explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

3120: Geologic Periods

2026-06-01T14:01:11Z

82.132.238.174: /* Transcript */ Smartquotes (66-and-99 type, both //-like in slope, barring squiggle bit) aren't any better than the normal quote (||-type), if you're trying to depict //-and-\\ slopequotes. And is unimportant+confusing for screenreaders/text-searches.

{{comic
| number = 3120
| date = July 25, 2025
| title = Geologic Periods
| image = geologic_periods_2x.png
| imagesize = 611x557px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = Geologists claim it's because the earlier Cenozoic used to be called the Tertiary, but that's just a ruse to hide the secret third geologic period, between the Neogene and the Quaternary, that they won't tell us about.
}}

==Explanation==

This comic depicts a table representing planet Earth's geological time scale. For each period, [[Randall]] highlights his rather idiosyncratic likes and dislikes among their characteristics, instead of accompanying each geological name with facts pertinent to it, such as the duration of the period represented, the state of the Earth (e.g., glaciated), or the flora and fauna most common.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Period and date ({{abbr|{{w|Million years ago|MYA}}|Millions of years ago}})
!Randall's comments
!Explanation
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Precambrian}} (4500⁠–⁠539)
|{{Yes|Life develops}}
|The {{w|Precambrian}} (italicized in the comic since it's not a {{w|Period (geology)|geologic period}}) is the first 88% of Earth's history, including the time 4.1 to 3.4 billion years ago when life on Earth began.
|-
|{{No|Snowball Earth episodes}}
|According to the {{w|Snowball Earth}} hypothesis, during some time spans in the past Earth became nearly or entirely frozen, with no liquid water on the surface. This is similar to the {{w|Greenhouse and icehouse Earth#Icehouse Earth|Icehouse Earth}}, including now, when the planet fluctuates between glacial and interglacial periods.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cambrian}} (539⁠–⁠487)
|{{Yes|Trilobites!}}
|{{w|Trilobite|Trilobites}} are related to present-day insects, crabs, and other arthropods, and appeared during the Cambrian.
|-
|{{No|Evolution could stand to calm down a little}}
|The {{w|Cambrian explosion}} was a sudden radiation of complex life forms when nearly all important animal phyla, or precursors to them, appeared. Randall apparently thinks it all happened a little too fast.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Ordovician}} (487⁠–⁠443)
|{{Yes|Earth might have had rings}}
|Due to the location of impact of one type of meteorite, they may have been part of a {{w|Rings of Earth|planetary ring system around Earth}}, formed by the destruction of a parent body that entered Earth's Roche limit, before colliding with it.
|-
|{{No|Scary volcanic eruption in North America}}
|The volcanic eruptions that deposited {{w|Deicke and Millbrig bentonite layers|layers of ash}} during the Late Ordovician were incredibly large. The volcanoes involved may have been formed during the mountain-building event in {{w|Taconic orogeny|what is now north-eastern North America}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Silurian}} (443⁠–⁠420)
|{{Yes|First land animals}}
|Green plants first became established on land during the Ordovician period, after having evolved ways to protect themselves from desiccation and ultraviolet light. During the Silurian, land animals (mostly arthropods resembling {{w|Kampecaris|millipedes}}) followed the plants.
|-
|{{No|Earth's newfound mold problem}}
| Mold soon evolved to attack them and decompose their remains. A "{{w|Indoor mold|mold problem}}" often refers to mold growing in damp places in a building, causing unpleasant odors and various {{w|Indoor_mold#Health_effects|negative health effects}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Devonian}} (420⁠–⁠359)
|{{Yes|Big mountains in Boston}}
|A section of the present-day Appalachian Range from the Canadian Maritimes to the Carolinas, including what is now the Boston area of Massachusetts, was created during this period. (At the time, Boston was in the tropics, just south of the equator.)
|-
|{{No|Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was ''armor''}}
|{{w|Placoderm}} fishes, which were common in the Devonian, had plates of {{w|dermal bone}} in the head and thoracic portions of the body. Not all placoderms were giants, or apex predators. These fishes likely had these bony plates because they helped protect them from predators.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Carboniferous}} (359⁠–⁠299)
|{{Yes|Cool forests}}
|Forests in the Carboniferous lacked the flowering plants and conifers that are common in present-day forests. Instead, forests were dominated by giant versions of today's {{w|Lycopodiaceae|club mosses}}, {{w|Equisetidae|horsetails}}, and {{w|Marattiaceae|ferns}}, as well as by several plant lineages that are now extinct. {{w|File:Meyers b15 s0272b.jpg|Artists' depictions}} of such forests are exotic-looking and considered "cool" by Randall.
