DailyDirt: What Are We Going To Do With All This Genetic Information?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Genomic sequencing is becoming more readily available and cheaper by the minute. It's not quite as easy as it looks on TV (ie. we don't have a Star Trek tricorder just yet), but minuscule amounts of DNA are revealing a vast amount of information about our health and our ancestors. This treasure trove of data is literally lying around everywhere just waiting to be collected. After you've finished checking out those links, if you have some spare change (or more) and would like to support Techdirt, take a look at our Daily Deals for cool gadgets and other awesome stuff.
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Filed Under: blood tests, cancer, data, dna, genetics, genomic sequencing, health, icelanders, lgs test, lymphocyte genome sensitivity test, mitochondrial eve, mrca


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 6 Apr 2015 @ 5:31pm

    Er, typo?

    "our most recent common ancestor (MRCA) likely lived just 2,000-4,000 years ago."

    Considering Jewish people can all trace their ancestry back at least 2500 years, I'm guessing that an MRCA is probably further out than that, no matter how many children Ghengis Khan had. Even 4,000 years is pushing it, but is somewhat more believable.

    I can see some problems if our Eve was 200,000 years ago and our Adam was off by even 100 years as well... unless people used to live significantly longer lifespans.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      orbitalinsertion (profile), 6 Apr 2015 @ 6:00pm

      Re: Er, typo?

      The human MRCA is based on a mathematical model and a lot of assumptions, but largely the date may seem far off because MRCA probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

      Your "Adam" and "Eve" present absolutely no problems at all, however. Why would they have to lie anywhere near each other in time?

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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