Is American genetic diversity enough?
When we sampled 200 people in Queens for the Genographic ‘Human Family Tree’ Project in 2008 we even found a Khoisan lineage – part of what was effectively a microcosm of global genetic diversity in a single urban US population. — Spencer Wells (@spwells) May 1, 2018 In the nearly 20 years since the draft […]
Diaspora culture are often more conservative
Zach made a comment below about conservatism and Diaspora cultures. There are two trends one has to highlight here. One the one hand Diaspora cultures often exhibit synthesis with host cultures and can be quite novel and innovative. But there is another trend which is a cultural universal: Diaspora cultures often exhibit archaism and crystallize … Continue reading “Diaspora culture are often more conservative”
Open Thread, 04/29/2018
One of the strange things about getting old is that your friends start to become kind of a big deal. Matthew Hahn has a new book out, Molecular Population Genetics. If there is one single reason I keep blogging, it’s to get awareness of the field of population genetics to spread beyond the small circle […]
Why Bronze Age steppe people replaced the farmers they conquered
One of the major revisions in my own mind about the demographic and historical processes of the Holocene in relation to humans has been the reality that large and dense agglomerations of agriculturalists could be marginalized by later peoples, to the point of having a smaller genetic footprint in the future than anyone might have […]
Closing the genetic chapter
Indus Valley People Did Not Have Genetic Contribution From The Steppes: Head Of Ancient DNA Lab Testing Rakhigarhi Samples: In other words, the preprint observes that the migration from the steppes to South Asia was the source of the Indo-European languages in the subcontinent. Commenting on this, Rai said, “any model of migration of Indo-Europeans … Continue reading “Closing the genetic chapter”
Rakhigarhi sample doesn’t have steppe ancestry (probably “Indus Periphery”)
We’ve been waiting for two years now, and it looks like they’re about to pull the trigger, Indus Valley People Did Not Have Genetic Contribution From The Steppes: Head Of Ancient DNA Lab Testing Rakhigarhi Samples: Niraj Rai, the head of the Ancient DNA Laboratory at Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (BSIP), where the […]
The genetic future is here when it comes to finding relatives of suspects
My guess is Y-STR typing + one of the publicly searchable services here: https://t.co/G8I4ZLbSew — Alexander M. Kim (@amwkim) April 27, 2018 You may have heard that a suspect was arrested who is alleged to be the “Golden State Killer.” DNA played an important role, Relative’s DNA from genealogy websites cracked East Area Rapist case, […]
The Ancient Neanderthal Mariner
More recent stuff on Neanderthals of interest, Neandertals, Stone Age people may have voyaged the Mediterranean: A decade ago, when excavators claimed to have found stone tools on the Greek island of Crete dating back at least 130,000 years, other archaeologists were stunned—and skeptical. But since then, at that site and others, researchers have quietly […]
Beyond cultural parochialism
A major personal peeve of mine is that the past few centuries of Western colonialism have overshadowed so much that moderns are often unequipped to understand the vast tapestry of human historical and geographical diversity. If you are a modern Indian or Chinese or African person you know your own culture and its history…and its … Continue reading “Beyond cultural parochialism”
Whales and complex speciation
“Reader request”, what’s going on with this new crazy baleen whale paper, Whole-genome sequencing of the blue whale and other rorquals finds signatures for introgressive gene flow. First, putting “blue whale” in the title is genius, since blue whales are awesome and people will read the paper with that in the title (most people don’t […]
DNA, from genetics to genomics
In the early 1950s scientists established that the molecular structure of DNA was a double helix. The had discovered the physical substrate of heredity. With this discovery the field of molecular genetics was born (and eventually a Nobel Prize given!)….
Why do Indians care about OIT/AIT
From my blog: Razib: I follow your super feed and read your postings here and on Brown Pundits. The subject of the ancestry of South Asians comes up frequently. It seems to have a political valence that I, as an outsider, do not understand. Can you explain it? or point us to an explanation? My … Continue reading “Why do Indians care about OIT/AIT”
Open Thread, 4/24/2018
Finished She Has Her Mother’s Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised that the narrative wasn’t overly fixated on the ‘perversions.’ Sometimes it’s hard to move past that. I think different people will benefit from reading the book differently. If you are a layperson a serial reading […]
The water rises and Canute drowns
The Genetic History of Indians: Are We What We Think We Are?. The answer is that people of all races have always been what they always were. What we think about what we were…well, that changes. “I KNOW PEOPLE won’t be happy to hear this,” geneticist Niraj Rai says over the phone from Lucknow. “But … Continue reading “The water rises and Canute drowns”
There were possibly late archaic introgression events in Eurasia
A few weeks ago I posted on the strong likelihood that there were at least two Denisovan admixture events in Eurasia into modern humans. That’s probably the floor, not the ceiling. We have an Altai Denisovan genome, but the proportion is so low in most of South and Southeast Asia I don’t think we have […]
Is everyone racist and I’m not aware?
The expulsion of two young black men from Starbucks is in the news, and people are sharing their experiences. To be honest I’m not surprised that this happened to young black men. What I am surprised by are South Asians who express their own fear of being seen to not buy anything (in part to … Continue reading “Is everyone racist and I’m not aware?”
Good night Avcii, you lived before you died
Like many people I didn’t know much about Avicii when he was alive, though now I know much more that he has died. He stuff played while I was on the computer in the lab, or when I was working out. Avicii for me was the anti-Kardashian, as I had no idea who “he” (I […]
A quick note on BP housekeeping
As per the request of Kabir I’ve closed comments on the post below. I’ll delete it soon. His new blog is here: https://kabiraltaf.wordpress.com/. A few quick notes to be clear: Three people have admin privileges here. Omar, Zach and myself. In various ways, we’ve been associated with this blog eight years now. Myself, honestly I have … Continue reading “A quick note on BP housekeeping”
Humans as the necessary but not sufficient cause of mega-faunal extinction
The figure above is kind of hard to parse, but it’s from Body size downgrading of mammals over the late Quaternary, and it illustrates that in some periods larger animals tended to go extinct, while others there was no bias due to size (in fact, large animals tended to do quite well because of their […]
So merfolk are a real thing now: adaptation to diving
When Rasmus Nielsen presented preliminary work on diving adaptations a few years ago at ASHG I really didn’t know what to think. To be honest it seemed kind of crazy. Everyone was freaking out over it…and I guess I should have. But it just seemed so strange I couldn’t process it. High altitude adaptations, I […]