Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utastro.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!ut-sally!utastro!ethan
From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: How about the future?
Message-ID: <588@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Sep-84 10:31:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.588
Posted: Fri Sep 28 10:31:25 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Sep-84 03:39:43 EDT
References: <1323@ucla-cs.ARPA>, <158@mouton.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 18

[][][][]

This kind of discussion quickly gets bogged down into arguments
of what *you* would do if you were God.  (I'd get rid of New Jersey,
but that's neither here nor there.)

The interesting thing about the biochemical similarities between
species is that they are a pretty good measure of how *long* it has
been since a common ancestor existed for two species (according to
the fossil record).  They are *not* a good measure of how physically
similar two species are. (Except insofar as the second is correlated
with the former, by no means an invariable rule)

Incidentally, the same phenomenon can be seen in human blood proteins.
This can be used to show that (among other things) that Boers have
a significant amount of Bantu ancestry.

             Ethan Vishniac