New research by scientists at Vanderbilt University adds to our understanding of the legacy of our ancient cousins, the Neanderthals.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright wp-image-23459 size-medium" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Neanderthal-Image-247x300.jpg" alt="Neanderthal Image" width="247" height="300" />
<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6274/737.full">The study</a> looked specifically at health conditions, finding associations between Neanderthal DNA and conditions related to immune response, blood clotting, and depression by using electronic health records from more than 50,000 individuals.
When humans migrated out of Africa they intermixed with Neanderthals perhaps 60,000 years ago, and so all non-Africans carry some remnant of Neanderthal DNA. Scientists believe that by mixing with Neanderthals, who lived and thrived in Europe and Asia for 100,000 years, modern humans got an evolutionary advantage as they migrated into those new environments.
<a href="http://www.cell.com/ajhg/abstract/S0002-9297%2815%2900486-3">A paper</a> published earlier this year suggests that intermixing with Neanderthals conferred an advantageous immune response for populations that ultimately settled in Europe. Another study two years ago looked at how intermixing with another ancient human cousin, the Denisovan, may have conferred an evolutionary advantage for Tibetans to cope with high altitude through a variant in the EPAS1 gene that helps to prevent blood thickening.
But some of those same traits inherited from Neanderthals – and presumably other ancient human cousins – that tens of thousands of years ago may have been advantageous, may not be beneficial in modern times when diet and lifestyle are so different.
“These variants sometimes protect against a disease,” said Svante Paabo the<a href="http://www.mpg.de/9819763/neanderthal-genes-immune-system"> Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a>.
Interviewed for a story in Science Magazine about the findings Paabo added that some of the variants may “sometimes make people more susceptible to disease.”
Although the Vanderbilt study focuses just on health related traits, it illustrates the potential of looking at a broad grouping of phenotypes like those in the electronic medical records, with known Neanderthal variants. (23andMe <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/new-neanderthal-report">reports</a> to customers the number of Neanderthal variants they carry, how that compares with other customers, and traits those variants are associated with such as back hair and height.)
In an article in the<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/neanderthal-dna-affects-depression-risk-today/462345/"> Atlantic</a>, Ed Yong points this out and notes that, instead of focusing on the associations with disease, attention around this study might be better focused on what those associations can tell us about the biology of certain conditions. For instance, the researchers found that Neanderthal DNA is associated with depression and certain mood disorders. Specifically, researchers speculate variants that helped Neanderthals adapt to lower sunlight exposure in northern latitudes, could have carried a higher risk for depression, which is influenced by sunlight exposure.

23andMe Blog

23andMe Blog Team

The Lasting Legacy of Neanderthals

They’ve been friends since the first grade, so Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal, YouTube stars with their own daily show, decided to see if there might be some deeper explanation for their tight bond.
On a recent episode of their popular show <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettandlink2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Good Mythical Morning”</a> the two looked at their 23andMe results and then compared traits like earwax, Neanderthal percentages and whether they got a taste of soap when they grazed on <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/articles/cilantro-love-hate-genetic-trait" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cilantro</a>.
With the kind of friendly and funny back-and-forth banter that has made many of their videos go viral, the two used their results as a way to illustrate a recent scientific finding showing that friends tend to be more alike genetically than strangers. The study by researchers at Yale and UC San Diego was published last year in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/07/10/1400825111" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, and looked at 2,000 individuals. The scientists found that friends shared about 1 percent of their DNA – equivalent to what fourth cousins would share – versus strangers who shared very little.
The study is one of several now that have looked at how shared genetics may help people bond.
23andMe researchers also looked at this phenomenon but focused specifically on <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/23andme-couples-correlated/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">couples</a> with children. Our researchers found that, contrary to what some believe, opposites don’t in fact attract. The work just added to several studies done over the years showing that people tended to bond with those with whom they are more alike than those with whom they are more different.
Whether you are into the science or not, you should check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettandlink2/featured" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rhett &amp; Link&#8217;s show</a>. It&#8217;s a lot of fun.
<iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Zdw4ozDD2XU" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

