DNA and Genomics Project

Attribution: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/spencer_wells_is_building_a_family_tree_for_all_humanity.html


Abstract

Spencer Wells studies human diversity, and how humanity derived from a single common source and has become so astonishingly widespread. He answers these sub-questions to help understand this broad topic of diversity. Do we all share a common origin, and if so when and how long ago did we originate? Also, how did we become to occupy every corner of the globe? Instead of guessing about our ancestry, he constructs a family tree for humankind far back until the very earliest days of our species by using DNA. Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 to 90,000 years ago. Now, Wells is working on the question: How did this man, sometimes called "Ychromosomal Adam," become the multicultural body of life known as humanity? 

Biography of Spencer Wells:
Spencer Wells was born on April 6, 1969 in Georgia, United States. He is a geneticist, anthropologist, and an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He wrote the book The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey, which explains how genetic data has been used to trace human migrations over the past 50,000 years, when modern humans first migrated outside of Africa. Wells also wrote and presented the PBS/National Geographic documentary of the same name. By analyzing DNA from people in all regions of the world, Wells has concluded that all humans alive today are descended from a single man who lived in Africa around 60,000 - 90,000 years ago. Since 2005, Wells has headed The Genographic Project, undertaken by the National Geographic Society, IBM, and the Waitt Family Foundation, which aims to creating a picture of how our ancestors populated the planet by analyzing DNA samples from around the world. He presents the knowledge gained from the project around the world, including at the 2007 TED conference, where he spoke specifically about human diversity. Wells is quoted saying "As often happens in science, technology has opened up a field to new ways of answering old questions—often providing startling answers.”

Attributions: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Wells
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/field/explorers/spencer-wells.html

Vocabulary:
Paleoanthropology- the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species, using fossils and other remains.


Genealogy- a record or account of the ancestry and decent of a person, family, or group.


Homo erectus-an extinct species of the human lineage, formerly known as Pithecanthropus erectus, having upright stature and a well- evolved skeleton, but with a smallish brain, low forehead, and protruding face.


Indigenous- originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native.


Double helix- The shape of DNA, much like a spiral staircase or twisted ladder. The stairway's railings are composed of sugars and phosphates. Its sides contain the patterned base pairs: A, T, C, and G.


DNA- Deoxyribonucleic acid: a long linear polymer found in the nucleus of a cell and formed from nucleotides and shaped like a double helix; associated with the transmission of genetic information


Morphology-  the study of the form, structure and configuration of an organism. This includes aspects of the outward appearance (shape, structure, colour, pattern) as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs.


Haploid- of a cell or organism having a single set of chromosomes


Genome- The ordering of genes in a haploid set of chromosomes of a particular organism


Chromosome-a threadlike strand of DNA in the cell nucleus that carries the genes in a linear order


Nucleotide- Nucleotides are molecules that, when joined together, make up the structural units of RNA and DNA.

http://dictionary.reference.com/ 

Theme 1: Evolution

Spencer Wells explains that all human beings share a common region and eventually spread to occupy every corner of the globe.  Charles Darwin states that the human species originated from our biggest allies gorillas and chimpanzees, living in Africa around 23 million years ago. However our human ancestry shares a common ancestor with every living thing on earth due to DNA, which ties us all together. Carolus Linnaeus was the first to use morphology, which helped him categorize every living thing on the planet, and discover 12,000 different species. Based on morphology human races had been diverging from each other for over millions of years since the time of Homo erectus. Written in our DNA we have a historical document that takes us back to the very earliest days of our species. As our DNA is being passed on through generations, mistakes rarely occur. These rare changes become a marker of decent.  If you share a marker with someone it means u share an ancestor with someone in the past that first showed the change of DNA. The pattern of these markers and when they occurred helped construct a family tree for everyone alive today. The deepest lineage in our tree is in Africa, which means we originated from Africa because they have been diverging for the longest time. At some point in time a group of Africans left the African continent to help populate the rest of the world. Within the last 200,000 years we all share a single woman ancestor in Africa. The male ancestor only lived 60,000 years ago. It’s only within the last 60,000 years diversity has accumulated.

Theme 2: Continuity and Change 

60,000 years ago humans began to accumulate in Africa. During this time period the last ice age was occurring. Africa wasn’t covered in ice unlike the rest of the world, rather Africa was drying out. The whole world was drying out and Africa was turning into dessert because ice sucks moisture out of the atmosphere. The population crashed to fewer than 2,000 individuals. The human population nearly went extinct. Then luckily art made its appearance and humans began to specialize and expand. Their level of intelligence increased tremendously and they began to use languages and create intricate tools. This change in behavior allowed us to survive these harsh conditions in Africa and expand around the world. Eventually 6000 different languages were created and 6 in a half billion diverse people evolved.