February 23, 2009
There are many mysteries surrounding the final days of the last Emperor of Russia, Tsar Nicholas, and his family. The most perplexing of them all is the fate of one of the Tsar's daughters, the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Even after Bolsheviks murdered the family in the summer of 1918, rumors circulated [...]
January 13, 2009
At the Spittoon we love to hear how scientists are using our DNA to unlock the mysteries of our ancestors. In fact, hardly a week goes by when we don’t report on the latest discovery in the field of genetic ancestry. Occasionally, however, researchers manage to uncover some mystery of the human past [...]
January 7, 2009
Less than eight nautical miles wide, the Strait of Gibraltar is an easily surmountable barrier between northwest Africa and Spain. Military invaders such as Hannibal of Carthage and the caliphs of the Islamic Empire have had no trouble traversing this sliver of sea in the process of invading Europe. But in [...]
December 10, 2008
Archaeologists rarely agree on anything. So it's no surprise that for years two groups of scholars have drawn completely opposite conclusions about the relationship between the ancient people of Thailand and China. Some experts argue that, thousands of years ago, people from Thailand migrated into East [...]
November 14, 2008
The American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) has released a statement outlining a set of recommendations for genetic ancestry testing. At a press briefing on Thursday, members of the ASHG Ancestry Testing Task Force Committee discussed two main themes: the need for clear communication about the [...]
August 7, 2008
(Ed: Newer research suggests that Homo sapiens and Neanderthals did in fact interbreed. On average, two to four percent of DNA in present-day humans who trace their ancestry from Europe or Asia comes from our Neanderthal cousins. 23andMe customers can check out their own Neanderthal ancestry here! -- [...]
June 27, 2008
This month I had the opportunity to go to the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution conference in the striking city of Barcelona. This is the premiere conference for geneticists studying evolution in everything from bacteria to fruit flies, weeds, worms and our favorite model organism, humans! This is a [...]
June 16, 2008
Jesse James One of the most engaging features of 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service is a customer’s ability to trace his or her genetic ancestry using the mitochondrial DNA and the Y-chromosome. Once customers learn their own ancestry, the Genome Sharing feature allows them to see how they compare with [...]
