits.
    * Along with extensive reports on diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, we delivered “conversational” reports — for example describing how your genes might impact your coffee habit.
    * Our blog The Spittoon kept you current throughout the year on the latest discoveries in genetics and more.
Karen Durrett may have saved her life when she talked to her doctor about her increased genetic risk for breast cancer.
   
New Tools
    * Our improved Relative Finder tool connected more family trees than ever before, with most members seeing more than 250 new relatives.
    * The new Neanderthal Ancestry feature let you explore your caveman roots.
    * You can now team up with your family on your Family Health History to get a more complete picture of your health.
    * New community tools made it easier to share your stories and connect common interests.

Neil Schwartzman used 23andMe's Relative Finder to connect with the sister he never knew he had.
   

New Research and Discoveries
    * Thanks to the contributions of 23andMe members, we published a groundbreaking study on the genetics of Parkinson’s disease.
    * Our Roots into the Future initiative, a revolutionary study exploring the impact of genetics on health in African Americans, enrolled thousands of participants.
    * We continued to support research for rare diseases by launching the myeloproliferative disorders community.
    * We added 15 new Research Discoveries, on topics silly to serious, driven by the participation of people like you.

Jim Wong joined the Parkinson's Community and fought back against his Parkinson’s.
   
23andMe brings the stories in your DNA to life. We can't wait to add exciting new chapters in 2012.

Happy New Year!

The 23andMe Team           
   
Because no one is just like you.