Good Morning Friend

When she was a kid, torture for one 23andMe customer was having to sit at the dinner table listening to her father chew his food.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/popcorn.jpg" alt="Little Girl Eats Popcorn" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22548" width="207" height="145" />


This was long before she knew the scientific name for what she was experiencing. She’d just grip her fork and try to fight the fury bubbling up inside as her dad finished his meal.
In a 23andMe community forum on the condition, the customer said she’d only known two other people with the problem; one was her daughter, the other her half-brother.
<a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/misophonia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Misophonia</a> – from the Greek meaning hatred of sound – is characterized by <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/please-stop-making-that-noise/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feelings of rage</a> triggered by people munching, chewing, sipping and chomping their food. And it turns out there’s a genetic component to the little understood condition, according to research by 23andMe.

Many of those who have misophonia are unaware that it is a condition at all. They just know the sound of someone eating popcorn, or crunching down on an apple or smacking their lips sparks an overriding feeling of anger.
It actually isn’t just the sound of eating; a variety of sounds can spark rage in those with the condition, including the sound of other people breathing.
That can make interpersonal relationships a bit difficult especially if you have to ask another person to, you know, stop breathing.
Unusual as it sounds, misophonia is more common than one would imagine.
In an internal study of about 80,000 customers who have consented to research on the subject, 23andMe researchers found that about 20 percent said they were “filled with rage” by the sound of others eating. The researchers also found that the condition was more commonly reported by women than men.
And the study identified a specific variant associated with misophonia among people of European ancestry.
The variant is near the gene <a href="http://www.genecards.org/cgi-bin/carddisp.pl?gene=TENM2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TENM2</a>, which plays a role in brain development.
Learn more about misohonia <a href="https://www.23andme.com/topics/traits/misophonia/">here</a>.
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Something to Chew On

There’s nature and nurture and then there’s all that bickering – or lack of it – with our brothers or sisters.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Slide11-300x169.jpg" alt="Slide1" width="300" height="169" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22426" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Slide11-300x169.jpg 300w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Slide11.jpg 720w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Birth order, and the family dynamic between siblings – or whether or not you have siblings – plays a role in determining who we become as people.
So in honor of National Sibling Day, which was a few weeks back, one of our scientists, Aaron Kleinman, looked at what our data could tell us about how birth order and family size influence us.
First off, it is pretty clear that it does make a difference if you were born an only child, or were the first, or last or middle child in a family, according to 23andMe data. Aaron found that being older or younger affects measures of intelligence and personality, impacting things like whether you’re more likely to have taken advanced math or whether you are more agreeable and altruistic.
This is all well-trod territory, with plenty of studies over the years looking at birth order and its influence on everything from <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/10/6/482.short" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personality traits</a> to <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/316/5832/1717.short" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">intelligence</a> and health. Some of those studies confirm the stereotypes we have about first and last born children, and some – like its influence on allergies or the risk for cancer – are harder to peg.
<div style="float: right; text-align: justified; width: 200px; background-color: #eee; padding: 15px; margin-left: 10px;">Some Birth Order Findings
A First Born Child 
&#8211; Tends to start reading earlier 
&#8211; Tends to take more advanced math classes 
&#8211; Tends to be less tactful
A Last Born Child 
&#8211; Tends to be more altruistic 
&#8211; Tends to be less tense 
&#8211; Is more likely to own a dog
An Only Child 
&#8211; Tends to start reading earlier 
&#8211; Is more likely to learn another language as an adults 
&#8211; Is less likely to be able to do a cartwheel
</div>
Ever since Cain and Abel, there has been a fascination with sibling relationships. And with that interest come some well known clichÃ©s – the luster of the smart and driven first born, the carefree and crafty youngest child and the middle kid who is just trying to keep the peace.
But there has also been some interesting science around sibling relationships and birth order and what influence it has on development.
One of our <a href="http://psr.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/04/28/1088868310361241.abstract" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">favorite studies</a> looked at differences between 700 brothers who played in Major League Baseball. The data showed that younger brothers attempted to steal bases way more than their older brothers. The study, by researchers at UC Berkeley and Guilford College, tended to support the evolutionary theory that younger siblings are more likely to be risk takers. The theory is that the youngest sibling has to fight harder and be a little craftier to get his or her parents’ attention.
In our data Aaron also found that birth order affects personality, and although we didn’t see anything about base stealing, 23andMe data showed that younger siblings were less tense, more agreeable and more altruistic than their older siblings.
But studying these kinds of differences among siblings can be tricky, said Aaron.
In other words, some of the differences might be more a reflection of why the family is big or small as opposed to whether a child is older or younger. For example, it may be that people who are religious tend to have big families. So to control for family size and other things, Aaron ran several different analyses, all using data from 23andMe customers of European ancestry who’d consented to research. Aaron did things like restrict the customers he looked at to those who had precisely one sibling and then looked at the effect of being the first-born versus the last-born.
Aaron found that the 23andMe data confirms what some others studies have said about first-borns being <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w19542" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">smarter</a>. Or more specifically, 23andMe data showed that first-born kids read earlier and take more advanced math classes.
But other findings in the 23andMe data were for things we hadn’t seen before.
Aaron found a correlation between birth order and taste. Those who had fewer older siblings were more likely to enjoy cilantro and dark chocolate, for instance. We couldn’t explain that one with evolutionary theory.
Another odd correlation shows that younger siblings were more likely to be able to whistle and own a dog.
Not wanting to leave anyone out, Aaron also looked at only children. He found that they were more likely to have learned another language and less likely to be able to do a cartwheel.
This focus on you family dynamic is helpful for researchers here at 23andMe as they try to sort out the interplay of genetics and environment for various conditions.

