By Kasia Bryc
Earlier this month, I attended the South by Southwest conference in Austin to speak on a panel with the writer AJ Jacobs about how interconnected we are.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22355" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Kasia-@-SXSW-300x229.jpg" alt="Kasia @ SXSW" width="300" height="229" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Kasia-@-SXSW-300x229.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Kasia-@-SXSW.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
But walking around the conference with such a diverse mix of people – many with their rock star cool outfits and denim jackets – you’d be forgiven if you questioned whether they could come from the same gene pool as me, a former nerdy high school kid.
And yet, we really are all one big family. In June, AJ will host the <a href="http://globalfamilyreunion.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Global Family Reunion</a> in New York City, what he’s described as the world’s largest family reunion.
AJ spoke about the many cousins he found in his research year. He was very proud of his family connection to Gwyneth Paltrow, and would welcome her to join his family for a kosher Thanksgiving. He also noted that he was related to Judge Judy, which caused him to revise his opinion of her – as a person – in a more favorable light.
Also on the panel was Joanna Mountain, 23andMe’s Senior Director of Research. Joanna spoke about the incredible stories and discoveries that people have made by connecting to their DNA cousins, which are regularly highlighted in this blog.
But I was most excited to show how many cousins we all have. The typical 23andMe customer has over two thousand DNA cousins, and that’s just within the 23andMe database.
It all comes down to the math: the further back—in generations—you go, the more genealogical ancestors you have. Two parents, four grandparents&#8230; all the way up to 128 fifth-great grandparents. And that only takes you back about two hundred years. Imagine if you were looking for your ancestors from the sixteenth century—you’d have 131,072 genealogical ancestors to hunt down!
So, as unique as you are, all these ancestors passed on their DNA to create you and your many cousins. And, as you can imagine, 130 thousand people have a lot of descendants, so it’s unsurprising that the average 23andMe customer can find so many cousins.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22354" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Connections-300x169.jpg" alt="Connections" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Connections-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Connections.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
It quickly follows that, with each of us having so many DNA relatives, any pair of individuals are connected through their cousins. To illustrate this point, I showed that each of Tuesday’s panelists, together with Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (host of “Finding Your Roots&#8221; on PBS who kindly agreed to participate in my experiment), are all just one or two “cousins&#8221; connections apart.
In fact, almost everyone in the database is connected through one, two, or three DNA cousins. Which should make you rethink how you treat anyone you meet on the street. Regardless of what they may look like, you never know who you might be related to!

Kasia Bryc

Everyone Is Related. The (Big) Data Proves It

Last weekend, more than 500 years after dying at the <a href="http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_bosworth.htm">Battle of Bosworth</a>, the last English monarch to die in combat was put to rest.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21981" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/richardiiiportrait.jpg" alt="richardiiiportrait" width="200" height="269" />
King Richard III’s funeral ends a fascinating years-long <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/news/king-richards-bones/">scientific investigation</a>, which began when his bones were uncovered under a Leicester parking lot.
The discovery offered a rare chance to take a known historical figure – made infamous by Shakespeare – and use DNA analysis and living relatives to piece together new information about this historical figure.
Simply confirming that the bones were Richard III’s was part of the process, and scientists <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/141202/ncomms6631/full/ncomms6631.html">published findings</a> to show how that was done.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

RIP Richard III

Yeah, it’s that damn dress again.
If you haven’t been online recently you might have missed it, otherwise you know exactly which striped dress we’re talking about. You know, the one that
You know, the one that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/business/a-simple-question-about-a-dress-and-the-world-weighs-in.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">melted the Internet</a>.
So why are we bringing this whole thing up again? It turns out that what colors you see in those stripes has a lot to do with how old you are and where you grew up, according to new research done by scientists here at 23andMe.


The huge amount of interest in this weird debate offered researchers at 23andMe a chance for an instant genetics experiment. A lot of people looked at that dress, but some people see white and gold, while others see blue and black.


