中国人喝酒脸红是因为基因变异

　　案：宿兵须证明：(1)在酒的发明之前和之后，中国人的确发生基因变异;(2)在基因变体中，有些是造成喝酒后脸红和眩晕的原因。此外，他需要说明为什么醉酒后普遍眩晕但并非普遍脸红。我觉得(1)和(2)两点都很难证明。不知道阿兵怎么搞的?

　　《纽约时报》今天的报道：

　　Ten thousand years ago, people in southern China began to cultivate rice and quickly made an all-too-tempting discovery — the cereal could be fermented into alcoholic liquors. Carousing and drunkenness must have started to pose a serious threat to survival because a variant gene that protects against alcohol became almost universal among southern Chinese and spread throughout the rest of China in the wake of rice cultivation.

　　The variant gene rapidly degrades alcohol to a chemical that is not intoxicating but makes people flush, leaving many people of Asian descent a legacy of turning red in the face when they drink alcohol.

　　The spread of the new gene, described in January by Bing Su of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is just one instance of recent human evolution and in particular of a specific population’s changing genetically in response to local conditions.

　　半年前的中文报道：

　　《北京科技报》：水稻为什么会让人“喝酒脸红”呢?

　　宿兵：在新石器时代，水稻、小麦等主要农作物在中国的种植，导致了人类食物结构的变化。人们利用大米经过发酵，制作食物，如米酒。米酒具有较高的营养价 值，但其中的乙醇(酒精)会对人体造成损害，不仅会让人脸红，严重时还会产生眩晕等不良反应。这种现象阻止了饮用者过量喝酒，从而也减轻了乙醇对身体的危 害。

　　我们认为，正是这种自然选择，导致变异体在过去10000年间，随着水稻种植的推广在东亚人群中迅速扩散。