|-
|{{No|Bugs too big}}
|Carboniferous '{{w|Carboniferous#Terrestrial invertebrates|bugs}}' included the largest-ever known land invertebrate, a {{w|Arthropleura|2.6 m millipede-like animal}}; the largest-ever known flying insect, resembling a {{w|Meganeura|dragonfly with a wingspan of 75 cm}}; and a {{w|Pulmonoscorpius|70 cm scorpion}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Permian}} (299⁠–⁠252)
|{{Yes|Pangea}}
|{{w|Pangaea}} was the most recent {{w|supercontinent}} containing nearly all of Earth's landmass.
|-
|{{No|Google "The Great Dying"}}
|{{w|Permian-Triassic extinction event|The Great Dying}} occurred at the end of the Permian and is the most severe of Earth's {{w|Extinction event#The "Big Five" mass extinctions|'Big Five' mass extinction events}}. In it, 80% of marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species were wiped out.
|-)
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Triassic}} (252⁠–⁠201)
|{{Yes|Tanystropheus}}
|The ''{{w|Tanystropheus}}'' was an {{w|Archosauromorpha|Archosauromorph}} with a proportionally unusually long neck (as depicted in the comic).
|-
|{{No|Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan}}
|{{w|Manicouagan Reservoir}} is a ring-shaped lake, the remains of the crater caused by a 5 km (3 mi) asteroid hitting {{w|Quebec}}.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Jurassic}} (201⁠–⁠143)
|{{Yes|Birds}}
|The {{w|Avialae|ancestors of modern birds}} emerged during the Jurassic. A common 'fun fact' about birds is that they are modern-day dinosaurs, as the ancestors of today's birds were some of the few dinosaurs to survive the {{w|Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event}}. Randall has repeatedly expressed interest in this fact, and has repeatedly mentioned it in his comics.
|-
|{{No|Parasitoid wasps}}
|{{w|Parasitoid wasp}}s reproduce by implanting their eggs into still-living animals, whose bodies are then eaten from the inside out by the wasp's larva. It is such a grisly process that it caused a {{w|Parasitoid wasp#In culture|crisis of faith}} among 19th-century European scholars.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Cretaceous}} (143⁠–⁠66)
|{{Yes|Raptors}}
| rowspan="2" |{{w|Dromaeosauridae|Raptors}}, especially {{w|Velociraptors}}, are a [[:Category:Velociraptors|trope]] within xkcd, especially in its early years. They were popularized by their appearance in the ''[[:Category:Jurassic Park|Jurassic Park]]'' film series. In the films, velociraptors are depicted as small (shorter than adult humans) bipedal scaled dinosaurs which frequently attacked and killed humans. Velociraptors and the irrational fear of being attacked by them in the modern world are a subject of several [[xkcd]] strips. Thus, "raptors" appears in both the "Favorites" and "Complaints" columns of the table.
|-
|{{No|Raptors}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Paleogene}} (66⁠–⁠23)
|{{Yes|Pretty horseys!!!}}
|Fossils of members of the {{w|Equidae|horse family}} first appear during this period. Horses, fossil and extant, are prime examples of {{w|charismatic megafauna}} ("Pretty horseys!"). The rapid diversification of horses from a presumed single common ancestor is an oft-cited example of mammalian adaptive radiation.
|-
|{{No|Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum}}
|The {{w|Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum}} was a time when the global average temperature rose by 5-8 °C in a relatively short period of time. It can be viewed as a slower version of [[:Category:Climate change|climate change, which Randall has repeatedly complained about]].
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Neogene}} (23⁠–⁠2.6)
|{{Yes|Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees}}
|''{{w|Dracaena draco}}'' and ''{{w|Dracaena cinnabari}}'' trees are a source of {{w|dragon's blood}}, a naturally occurring bright red resin used as a varnish and a dye.
|-
|{{No|Zanclean flood}}
|The {{w|Zanclean flood}} is theorized to be the flood that refilled the Mediterranean Sea. It is possible that Randall included this as a reference to [[1190: Time]], which centers around a flood around the Mediterranean sea similar to the Zanclean flood theory.
|-
! rowspan="2" | {{w|Quaternary}} (2.6⁠–⁠present)
|{{Yes|Burrito invented}}
|Randall jokes that, in the last 2.6 million years, his favorite moment was the invention of the {{w|burrito}}, rather than many other, much more significant discoveries. The precise origin of the burrito is not known, but the {{w|Maya civilization}} made food resembling burritos as early as 1500 BC.
|-
|{{No|Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic}}
|The third period of the {{w|Cenozoic Era}} is the Quaternary ("Fourth"), named by Jules Desnoyers in 1829. Randall is riffing on the cognitive disconnect between "third" and "fourth", for which the current geological naming conventions offer no justification.
|}