Why is that? Do our genes play an obvious role in the difference of how we perceive color?
That’s what we wanted to know.
<div id="attachment_22325" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22325" class="wp-image-22325 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SathirapongsasutiF-bw-200x300.jpg" alt="SathirapongsasutiF b:w" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SathirapongsasutiF-bw-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SathirapongsasutiF-bw.jpg 576w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />23andMe computational biologist Fah Sathirapongsasuti, PhD</div>
<a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/virginiahughes/why-are-people-seeing-different-colors-in-that-damn-dress" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Buzzfeed</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/2015/02/science-one-agrees-color-dress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wired</a> both wrote about how our brains interpret light based on visual signals. The differences we see may be how our brains filter out different parts of the color spectrum. Alternatively, the differing density of our rod and cone cells or the cornea color could make some people see the world a bit more yellow or blue. The question is whether there is a clear biological reason for the difference.
The short answer is that 23andMe researchers didn’t find any obvious genetic association for that difference. We’ll get to some of what we found a little later. First off it’s important to note that 23andMe regularly surveys customers asking them a slew of questions about their health, their traits and even seemingly odd queries about whether they can curl their tongues or do a somersault. When we combine all this information with their genetic information it feeds into a novel research platform that allows our scientists to learn more about the genetic influence on disease, traits and human behavior.
So a few days ago we asked some of our customers who have consented to research about what colors they saw when they looked at that dress. About 25,000 people responded, and this is some of what our researchers learned.
For one, there was no clear genetic association with seeing either a blue and black dress versus seeing a white and gold one, according to Fah Sathirapongsasuti, PhD, a computational biologist here at 23andMe. That doesn’t mean there is no association, it just means that we didn’t find one that met our threshold for a strong association.
We did see a small effect size for a genetic variant in the gene ANO6. While this may or may not be significant, it’s interesting because ANO6 is in the anoctamins gene family, which includes the gene ANO2. The gene ANO2 is involved in light perception, so this might be something that warrants further study. But as we said, the association we saw did not show a big effect. Others who’ve looked at the possible genetic influence of how people perceive the color of the dress also <a href="http://ongenetics.blogspot.de/2015/03/no-simple-genetics-for-thedress-but.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">did not find a strong genetic association</a>, finding, for instance, that identical twins also reported seeing different colors.
While we first looked at genetic associations with different color perceptions, we went on to see if there were other associations related to different phenotypes. The strongest association we found was with age. Our researchers found that the effect of age comes in two phases – for people up to 60 years old and for those who are over 60. According to our data the proportion of those who see white and gold increased up until the age of 60, but after 60 the proportion of those who see white and gold starts to decrease.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22327" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-300x184.jpg" alt="Age Effect" width="300" height="184" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-300x184.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-768x472.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-1024x629.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-880x541.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect-1180x725.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Age-Effect.jpg 1360w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /> We don’t know why that might be, according to Fah. Retinal cells responsible for color perception become less sensitive as we age, which could account for some of what our data show, but it doesn’t explain the different trends, he said.
According to 23andMe’s data at around 20 years of age, customers were split evenly between those who saw a white and gold dress versus those who saw blue and black. But as customers get older the proportion of those who see white and gold increased up until the age of 60 when more than three quarters of those surveyed said they see a white and gold striped dress instead of blue and black one.
This effect is more dramatic in men where the proportion of men seeing white and gold increases by almost 15% around the age of 40. Then, according to our data, after 60 years of age, the percentage of those who see a white and gold dress decreases at a steady rate. People over the age of 70 is the only group that see more blue and black than white and gold. Women, who were between the ages of 20 and 50,   were also slightly more likely to see white and gold. Our researchers also looked at whether other eye conditions – age related macular degeneration, cataracts and red-green color blindness – clearly influenced how color was perceived. Customers with cataracts were about 50 percent more likely to see black and blue instead of white and gold. Those who are color-blind were more likely to see white and gold, and there was not a strong effect with macular degeneration.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22330" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-300x193.jpg" alt="Childhood Residence" width="300" height="193" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-300x193.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-768x493.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-1024x658.jpg 1024w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-880x565.jpg 880w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence-1180x758.jpg 1180w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Childhood-Residence.jpg 1230w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The power of 23andMe research platform is that it allows scientists to look across all phenotypes and genotypes we record to find even unexpected associations. For instance, dress color perception appears to be influenced by the type of place you lived in as a child. Fah found that those who grew up in more urban areas saw white and gold at higher proportions than those who grew up in more rural areas.
While results like these are interesting and could fuel multiple follow-on inquiries, this little experiment with the dress is interesting in another way. It’s instructive because it illustrates the complex interaction between both our genetics and environment.

