Tibetans developed genes to help them adapt to life at high elevations
Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 13:11
in Biology & Nature
Researchers have long wondered why the people of the Tibetan Highlands can live at elevations that cause some humans to become life-threateningly ill - and a new study answers that mystery, in part, by showing that through thousands of years of natural selection, those hardy inhabitants of south-central Asia evolved 10 unique oxygen-processing genes that help them live in higher climes.