Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Genographic Project

National Geo, IBM Trace Human Migration Via Genes: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Indigenous people around the world will be asked to supply a cheek swab to help geneticists answer the question of how humanity spread from Africa, the National Geographic Society and IBM said on Wednesday.

They hope to sample 100,000 people or more and look for ancient clues buried in living DNA to calculate who came from where and when.

And for $100, anyone who wants to can supply his or her own cheek swab for a personalized analysis and perhaps to contribute to the research.

"We all came out of Africa, but how did we get to where we are today?" asked geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells.

"What we are aiming for is the story of everybody." ..."


They are going to look at Mitochondrial DNA, and try to check people on every continent. It sounds like an interesting and worthy project. With only partial indigenous bloodlines over several generations, I wouldn't qualify as "indigenous", but if I had a spare $100. I would send my sample to them. I would really like to know what they can definitively say about a mixed race, mixed ethnicity, 'ancestors from different continents', gal like me.


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