Genetics And That Striped Dress

By Anne Wojcicki

It is with great pleasure that we are announcing an addition to the 23andMe executive team and a new initiative for the company.
<div id="attachment_22312" style="width: 305px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22312" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Headshot-Richard-Scheller.jpg" alt="Dr. Richard Scheller" class="size-full wp-image-22312" width="295" height="197" />Dr. Richard Scheller</div>
Renowned scientist, Dr. Richard Scheller, will be joining 23andMe as our Chief Science Officer and will lead the development of a new research and development group, 23andMe Therapeutics.


The same way we are transforming the way people access and understand their genomes, we hope to transform the way we discover and develop novel therapies. By starting with genetic information and understanding the basics of disease, we hope we can make discoveries that will have a meaningful impact on society. 
Dr. Scheller joining is a testament to the power of 23andMe and what our customers have come together to build. 23andMe is the largest database in the world of genetic information, with almost 900,000 customers.
Customers have contributed over 250 million datapoints of information. All that information powers research that helps us understand how to prevent and treat disease.
Our mission is to help people access, understand and benefit from the human genome. With Dr. Scheller joining the team, we believe we will be putting our best efforts into helping customers and society benefit from the human genome.
Participating in research is completely voluntary and customers can opt-in or out at any time.
Over 80 percent of customers chose to opt-in to research and answer questions. We believe we have the potential to be the source of new discoveries that transform the health and lives of our friends and family. Our customers should be proud that they make this research possible.

Anne Wojcicki

23andMe Therapeutics

A new study by researchers from Stanford Medical School and 23andMe is the first to identify genetic variants associated with rosacea, a chronic skin disease estimated to affect more than 16 million people in the United States alone.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22186" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-300x300.jpg" alt="Skin Graphic" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-300x300.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic-574x574.jpg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Skin-Graphic.jpg 600w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


Led by <a href="https://stanfordhealthcare.org/doctors/c/annelynn-chang.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dr. Anne Lynn S. Chang</a>, of Stanford University’s School of Medicine, the <a href="https://www.nature.com/jid/journal/vaop/naam/abs/jid201553a.html#close" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">study</a> to be published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, is the first to identify genetic factors for this common but incurable condition. (The link is to a pre-print version of the paper.)
Although the genetic basis for rosacea has long been hypothesized, this is the first study to find genetic variants associated with the condition.
The genes identified in the study support the concept of a genetic basis for rosacea and that could in turn help identify new targets for future studies to better understand and treat this condition. 


The discovery portion of the study, which involved the consented participation of more than 22,000 23andMe customers, found two genetic variants strongly associated with the disease among people of European ancestry. Of the 22, 000 customers in this part of the study, more than 2,600 of them had rosacea and the other 20,000 did not have the condition and were used as controls.


Although rosacea is not life threatening, it is a serious and still little understood condition. Some of the symptoms include redness, inflammation, visible blood vessels, pimple like sores on the skin of the central face, as well as burning and itching. Left untreated it can lead to more serious complications, including disfiguring of the nose – called rhinophyma – and damage to the cornea causing vision problems. Because the condition is so visible it can make those who have it feel isolated.
&#8220;This is also another example of how 23andMe can help in researching common yet understudied diseases,” said 
Joyce Tung, PhD, 23andMe’s Director of Research and a co-author of the paper.