Sibling Rivalry

We received a lot of comments and questions about <a href="https://blog.23andme.com/23andme-research/genetics-and-that-striped-dress/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">23andMe’s research</a> regarding why people saw different colors when looking at the same striped dress.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/SathirapongsasutiF-bw-200x300.jpg" alt="SathirapongsasutiF b:w" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22325" 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" />


According to our findings the biggest factor in why people saw either blue and black or white and gold, was age. Not everyone saw things so clearly one way or the other. Some of the commenters saw various shades of both colors or had the colors switch on them each time they looked.
While people had plenty of opinions on the color, almost everyone wanted to know more about what we found.
23andMe computational biologist Fah Sathirapongsasuti, PhD, who did much of the work on this very quick experiment, has put together a white paper outlining his findings with a lot more detailed data.
Check it out <a href="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/TheDress-White-Paper.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>.

Again With The Dress

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

Scientists haven’t agreed on whether blondes indeed have more fun, but at least there is some consensus on what makes their hair blond.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-22160" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair-270x300.png" alt="Blond Hair" width="270" height="300" srcset="https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair-270x300.png 270w, https://blogcms.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Blond-Hair.png 287w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px" />


23andMe scientists looking at the biology behind hair color found three genetic variants already known to be strongly associated with having golden locks among 23andMe customers with Northern European ancestry.
The three variants are on or near the genes HERC2, KITLG and SLC24A4. 

<h6>Known Associations</h6>

These findings among 23andMe customers confirm<a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v39/n12/full/ng.2007.13.html"> known associations</a> reported on in several other published studies over the last few years.
Hair color is a complex trait, meaning more than one genetic variant influences whether a person has light or dark hair. And these three genetic variants by no means account for all the genetic factors that influence hair color. But at least for people with Northern European ancestry they explain a lot.


A pigment molecule called melanin determines the color of your hair. People with higher levels of the brown-black form of melanin have darker hair. But people with the lower levels have lighter hair. About 20 percent of 23andMe customers report having light or dark blond hair.