The title text expands on the complaint about the "third" v "fourth" discrepancy in regard to the Quaternary Period by claiming the existence of an unnamed geologic period within the Cenozoic Era "that geologists won't tell us about". As the idea of Earth being billions of years old gained acceptance and we invented tools for dating rocks, "primary" and "secondary" fell away as descriptors for both rock types and rock ages, replaced by terms that convey information about the rocks more accurately. "Tertiary" was applied to "Cenozoic minus Quaternary", and survived in formal nomenclature into the 21st century. No alternative for "Quaternary" has yet been accepted, so the name persists as fodder for cartoonists who wonder, not without cause, how a "third" element in Earth history could be labeled a "fourth" element. The phrase '''x'' that ''y'' won't tell us about' is a common trope in {{w|Conspiracy theory|Conspiracy theories}} in which something is claimed to be hidden from the populace.

==Transcript==

:[A table with 3 columns, labelled: "Period", "My favorite part" and "My biggest complaint". There are 13 rows below the labels]

:[Row 1: Period, italicized:] ''Precambrian''
:[My favorite part:] Life develops
:[My biggest complaint:] Snowball Earth episodes

:[Row 2: Period:] Cambrian
:[My favorite part:] Trilobites!
:[My biggest complaint:] Evolution could stand to calm down a little

:[Row 3: Period:] Ordovician
:[My favorite part:] Earth might have had rings
:[My biggest complaint:] Scary volcanic eruption in North America

:[Row 4: Period:] Silurian
:[My favorite part:] First land animals
:[My biggest complaint:] Earth's newfound mold problem

:[Row 5: Period:] Devonian
:[My favorite part:] Big mountains in Boston
:[My biggest complaint:] Yeah, sure, what those giant killer fish needed was '''''armor'''''

:[Row 6: Period:] Carboniferous
:[My favorite part:] Cool forests
:[My biggest complaint:] Bugs too big

:[Row 7: Period:] Permian
:[My favorite part:] Pangea
:[My biggest complaint:] Google "The Great Dying"

:[Row 8: Period:] Triassic
:[My favorite part:] Tanystropheus [accompanying the text in this cell is an image of a ''Tanystropheus'' and its characteristic elongated neck, with Cueball standing next to it for scale]
:[My biggest complaint:] Damage to Canada still visible from space at Manicouagan

:[Row 9: Period:] Jurassic
:[My favorite part:] Birds
:[My biggest complaint:] Parasitoid wasps