Another intriguing finding from this study is that the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) found to be strongly associated with the condition, are in or near genes associated with other diseases including diabetes and celiac disease.
One of the SNPs found strongly associated with the condition, , is between the genes HLA-DRA and BTNL2. The HLA-DRA gene is involved in histocompatibility and immune response, which is consistent with the inflammatory nature of rosacea.
To validate the association, 23andMe researchers tested the SNPs from the genome-wide association study in a separate group of 29,000 consented 23andMe customers. The researchers were able to confirm the same association with rosacea.
For that portion of the study, researchers looked at more than 3,000 individuals with rosacea and 26,000 controls.
In addition to the genome wide association study that discovered the variants associated with rosacea, Dr. Chang and her team also took skin biopsies from six individuals with rosacea and showed that both HLA-DRA and BTNL2 proteins can be found in the skin of people with rosacea.
This preliminary works hints toward the biological relevance of HLA-DRA and BTNL2 in rosacea.
The genetic associations found in this study and the associations with other diseases like diabetes and celiac disease may help direct future study.

Genetics found to influence risk for rosacea

Grab a tissue for this. Your genes may make you more prone to cry, and if you cry easily you are at higher odds to have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/GeneticsOfCryingInfographic_030615-352x768.jpg" alt="GeneticsOfCryingInfographic_030615" class="alignright size-large wp-image-22302" width="352" height="768" />
Looking at data from 200,000 customers who consented to participate in research, 23andMe scientists found a dozen genetic variants associated with whether a person cries easily.
<h6>Emotional Response</h6>
Crying is an emotional response that makes humans unique from other primates. Some would argue it’s what <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-humans-like-to-cry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">makes us human</a>.
But in 23andMe’s study, researchers wanted to look more deeply into the emotional response. They wanted to know whether there were genetic reasons for some of us crying more easily than others.
Some of the research findings were presented last year at the <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/23andmes-research-at-ashg-2014/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">American Society of Human Genetics</a> annual conference. But this study includes both genetic and non-genetic associations. For instance, the study found that boys do cry, but just not as much as girls. According to the research women are three times more likely to “cry easily” when compared to men. Both men and women are more prone to cry as they age. That is especially true if one of their parents was more likely to cry easily.
<h6>Brain Development</h6>
Beyond those findings, the study offered some interesting avenues for future study. The variants identified were found in or near genes involved with brain development (IRX2 and ZNF423) , hormone synthesis (HSD17B12) and certain mood disorders (6q16.1). This could help researchers studying affective disorders, among other things.
23andMe offers its customers the opportunity to participate in research if they want. They can also opt out of research at any time. We are thankful to our customers who participated, making this and other studies like it possible.
Learn more about participating in research, or opting out of it, here.

Too Many Teardrops

Whether you are more apt to reach for a handful of potato chips or go for the bowl of candy may have something to do with your genetics.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Salty-Sweet-2-300x114.jpg" alt="Salty Sweet 2" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22298" width="300" height="114" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Salty-Sweet-2-300x114.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Salty-Sweet-2.jpg 560w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />


23andMe scientists identified genetic markers associated with preferring sweet snacks to salty or savoury ones.

 

<h6>Genetics of Taste Preference</h6>
Your age and culture influences the food you like. But genetics plays an important role too.
23andMe customers were evenly split about whether they preferred a <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/sweet-salty/">salty snack or a sweet one</a>. But looking at the data, researchers here found several genetic markers associated with preferring sweet snacks over salty ones. 
23andMe’s study found that individuals several variants associated with a preference for sweets.

One of the many interesting aspects of this finding is that both of these genetic markers are in genes that are associated either with metabolism or body mass.
The marker is in the gene FGF21 and the other marker is located in the FTO gene.
<h6>Obesity</h6>
Unlike other studies where genetic markers that influence food preference were found in genes associated with taste receptors on the tongue. These genes are more associated with how people metabolize food. They could offer more insight for researchers studying diabetes, obesity and nutrition.


