Leonardo DaEinstein Posted May 22, 2013 Posted May 22, 2013 Hi! Im new here and i have many unsubstantiated ideas on evolution that im sure very people will disagree with,lol. I do, however, want to attempt to prove them, or even unprove them, and i can move on. The problem is lack of research and data, and i hoping to learn here on how, when, and where to test/ develop, and gain access to databases for info regarding my theories. My first one, out of hundreds of ideas in my head, is the hypothesis of genetic mirroring/dysmorphis between the two human sexes. Meaning that our genders are becoming more dysmorphic with time. Example: bone structure. I believe that our bone structuress are sexually dysmorphic, but ill pick skull size just as one example. If my hypothesis is correct then, women with big head will have male relatives with smaller heads, and vice versa. Men with large skulls will have female relatives with smalllers, on average. This is due to thte fact they share the same genes. Now,im not asking if you share the same ideas as me, im not asking if you agree with me, and im not asking for your opinion on the matter. Im just asking, in the interest of science, on how would one attempt via the scientific method, to prove or disprove this idea? Again, im only asking for advice on how to prove or disrove this particular idea, thats it. Perphaps to my detriment, i dont want to know that you strongly disagree with me, i dont want to know the ancedotal evidence of your observances of the matter, i dont want my spelling or grammar corrected, i dont want to know how stupid and ignorant i am, and i dont want to know anything that isnt related to the question i asked: "how would one attempt via the scientific method, to prove or disprove this idea?" I also dont want to know what i should do first, like for example "first you should see if the question is even worth asking" , "first you should have a better tone, grammer, etiquette" etc etc.to post. I dont want an etiquette lesson on my post, i just want an answer to the question i posited above. If i could get responses to the question i asked and nothing else i will be most appreciative. And amazed, and a little shocked,lol. Thank you for reading this, and have a good day
pwagen Posted May 22, 2013 Posted May 22, 2013 Im just asking, in the interest of science, on how would one attempt via the scientific method, to prove or disprove this idea?Measure a lot (a LOT) from all kinds of people with relatives, then look for evidence in the statistics, of men with larger heads having female relatives with smaller heads and vice versa.
swansont Posted May 22, 2013 Posted May 22, 2013 You're looking for a correlation between e.g. cranium size of siblings, and their gender. I think you need to more clearly lay out what data you need, so that you can do the proper measurements, and make sure what you are proposing isn't a tautology. i.e. a male with a large head and a female with a small head is going to correlate exactly with a female with a small head and a male with a large head, because it's the same thing. So what correlation are you looking for? How do you quantify the male or female relatives? How many generations do you look at? One important factor is that you can really only change one variable within a comparison to be able to draw a conclusion. Step 1: Get lots of data, so that you can properly compare the statistics and average out the randomness. Step 2: Analyze the data and see if the correlation is there.
Leonardo DaEinstein Posted May 22, 2013 Author Posted May 22, 2013 Awesome. Im going to do what you said, and thank you for the wonderful responses Do u have any thoughts on how i would get this data? I was thinking it would be very time consuming and expensive to conduct this research, but i would try if it was the only way, and it definitely would be the best way to get great information on it. I was hoping there would be info somewhere on people skulls sizes, but perhaps not. Where would i look to find out if this info is already out there somewhere? Again, thank you for the great responses and i look forward to more
swansont Posted May 23, 2013 Posted May 23, 2013 The data may already exist as part of a different study — life sciences people tend to take a lot of data when they do studies, in order to test multiple hypotheses and look for correlations. It's a matter of finding the right studies and seeing if the investigator will share the data. Which is probably a lot of work.
overtone Posted May 23, 2013 Posted May 23, 2013 A group of researchers including John Komlos has collected a large amount of data on comparative height of humans (both in historical time and geographical location) and other skeletal dimensions, that you may want to check out. If Komlos is correct in his deductions, you may not be able to draw the conclusions you seek from such data: he claims to have established a central role for cultural and economic circumstance in human height variation between populations, for example (that with a couple of isolated exceptions such as the Bushmen in Africa, all human populations are about the same genetic height overall).
Leonardo DaEinstein Posted May 23, 2013 Author Posted May 23, 2013 Thanks guys, im reading about Komlos and trying to find other researchers as well right now . Thank you again
ACG52 Posted May 23, 2013 Posted May 23, 2013 One of the problems you may encounter is that personal information about the subjects is studies is usually missing.
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