:[Row 10: Period:] Cretaceous
:[My favorite part:] Raptors
:[My biggest complaint:] Raptors

:[Row 11: Period:] Paleogene
:[My favorite part:] Pretty horseys!!!
:[My biggest complaint:] Paleocene-eocene thermal maximum

:[Row 12: Period:] Neogene
:[My favorite part:] Forests of ''Dracaena'' dragonblood trees
:[My biggest complaint:] Zanclean flood

:[Row 13: Period:] Quaternary
:[My favorite part:] Burrito invented
:[My biggest complaint:] Whoever picked this name for the third period of the Cenozoic

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Charts]]
[[Category:Geology]]
[[Category:Velociraptors]]
[[Category:Animals]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]

Talk:3252: Ancestral Genomes

2026-06-01T13:37:03Z

82.132.238.174:

I'm expecting some reference to the revelation of Neandthalic/etc genes in various branches of our own population, along the way, but shall leave the actual writing to others. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 18:15, 29 May 2026 (UTC)
Sexis canon again! [[User:CalibansCreations|'''Caliban''']] ([[User talk:CalibansCreations|talk]]) 18:31, 29 May 2026 (UTC)

This comic is an interesting contribution to discussion about how science and the public handle privacy issues. For instance a museums finds it okay to display a dead body [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ötzi] just because he died a very long time ago. --[[Special:Contributions/2001:4091:A241:81DC:350B:874D:E1AA:9FEE|2001:4091:A241:81DC:350B:874D:E1AA:9FEE]] 13:46, 30 May 2026 (UTC)
: We need more details about Ötzi to better understand how he is related to us. For example, did he play the Steirische Ziehharmonika, and if not, how did he fail to learn it? Was he killed because of Harmonikamusikhass--someone hated accordions and did not want them to perpetuate? His display in a museum would be much more exciting and appropriate with those details. [[Special:Contributions/173.188.194.118|173.188.194.118]] 15:18, 30 May 2026 (UTC)
:: Ötzi probably predates the Steirische Ziehharmonika, unless someone used their time machine to fix the temporal ordering requirements. --[[Special:Contributions/2A10:D586:3E93:0:907B:6DDD:C33E:4855|2A10:D586:3E93:0:907B:6DDD:C33E:4855]] 07:52, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

see also [[2268]] [[User:Treeplate|Treeplate]] ([[User talk:Treeplate|talk]]) 15:19, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

*This strip reminds me of [[830: Genetic Analysis]], where counselor Megan tells Cueball, "... we've analyzed genes on several of your chromosomes, and it's hard to avoid the conclusion: at some point, your parents had sex." --[[Special:Contributions/208.59.176.206|208.59.176.206]] 19:16, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

Think about how uncomfortable it is to think about your grandparents having sex. It's exponentially worse with your great-great-great-great-great-great-etc-grandparents. [[User:RegularSizedGuy|RegularSizedGuy]] ([[User talk:RegularSizedGuy|talk]]) 14:34, 31 May 2026 (UTC)
*I disagree. I never met my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, and I don't even know what their names were or what they looked like. So I have no specific image of them with which to be discomforted by the idea of them having sex. It may be ''somewhat'' uncomfortable to think about them having sex, but considerably ''less'' uncomfortable than thinking about my grandparents having sex. --[[Special:Contributions/208.59.176.206|208.59.176.206]] 05:53, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

While I agree that, in general, the public doesn’t respect the privacy of people who died a long time ago, I think it should be pointed out that this is a real ethical discussion in history and in social sciences more generally. Ethnic studies has really broached the subject of what sources should be available to us, the importance of respecting the people/cultures behind those sources, etc. and historians have been taking note. Ari Kelman’s book Misplaced Massacre is a good example. I think saying that at a certain point privacy is just left to history is a bit reductive.
[[User:Salsmachev|Salsmachev]] ([[User talk:Salsmachev|talk]]) 15:30, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