Writing recently in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/01/science/gene-linked-to-obesity-hasnt-always-been-a-problem-study-finds.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">New York Times</a>, Carl Zimmer explained how variants in the FTO gene now associated with obesity may have offered an evolutionary advantage. Now, however, with more sedentary lives those variants could be detrimental to people’s health.
23andMe researchers compiled a white paper looking at these and 27 other variants associated with taste preference.
To find out more you can download the paper <a href="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/5-N8XiOLkGIgydwX_SS-IQ_23-08_Genetic_Associations_With_Traits1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

Salty Or Sweet

Earlier this month, we wrote about <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-customer-stories/jesss-story/">Jess</a>, who with the help of her 23andMe results discovered that 100 years ago her grandfather had been accidentally switched at birth with another baby boy and raised by<div id="attachment_22174" style="width: 236px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22174" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-22174 size-medium" width="226" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-226x300.jpeg 226w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam-662x880.jpeg 662w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Phil-and-Sam.jpeg 665w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 226px) 100vw, 226px" />Jess&#8217;s grandfather Phil and her great grandfather Sam.</div>Jewish immigrant parents while the baby he was switched with by an Irish Catholic family.

The reason Jess was able to figure this out is because for three years, another woman, Alice Plebuch, was working to unravel her own family mystery. It was Alice who ultimately reached out to Jess asking in an email if she’d learned something unexpected about her ancestry. 


Now we get to hear Alice’s side of this amazing story that has been posted on <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/2015/02/switched-at-birth-unravelling-century_27.html">CeCe Moore’s blog</a>.
Alice was raised to believe that she was almost all Irish on both her mother and father’s side, but after testing with several different DNA testing services she learned that she was actually half Jewish. Her quest to figure out why took years of work, and required testing of several different family members as well as document searches and even creating a database to track all of her the relatives she discovered through testing. It’s instructive to see how careful Alice was with information, knowing that it could be difficult for some family members to digest and wanting to make sure she had all the facts first. Alice’s story
<div id="attachment_22272" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22272" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-200x300.jpg" alt="Alice's father, who turned out to be Sam's biological son." class="size-medium wp-image-22272" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-200x300.jpg 200w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-683x1024.jpg 683w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-587x880.jpg 587w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father-787x1180.jpg 787w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Alices-father.jpg 816w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Alice&#8217;s father, who turned out to be Sam&#8217;s biological son.</div>
is also informative about how a smart and resourceful person can use genetic testing and other records to uncover hidden family history.
What is also stunning, at least for us here at 23andMe, is that none of this would have – or even could have – come to light without genetic testing.


If Alice and Jess hadn’t tested there really wouldn’t have been any other way to uncover this hidden history. Even for CeCe – a genetic genealogists with <a href="http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/p/about-me.html">years of experience</a> unraveling countless family stories – that Alice and Jess were able to figure this out was hard to believe.

The Other Side of the Story

Like all good photographers Alan Babbitt sees what’s invisible to most of us.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22262" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-300x300.jpeg" alt="Alan B" width="300" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-271x271.jpeg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-372x372.jpeg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B-574x574.jpeg 574w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Alan-B.jpeg 800w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
With a steady hand and a willingness to go almost anywhere for a good shot, Alan spent decades turning his lens on people and places to create images he thought would draw the viewer in and tell a story.
“I’d call it street photography,” he said. “I wanted to document what’s around me.”
But when his steady hand began to fail him in 2003, he thought he’d lost what defined him as a photographer.
“First my thumb started twitching,” he said.
<h6>Parkinson&#8217;s Photographer</h6>
Then the tremors became more pronounced. After seeing a neurologist, he got a diagnosis that shook him to his core – Alan learned he had Parkinson’s disease.
“It was devastating,” he said.
He was a still photographer, he liked to say, but he couldn’t keep his camera from shaking. Alan drifted into depression, and for a time stopped taking photos all together.

