Brothers and Sisters

Mapping the end of incest and dawn of individualism
Nov 2019 phys.org

Apparently the Romans had to learn not to have incest in order to advance their civilization. Thanks Jesus.

Historians and scholars still don't know why Europe shifted between 1300 - 1500 AD, but they did. They were under the influence of the Catholic Church.

They think maybe: "Kin-based institutions reward conformity, tradition, nepotism, and obedience to authority, traits that help protect assets—such as farms—from outsiders. But once familial barriers crumble, the team predicted that individualistic traits like independence, creativity, cooperation, and fairness with strangers would increase."

So in conclusion - the willingness to trust strangers correlates to whether or not your family structure is the kind where your cousins mate. If it is, you're less likely to trust strangers, because you tend to find yourself surrounded by your own blood.

Now whether this means Europe needed to start trusting strangers because they were getting mixed up faster than a bag of microwave popcorn, or they facilitated this dynamism because of their beliefs, either way the association paints an interesting picture of the physics of sociology.

Post Script
Facial deformity in royal dynasty was linked to inbreeding, scientists confirm
Dec 2019, phys.org

Reprotech

HR Giger's Babies, the guy who did Alien

Baby Lynlee 'born twice' after life-saving tumour surgery
BBC News, Oct 2016

They take the baby out, perform surgery on her, and put her back in for 12 weeks.

I don't know what it is about advances in reproductive technology, but it always seems to scare the sh** out of me, like the three-people babies stuff.

I don't know what it is about advances in reproductive technology, but it always seems to scare the sh** out of me, like the three-people babies stuff.

For those who aren't up to it yet, "three-people babies" are when the mitochondrial DNA of one mother is implanted in another mother (who's mDNA is no good), which results in an organism with DNA from three people, which is totally unprecedented in life as we know it.

Gene Therapy To Prevent Inherited Diseases May Cause Other Ills
NPR, Jan 2017

On the dangers of using mitochondrial transplants:

"When the mother's nucleus is transferred, it's like a plant dug up out of ground — a bit of the original soil (in this case, the mother's mitochondria) is still clinging to the roots. That creates a situation that never happens in nature: Two different mitochondrial genomes from two different women are forced to live inside the same cell. In most cases, a tiny percentage (usually less than 2 percent) of the diseased mitochondria remain — but that tiny percentage can really matter."

Ahh Headlines

Female fish develops male organs and impregnates self

 Mar 24, 2016 report:

(Phys.org)—A female cichlid hybrid fish has been observed to have grown male reproductive organs, impregnate itself and then to have offspring, a team of researchers in the U.K. are reporting in a paper published in the ...

And in other news:

Microsoft chatbot is taught to swear on Twitter

BBC News, March 2016

Grand Theft Auto deer causes chaos in game world

BBC News, March 2016

Yup.