Neanderthal Extinction | Anxiety Study Shows Design

Join biochemist Fazale “Fuz” Rana and astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink as they discuss discoveries with theological and philosophical implications that point to the reality of God’s existence.

Researchers from Europe discovered that differences in the Neanderthal and modern human versions of the gene PIEZO1 led to an incompatibility between the mother and the fetus of second-generation (and beyond) hybrids. This incompatibility could have contributed to Neanderthal extinction. In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana explains this reproductive barrier and explores its implications for the biblical view of human origins.

A recent study of mice reveals an elegant process at work in the brain (mouse brain studies help scientists understand how the human brain works) that impacts anxiety levels. We may think anxiety arises from our thoughts, but the cell structures that determine anxiety levels are part of the immune system at work in the central nervous system. Astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink discusses how research indicates that anxiety might be considered a disease rather than a proper functioning of our minds. It resonates with Paul’s admonition to the Philippians to not be anxious but to take our concerns before God, the reliever of all anxiety, to receive his peace.

I think we need something like this to make the mouse/human connection.

LINKS AND RESOURCES:

• A Maternal-Fetal PIEZO1 Incompatibility as a Barrier to Neanderthal-Modern Human Admixture

• Your Anxiety May Be Controlled by Hidden Immune Cells in the Brain

• Defective Hoxb8 Microglia Are Causative for Both Chronic Anxiety and Pathological Overgrooming in Mice