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				float: left;
				margin-top: 10px;
				text-align: center;
				width: 50%;
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			#gallery-1 img {
				border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
			}
			#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {
				margin-left: 0;
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			/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
		</style>
		<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-22254 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Landscape-Example-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22260" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Landscape-Example-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Landscape-Example-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Landscape-Example-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Moving-Landscape-Example-574x574.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22260'>
				Copyright Alan Babbitt
				</dd></dl><dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/las-vegas-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22256" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/las-vegas-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/las-vegas-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/las-vegas-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/las-vegas-574x574.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22256'>
				Copyright Alan Babbitt
				</dd></dl> <dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Vegas-example-III-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22258" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Vegas-example-III-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Vegas-example-III-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Vegas-example-III-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Vegas-example-III-574x574.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22258'>
				Copyright Alan Babbitt
				</dd></dl><dl class='gallery-item'>
			<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>
				<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="150" height="150" src="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ferris-Wheel-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" aria-describedby="gallery-1-22259" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ferris-Wheel-150x150.jpg 150w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ferris-Wheel-271x271.jpg 271w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ferris-Wheel-372x372.jpg 372w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Ferris-Wheel-574x574.jpg 574w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" />
			</dt>
				<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-22259'>
				Copyright Alan Babbitt
				</dd></dl> 
		</div>

The difficult news was compounded by a side effect of the disease. Parkinson’s causes chemical changes in the brain that can lead to depression. Ironically when Alan began taking an anti-depressant, it compounded his problem, one of the drug’s side effects included tremors.
“It was hard,” he said.
It felt like the passion of his life – the thing Alan had been doing since he was a kid with his first camera, a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye – was slipping away.
<h6>Seeing Anew</h6>
And then Alan saw something that no one else could see.
“It was almost by accident,” he said.
In Las Vegas, he went out one evening with his camera. He was taking photos in the low light, frustrated by every image being out-of-focus.
“But you know the beauty of digital cameras is you can see things instantly,” Alan said.
As he looked at the photos on the camera, he was suddenly struck by the blurry images his shaky hands were taking. It was one of those a-ha moments.
<h6>Unstill Photography</h6>
He decided to push it one step further, clicking off the flash, slowing the shutter speed down, and turning his small point-and-shoot digital camera back at the neon lit streets of Las Vegas. Instead of trying to deny what was happening to him, Alan made his Parkinson’s part of how he made his images.
“After a couple years of fighting my tremor and trying to work around it, I had the notion to just let go and let it do its thing,” Alan said. “The camera quickly showed me I was onto something.”
Just as he’d always done as a good photographer, Alan captured what was invisible to most of us. And thus the creation of what he now calls his “Un-Still Photography.” Instead of trying to steady his hand, the tremors were part of his creative process, generating the swirls and whirls of light that offered unique and arresting images of the world around him.
<h6>New Possibilities</h6>
His epiphany in Las Vegas energized him and he folded that feeling into how the diagnosis itself had changed him. His priorities changed, so did his goals and his notion of what he wanted out of life.
“The world and everything in it became new and fresh and the possibilities were endless,” Alan said.
From that moment in <a href="http://www.abproductions.com/las_vegas/las_vegas.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Las Vegas</a>, Alan has begun to push his <a href="http://www.abproductions.com/moving_landscapes/moving_landscapes.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Un-Still Photography”</a> into other unexpected arenas including sports photography, particularly <a href="http://www.abproductions.com/ballpark/ballpark_ss.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">baseball</a>. The images he captures including the swirl of a batter’s swing, or the buzzing color of the crowds in the stadium, you can’t see in most sports images.
For Alan, who joined 23andMe’s Parkinson’s research community almost six years ago, his condition has become something that he is embracing.
“It’s turning a negative into a positive,” he said.
That’s what also motivated him to join 23andMe and contribute to research.
“If they can learn something from me about this disease that can help someone else then I’m all for it,” he said.
Check out some of Alan’s images on <a href="http://abproductions.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">his website</a>.

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