I'd just like to note that the diagram as shown could either be one of descendency or ancestry.
*Descendency: from a single common ancestor at the top, it tracks known descendents chronologically downwards until the modern day extended family whose genomes may have been sampled to back-derive the separate paths down which various genetic variations from the original presumed common heritage found their way (presumably mostly added in by partners of the intermediate descendents). Dotted lines may indicate tentative 'non-maritable' genetic links across branches ("uncle Bob was always nearby, ready to help mother out while my father was away"). There's quite a few modern-day descendents. But, realistically, any ancestor far enough back who ''has'' extant descendents is likely to have many (i.e. the "X% of the world's population is directly descended from Genghis Kahn”, or whoever, but the same could probably be said of various anonymous others from that time, if only we knew who they were), so long as all their branches haven't all died out.
*Ancestry: Top node is the single present target individual, each layer down is the parents of the layer above, with some (but limited) information about the most immediate layers. The clumped lines at the bottom is where it turns into more generalist assumptions starting to be more based upon official records and even regionality/ethnicity assumptions. (Again, dotted lines indicate possible 'unofficial gene-sharing'.)
...I would lean towards the latter, given that most nodes that have decinite and distinct 'feeder lines' from below have exactly two of them. Everyone{{Citation needed}} has two parents, one way or another. For the other, you'd have to assume a lot of consistent two-child families as the overwhelming norm, in a part of the diagram leading back in a time where Family Planning was (at best) more like making good practical use around the home/farm/factory of as many of the numerous children you had that hadn't already succumbed to one of the copious childhood illnesses/accidents. (Or, if a more priveleged family tree, some rather deliberate sticking to the "an heir, and a spare" philosophy, though even that would have been hit-and-miss and you'd still expect to see intergenerational and intragenerational variations.)
 The more Doylist explanation is that it's just a scribbled diagram by Randall, and whichever archetype of figure he might have taken inspiration from, in an actual Ancestry/Descendency study, he just went for the general look. But it doesn't stop me pondering the in-universe/Watsonian facts deep behind the festuted scenario, however unnecesary it might be to try to understand (and then explain) in order to appreciate the comic's more deliberate punchline(s). But I still wished to share my ponderings on the matter. [[Special:Contributions/82.132.238.174|82.132.238.174]] 13:37, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

3252: Ancestral Genomes

2026-06-01T12:53:39Z

82.132.238.174: /* Transcript */

{{comic
| number = 3252
| date = May 29, 2026
| title = Ancestral Genomes
| image = ancestral_genomes_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x416px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: No further research is needed as it is frankly none of our business.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was DELETED TO RESPECT THE COMIC’S PRIVACY. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|genotype}} is the complete genetic makeup of an individual, i.e. all of its genes. In humans, genotypes are almost always inherited from an individual’s parents; the two parents’ genotypes combine during sexual reproduction to form the genotype of the child. {{w|mutation|Mutations}} do occur, where parts of the DNA change randomly in a way that gives rise to a new genotype, and [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/october-21-2017-1.4363723/how-many-mutant-genes-does-a-person-have-1.4363741 each human has about 60 such mutations, on average,] out of about 20,000 genes. However, most mutations are "silent", i.e. not causing any visible changes. Depending on the behavior of the mutation, and if it even occurs to any gamete cells or those that produce them, it may spread throughout a population, or disappear again, or end up only being present in a certain fraction of the population. Either way, when studying a genotype, it is ''exceedingly rare'' to not arise through sexual intercourse, and impossible to spread throughout the population without it. As modern-day genetics researchers, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] should definitely know this fact.