<h6>Why is this important?</h6>

While blond hair is most common in people of Northern European ancestry, it is also found in people without European ancestry. But the biology behind blond hair in those populations is different. For example, between five to ten percent of<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3481182/"> Solomon Islanders </a>have blond hair that is caused by a single variant in the TYRP1 gene.


Why is it even important to study these kinds of traits you might ask?

Part of the reason researchers look at traits like hair and eye color, is because it provides a broader insight into the biology of complex traits. The color of your hair is not as simple as many might think. For instance, simply having one or two blond hair alleles does not mean that you will have blond hair. In fact, most people with just two blond hair variants don’t have blond hair. Only in people with five or more blond hair alleles do we see a majority of them with light hair.
<h6>Complex Traits</h6>
By studying complex traits like hair color scientists can sometimes gain better understanding about the genetics of other conditions.
Just looking at research about blond hair, for example, has informed scientists about the finely tuned process of gene expression.
<a href="https://www.nature.com/ng/journal/v46/n7/full/ng.2991.html">A 2014 study</a> led by researchers at Stanford looked specifically at the variant nearby, but not in the KITLG gene. The study was fascinating because the researchers showed that  a variant in so-called &#8220;junk&#8221; DNA has a strong influence on the expression of KITLG. This in turn influences hair color. Instead of simply turning on or off expression of the KITLG gene, this variant dialed down the gene expression levels, changing the hair color along a blond to brown gradient.
<div id="attachment_22180" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22180" class="size-large wp-image-22180" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/blond_hair_snps-640x196.jpg" alt="The frequencies of three genetic variants associated with blond hair across Eurasia. " width="640" height="196" />The frequencies of three genetic variants associated with blond hair across Eurasia.</div>

Blonde on Blonder

If your eyes are brown, or you can wiggle your ears, or you love black licorice, it’s likely you should be thanking your dad.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignright size-large wp-image-21078" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/06092014_FathersDay_Infographic_large-301x768.jpg" alt="06092014_FathersDay_Infographic_large" width="301" height="768" />
As we near Father’s Day 23andMe wanted to take a look specifically at fathers, and the traits they are likely to have in common with their children.


While we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that a parent’s traits are often seen in his or her child, it’s interesting to learn that the odds a child will get a trait are different depending on which parent has that trait.
We recently wrote about our research that shows that while we get traits from both our fathers and our mothers, certain traits are more strongly associated with your mother.
But in some cases, whether or not a child has a certain kind of trait – brown eyes, for example – is more likely if their father has that trait.


23andMe researcher Emma Pierson calculated the odds of whether a son or daughter shared certain traits with their fathers. To figure that out she looked at 15,000 anonymous mother-father-child “trios” among 23andMe’s customers who consented to research.


Emma discovered that like with mothers, there are certain traits that if a father has them, their child is more likely to also have them, and often the odds differed between sons and daughters. So if a father has brown eyes his son is only six times more likely to also have brown eyes, while his daughter is 10 times more likely. She discovered that if your father is a morning person, his son is 1.9 times more likely to also like getting up early, while his daughter is almost two-and-a-half times as likely to be an early bird.


Why this is has to do with many factors. Some traits are clearly genetic, the color of your eyes, some of your food preferences, for example. Other traits are more complicated and may have more to do with socialization, as well as cultural and environmental influences.


It’s important to note that Emma looked only at biological fathers because of the nature of the data. These “trios” are anonymous and we are only able to show their father-mother-child connection through their genetics.
Obviously parenting is about much more than biology, and, as these traits show while genetics clearly plays a role it only explains some of why some traits are passed to a child and others aren’t.

Thanks Dad

23andMe mapped geographic patterns for more than 1,500 traits using aggregated and anonymous customer data to produce regional traits that constitutes an American tapestries of everything from personality to food preferences.


