April 11, 2013
If you saw adoptee Sheridan* on the street, you might wonder -- as she does -- about her ancestral origins. You could guess a few things, but would you have guessed she has Jewish ancestry? It turns out a small percentage of her ancestry is Ashkenazi, a fact she learned recently from her 23andMe Ancestry [...]
January 24, 2013
We first met Sheridan* in the fall of 2010. As an adoptee, she was curious about her DNA and what 23andMe might be able to tell her. With the help of old friends and some new ones on 23andMe, Sheridan learned about her global origins, which include an African-American father and a mother of European descent, [...]
September 24, 2012
We’re blogging about the various research projects and discoveries 23andMe scientists are presenting in November at the annual American Society of Human Genetics meeting. This is the first in our series of posts. Check back for more as the meeting gets closer! Hated, vile, foul herb; One mere leaf [...]
September 18, 2012
23andMe's Mike Polcari discussing the API at the 2012 Quantified Self meeting Calling all developers! Do you spend hours playing with genetic data, turning As, Ts, Cs, and Gs into fors, ifs, strings and returns? Do you have a great idea for a personal genome app? Turn your ideas into reality with the [...]
September 13, 2012
A study published in March in the journal PLoS ONE suggests that having more African ancestry is associated with higher risk for type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States, affecting about 26 million people and more than 25% of the population over the [...]
July 3, 2012
With Nick Eriksson Social norms and preferences aside, it turns out that breast size matters -- but not quite in the way you think. 23andMe’s latest research paper, published in the journal BMC Medical Genetics, shows that genetic factors influence whether women have double As or double Ds. This might [...]
June 8, 2012
(Click to enlarge) While the PBS series Finding Your Roots made only passing reference to connections between guests, the truth is that each guest is separated from each other guest by at most three degrees -- genetically. What the graph above shows is a simplified view of just some of the connections [...]
June 6, 2012
Ever felt like your studious oldest sibling was more responsible? Or that your rebellious younger sibling always got the most attention? Our latest quiz questions our thoughts about the effects birth order has on personality, accomplishment, and life choices. This quiz is now closed. See the answers [...]
May 30, 2012
Last week we quizzed our readers on traits that differed between 23andMe customers who use Macs versus those who use Windows. Congratulations to Brenda, the winner of the quiz! She got all three answers correct and will receive a $25 Amazon gift card. So what were the correct answers? Read on… Which of [...]
May 23, 2012
The popular commercials starring Justin Long and John Hodgman tapped into stereotypes, but how accurate were they? We may not be able to tell you if Mac users are more likely to be hipsters, but we did find some interesting correlations with 23andMe customers* who use Macs and with customers who use Windows. [...]