Currently in the United States, topics around sex are at least partially considered taboo. This taboo most strictly covers depictions of sex and nudity in media, which are usually the domain of pornography and less mainstream art forms (e.g. nude photography). Megan defending themselves as not being “weirdos” suggests that she in fact does not want to break the taboo. In academic science however, such topics are generally part of regular scientific discussion, including depictions and descriptions that would be considered offensive in other circumstances. For example, Wikimedia Commons contains [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Human_sexual_activity many depictions of sexual intercourse] for scientific and educational purposes. While some researchers, like the ones depicted in the comic, might be offended by such “lewd” contents, most would regard them well as long as they further the research on the topic at hand. Real-world biologists or geneticists would most likely not be offended by these issues, as sexual reproduction is a common or even predominant topic in both fields. Furthermore, the obscenity of the topic (genetic distributions affected by sexual reproduction) is very low in comparison to fields that deal with intercourse directly. This view seems to be shared by the off-screen commenter in the comic.

What is more problematic, and also addressed by the researcher’s comments, is the privacy of the individuals in the population under examination. Namely, using such data, it might be possible to figure out who had intercourse with whom, possibly reducing the timeframe to within less than a year based on the offspring’s age. However, since the analysis depicted likely takes place over many generations within a population, and is done on historical data, it is likely that the vast majority of the people whose genomes were analyzed are no longer alive. This is supported by the description of the population as “ancestral”. Beyond a certain point, even private data pertaining to deceased people is no longer considered sensitive, as it becomes the subject of history. The only problematic part is the ancestral information for living individuals, which is indeed worthy of protection—but not for the reasons given.

The title text is a reference to [[2268: Further Research is Needed]]. This one is based on the fact that most scientific papers contain a section suggesting future research avenues. This is done in the hope that other researchers will pick up where the authors have left off, or to announce the author’s own intentions for follow-up work. However, in this case, Megan and Cueball are both averse to the idea of future research, since as established they don’t think it’s appropriate to do so, which is ironic given the reason for the section.

Genetics and sex have also appeared in [[830: Genetic Analysis]]. Presenting outlandish or plain bad/incorrect research has been a common topic, such as in [[3129: Archaeology Research]] and [[3000: Experimental Astrophysics]].

If the researcher had access to the time machine from [[3251: Time Machine Conversation|the previous comic]], they would not need to rely on techniques such as admixture. Though personally using the time-travel ability to manifest oneself at the time and place of ''every'' birth and/or conception event to obtain the data necessary to accumulaate the same (or better) ancestral information ''would'' probably mean a series of very intrusive invasions of privacy that might well be considered as the actions of a weirdo.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are shown, with Megan using a pointer stick to point at a diagram on a poster. The diagram features tree/root structure with a single node at the top end, branching solid lines leading to more nodes across several levels in most cases, but with at least one node that does not propogate this way and some dotted lines linking down from some branches into other ones. The increasingly branching lower tracks becoming so dense that it almost looks like dark triangles at the bottom of the diagram's last obvious bifurcations. Small and unreadable labels/symbols feature next to most linking lines, and more extensive (but still totally unreadable) information is placed below each of the lowermost 'triangular' terminating clumps.]
:Megan: Our admixture analysis showed that these genotypes arose in the ancestral population almost entirely through sexual intercourse.
:Megan: Upon realizing this, we of course promptly deleted all our data.
:Off-screen voice: What? Why??
:Megan: We're not '''''weirdos!'''''
:Megan: Jeez, give these people some privacy!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Biology]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Sex]]

3252: Ancestral Genomes

2026-06-01T12:40:54Z

82.132.238.174: /* Transcript */ Correcting the "dark triangles" description to be more like what is supposed to be.

{{comic
| number = 3252
| date = May 29, 2026
| title = Ancestral Genomes
| image = ancestral_genomes_2x.png
| imagesize = 299x416px
| noexpand = true
| titletext = SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH: No further research is needed as it is frankly none of our business.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|This page was DELETED TO RESPECT THE COMIC’S PRIVACY. Don't remove this notice too soon.}}