The data, compiled by researcher Emma Pierson, show that there are statistically significant regional differences that go beyond<a href="https://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/ElectoralOct23.gif.CROP.original-original.gif"> red states and blue states</a> or whether you call a soft drink a<a href="http://www.popvssoda.com/"> “soda” or a “pop.”</a>
Eating habits show statistically significant discrepancies by region, for example:
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
<div id="attachment_20760" style="width: 650px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20760" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/How-Often-Do-You-Consume2-640x460.jpg" alt="All visualizations in this post can be viewed here. Note the maps appear all black, but if you roll over the image, the states and percentages will appear." class="size-large wp-image-20760" width="640" height="460" />All visualizations in this post can be viewed <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/melting_pot.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. Note the maps appear all black, but if you roll over the image, the states and percentages will appear.</div>

And, somewhat unsurprisingly, the states where people eat the most fast food are also the states where they exercise the least. Dog owners and cat owners also favor different states. That’s probably a good thing.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-20694" alt="Fast Food:Pets" src="https://blog-api.23andme.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Fast-FoodPets-700x496.jpg" width="700" height="496" />
Illnesses also show regional differences. People catch more colds in the northern states, particularly the northeast, while people appear to get frizzy hair in humidity more often in the East.  <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/map_subset/iqb.poison_oak_map_2.html">Rashes from poison oak, ivy, and sumac</a> are most common where the plants are common. <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/map_subset/iqb.kidney_infection_map_2.html">Kidney infections</a> are more common in the South. People who report that they <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/map_subset/modtosevere_altitude_sickness_map_2.html">suffered from altitude sickness</a> tend to favor the flatter Great Plains states, and coastal states like California and Hawaii.

Emma also found regional differences in the prevalence of certain genetic variants. This is likely tied to the concentration of people with similar ancestry in certain states.
For example, genetic variants in the GBA gene that cause Parkinson’s and Gaucher disease are most often found in people of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Concentrations of people with these variants are found in the Northeast where some of the highest concentrations of people with Ashkenazi ancestry live. Other genetic traits common in people with Ashkenazi ancestry, like lactose intolerance, also peak in the Northeast.
G6PD mutations, which can cause anemia and are more common in people of African ancestry, peak in states with large African populations.

While these maps highlight regional differences, they also speak to what unifies us. In some traits, especially personality traits, it’s very hard to pick out a regional pattern.
Emma, who also has a blog about statistics called <a href="http://obsessionwithregression.blogspot.com/">Obsession with Regression</a>, then looked at how traits correlated with how people moved from place to place.


For instance, she found that – as essayist Joan Didion said 50 years ago about New York City being “for the very young” – young people tend to flock to Gotham.
Inspired by <a href="http://hint.fm/wind/">this wind map</a>, she produced maps that track rivers of movement of people. These lines follow the path of older Americans migrating from New York to Florida, and in general out of the northeast and to the south and to California. The line means that customers who move from New York to Florida are older than those who move from Florida to New York.  The redder the line, the bigger the difference and the thicker the line, the more people moving.


The maps also track Latinos moving out of California and Florida and into other parts of the country, as well as showing people with <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_ashkenazi.html">Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry</a> moving out from the Northeast.
The maps also track the many different types of people moving either to the Northeast or California, regions that attract <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_completed_college.html">college graduates</a>, <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_income.html">people with higher incomes</a>, <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_klein_sexual_attraction_qt.html">people attracted to those of the same sex</a>, and the <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_iqb.self_rated_attractiveness.html">physically attractive</a>. E
mma was even able to see <a href="http://cs.stanford.edu/people/emmap1/visualizations/flow_arrow_maps/maps/flow_arrows_iqb.political_views.html">political conservatives</a> migrating out of the Northeast to places like Texas, Arizona and Florida.
While these are fun bits of seemingly random bits of data, they also have the potential to shed some light into other parts of 23andMe’s research.
We ask our customer any number of things from the odd &#8212; like whether they can do a cartwheel or curl their tongue &#8212; to more serious questions about reactions to medication and whether they have had cancer. Taken together this data will help our researchers gain insight into both the genetic and non-genetic influences on various diseases and conditions.

Traits — Page 3