Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Discovery

Stella has discovered that she can roll her tongue.

7 comments:

Terra said...

Only the truly gifted can do that! oh, look she's wearing hte shirt I gave her!

Anonymous said...

discovered? ya...right....more like you taught her!

Karin

Anonymous said...

such a cute child and her talents are limitless! Grandpa Dan

Anonymous said...

That's great, go Stella! Can both you and Mary Ann do it?

I believed what we learned in high school biology-- that it's a dominant gene that gives you this ability... until I found out that while I can do it, neither of my parents can. And then learned that of my identical twin brothers, one can do it and one can't. Oh well.

-amy

Anonymous said...

They're actually saying now that they think tongue-rolling proclivity may not be genetically-inherited. They think this, in part, because about 1/3 of identical twins don't share the trait, which is odd, because identical twins share DNA. They don't share phenotypes, though. The way those doohickeys develop is determined based on the environment in the womb.

Anyway...I just thought that was interesting.

Josh said...

maybe the skill of tongue rolling is only available to those with the genetic predisposition. but even among all of those with the disposition, many don't learn for some other reason. maybe they lack coordination, motor skills, practice, a teacher, or interest. i can't roll my "r" in spanish, but it has more to do with coordination and lack of practice than with my dna. in other words, maybe people who don't have the right genes could never do it, but only a portion of those with the right ones could. i'd be surprised to hear of any skills that are inherited instinctively. in fact, anthropoligists don't believe humans have any instincts. we may be predisposed to be good at certain skills, but we're never born knowing how to do those things. even a baby's sucking has to be practiced and improved upon in the beginning.

Anonymous said...

genetical? ya....right....I want to see the tests on that!

Karin