A {{w|genotype}} is the complete genetic makeup of an individual, i.e. all of its genes. In humans, genotypes are almost always inherited from an individual’s parents; the two parents’ genotypes combine during sexual reproduction to form the genotype of the child. {{w|mutation|Mutations}} do occur, where parts of the DNA change randomly in a way that gives rise to a new genotype, and [https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/october-21-2017-1.4363723/how-many-mutant-genes-does-a-person-have-1.4363741 each human has about 60 such mutations, on average,] out of about 20,000 genes. However, most mutations are "silent", i.e. not causing any visible changes. Depending on the behavior of the mutation, and if it even occurs to any gamete cells or those that produce them, it may spread throughout a population, or disappear again, or end up only being present in a certain fraction of the population. Either way, when studying a genotype, it is ''exceedingly rare'' to not arise through sexual intercourse, and impossible to spread throughout the population without it. As modern-day genetics researchers, [[Megan]] and [[Cueball]] should definitely know this fact.

Currently in the United States, topics around sex are at least partially considered taboo. This taboo most strictly covers depictions of sex and nudity in media, which are usually the domain of pornography and less mainstream art forms (e.g. nude photography). Megan defending themselves as not being “weirdos” suggests that she in fact does not want to break the taboo. In academic science however, such topics are generally part of regular scientific discussion, including depictions and descriptions that would be considered offensive in other circumstances. For example, Wikimedia Commons contains [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Human_sexual_activity many depictions of sexual intercourse] for scientific and educational purposes. While some researchers, like the ones depicted in the comic, might be offended by such “lewd” contents, most would regard them well as long as they further the research on the topic at hand. Real-world biologists or geneticists would most likely not be offended by these issues, as sexual reproduction is a common or even predominant topic in both fields. Furthermore, the obscenity of the topic (genetic distributions affected by sexual reproduction) is very low in comparison to fields that deal with intercourse directly. This view seems to be shared by the off-screen commenter in the comic.

What is more problematic, and also addressed by the researcher’s comments, is the privacy of the individuals in the population under examination. Namely, using such data, it might be possible to figure out who had intercourse with whom, possibly reducing the timeframe to within less than a year based on the offspring’s age. However, since the analysis depicted likely takes place over many generations within a population, and is done on historical data, it is likely that the vast majority of the people whose genomes were analyzed are no longer alive. This is supported by the description of the population as “ancestral”. Beyond a certain point, even private data pertaining to deceased people is no longer considered sensitive, as it becomes the subject of history. The only problematic part is the ancestral information for living individuals, which is indeed worthy of protection—but not for the reasons given.

The title text is a reference to [[2268: Further Research is Needed]]. This one is based on the fact that most scientific papers contain a section suggesting future research avenues. This is done in the hope that other researchers will pick up where the authors have left off, or to announce the author’s own intentions for follow-up work. However, in this case, Megan and Cueball are both averse to the idea of future research, since as established they don’t think it’s appropriate to do so, which is ironic given the reason for the section.

Genetics and sex have also appeared in [[830: Genetic Analysis]]. Presenting outlandish or plain bad/incorrect research has been a common topic, such as in [[3129: Archaeology Research]] and [[3000: Experimental Astrophysics]].

If the researcher had access to the time machine from [[3251: Time Machine Conversation|the previous comic]], they would not need to rely on techniques such as admixture. Though personally using the time-travel ability to manifest oneself at the time and place of ''every'' birth and/or conception event to obtain the data necessary to accumulaate the same (or better) ancestral information ''would'' probably mean a series of very intrusive invasions of privacy that might well be considered as the actions of a weirdo.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Megan are shown, with Megan using a pointer stick to point at a diagram on a poster. The diagram features a top-down tree structure, with the increasingly branching lower tracks becoming so dense that it almost looks like dark triangles at the bottom of the diagram's last obvious bifurcations.]
:Megan: Our admixture analysis showed that these genotypes arose in the ancestral population almost entirely through sexual intercourse.
:Megan: Upon realizing this, we of course promptly deleted all our data.
:Off-screen voice: What? Why??
:Megan: We're not '''''weirdos!'''''
:Megan: Jeez, give these people some privacy!

{{comic discussion}}<noinclude>
[[Category:Biology]]
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