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View Full Version : The bacteria under your gums is a good predictor of race.



Mister D
10-25-2013, 10:06 AM
The bacteria under your gums is a good predictor of race. ---The bacteria in the human mouth – particularly those nestled under the gums – are as powerful as a fingerprint at identifying a person's ethnicity, new research shows. Scientists identified a total of almost 400 different species of microbes in the mouths of 100 study participants (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/study+participants/) belonging to four ethnic affiliations: non-Hispanic blacks, whites, Chinese and Latinos.Only 2 percent of bacterial species were present in all individuals – but in different concentrations according to ethnicity – and 8 percent were detected in 90 percent of the participants. Beyond that, researchers found that each ethnic group in the study was represented by a "signature" of shared microbial communities.

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When the scientists trained a machine to classify each assortment of microbes from under the gums according to ethnicity, a given bacterial community (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/bacterial+community/) predicted an individual's ethnicity with 62 percent accuracy. The classifier identified African Americans according to their microbial signature correctly 100 percent of the time.The findings could help explain why people in some ethnic groups (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/ethnic+groups/), especially African Americans and Latinos, are more susceptible than others to develop gum disease (http://medicalxpress.com/tags/disease/). The research also confirms that one type of dental treatment is not appropriate for all, and could contribute to a more personalized approach to care of the mouth.

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Using only the bacteria found under the gums – which are called subgingival microbes – the classifying machine performed best at positively identifying African Americans according to their microbial communities, followed by positive identifications of Latinos at 67 percent and Caucasians at 50 percent – but with 91 percent specificity, meaning the classifier determined how often a sample did not come from a white person 91 percent of the time.

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"Nature appears to win over nurture in shaping these communities," Kumar noted, because African Americans and whites had distinct microbial signatures despite sharing environmental exposures to nutrition and lifestyle over several generations.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-10-oral-bacteria-fingerprint-mouth.html

countryboy
10-25-2013, 10:14 AM
What useful purpose does this information serve?

Mister D
10-25-2013, 10:17 AM
What useful purpose does this information serve?

It could help us understand, for example, why certain populations are more susceptible to gum disease and thereby help treat or even prevent it. That's why they research this sort of thing.

Cthulhu
10-25-2013, 10:23 AM
It could help us understand, for example, why certain populations are more susceptible to gum disease and thereby help treat or even prevent it. That's why they research this sort of thing.

Are you daring to make the suggestion that races are different from each other with biology as your reference material?

Shame! Eternal shame!!

Interesting research though. Similar findings have been found with forensic anthropology with regards to bone shapes and such. I think it is pretty cool science.

Mister D
10-25-2013, 10:30 AM
Are you daring to make the suggestion that races are different from each other with biology as your reference material?

Shame! Eternal shame!!

Interesting research though. Similar findings have been found with forensic anthropology with regards to bone shapes and such. I think it is pretty cool science.

:laugh: People get so uptight about that.

Yes, I've been interested in this sort of thing for close to a decade now. Forensic anthropologists can identify your race from a few bones.

Cthulhu
10-25-2013, 10:40 AM
:laugh: People get so uptight about that.

Yes, I've been interested in this sort of thing for close to a decade now. Forensic anthropologists can identify your race from a few bones.

I'm pretty sure there are genetic markers for it as well, but it isn't my area of expertise. And those who oppose it? Well, you could always point out the fact that Jews are doing it to identify jews in israel for certain reasons (http://www.timesofisrael.com/russian-speakers-who-want-to-immigrate-could-need-dna-test/) - ancestry being chief among them so they can have a quasi homogenous society. But then the "there's only one race - the human race" crowd says more and more things that unravel their argument that they think slaughter yours - it's really quite comical.

I typically champion the common sense route of casual observation. Things I can see, smell, hear - they work well enough for me.

I don't need a scientist of biology or genetics to tell me what is blatantly obvious, and the obvious facts being that there are breeds of men, and they are different from one another in many ways. Although having science on your side never hurts, it shouldn't supplant the use of common sense.

Mister D
10-25-2013, 10:46 AM
I'm pretty sure there are genetic markers for it as well, but it isn't my area of expertise. And those who oppose it? Well, you could always point out the fact that Jews are doing it to identify jews in israel for certain reasons, but then they say more and more things that unravel their argument that they think slaughter yours - it's really quite comical.

I typically champion the common sense route of casual observation. Things I can see, smell, hear - they work well enough for me.

I don't need a scientist of biology or genetics to tell me what is blatantly obvious, and the obvious facts being that there are breeds of men, and they are different from one another in many ways. Although having science on your side never hurts, it shouldn't supplant the use of common sense.

No one needed assurance from biologists et al until the ideas of Franz Boas became mainstream. I find it all so bizarre, frankly. The emotional resistance I've encountered over the years has been often been steeped in vitriol.

Cthulhu
10-25-2013, 11:01 AM
No one needed assurance from biologists et al until the ideas of Franz Boas became mainstream. I find it all so bizarre, frankly. The emotional resistance I've encountered over the years has been often been steeped in vitriol.

Who is this Franz Boas character?

Mister D
10-25-2013, 11:13 AM
Who is this Franz Boas character?

He was a Jewish anthropologist to whom we may credit with establishing the idea that race is merely a social construct in the popular consciousness. The father of "anti-racism", if you will.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas

Cthulhu
10-25-2013, 11:19 AM
He was a Jewish anthropologist to whom we may credit with establishing the idea that race is merely a social construct in the popular consciousness. The father of "anti-racism", if you will.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Boas

Well, that explains a lot then. Too bad he is entirely incorrect.

Cigar
10-28-2013, 07:08 AM
http://www.stephengartonblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/turtleman.jpg

Captain Obvious
10-28-2013, 08:44 AM
Before scraping out the funk from under someone's gums to predict their race, I highly recommend looking at their skin tone first.

Cthulhu
10-28-2013, 11:10 AM
Before scraping out the funk from under someone's gums to predict their race, I highly recommend looking at their skin tone first.

I agree, much easier to detect, much less invasive too.

But it would first require the mentally deluded to accept that fact that it isn't a social construct, but a biological one.

Cigar
10-28-2013, 11:13 AM
I agree, much easier to detect, much less invasive too.

But it would first require the mentally deluded to accept that fact that it isn't a social construct, but a biological one.

That's what She said ... :laugh:

Cthulhu
10-28-2013, 11:36 AM
That's what She said ... :laugh:

Do you think race is a social construct?

Because I don't even think race is the right term, although breed would certainly be applicable.