genetics

Study: Ashkenazi Jews Have Become More Genetically Similar over Time

Analysis of remains from a medieval Jewish cemetery in Germany suggests that two distinct populations of Jews that remained largely separate before merging about 1,000 years ago. 

Human Geneticists Begin Moving Away from Using "Race" to Identify Human Populations

Recognizing the social construction of "race" categories, geneticists have largely stopped using the term. Is this because they have abandoned the idea of profound divisions among human populations, or have they adapted other terminology to perform the same function? 

What Will Nobel Recognition Mean for Ancient Human DNA Studies?

by Mary Prendergast

An archaeologist sees the recogntion of paleogenomics as a vital tool to reinvigorate the field's access to knowledge about early humans, but warns that the science needs to be accompanied by ethical self-reflection to respect the remains of indigenous people and avoid giving credence to pseudoscientific racism. 

Human Tissue Preserved since World War I Yields New Clues about 1918 Pandemic

"The partial genomes hold some tantalizing clues that the infamous flu strain may have adapted to humans between the pandemic’s first and second waves."

Large DNA Study Traces Violent History of American Slavery

Historian Alondra Nelson praised the application of genetics to narrating the history of the slave trade, but cautioned that historians should be an integral part of any project making claims about human ancestry.

The Women Who Contributed to Science but Were Buried in Footnotes

In a new study, researchers uncovered female programmers who made important but unrecognized contributions to genetics.

Parasites from medieval latrines unlock secrets of human history

A radical new approach combining archaeology, genetics and microscopy can reveal long-forgotten secrets of human diet, sanitation and movement from studying parasites in ancient excrement, according to new research.

Historian discovers he’s related to the people he’s written a book about

by John Sedgwick

And it changes his perspective on the value of genealogy.

Geneticist at Harvard Medical School has retrieved DNA from more than 900 ancient people.

His findings trace the prehistoric migrations of our species.

When Did Americans Stop Marrying Their Cousins? Ask the World’s Largest Family Tree.

Researchers assembled 5 million family trees using data from the website Geni.com to test several genetic and historical hypotheses.

DNA Tests on an Ancient Skeleton Reveal the First Briton Was Black, Not White

"It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories we have... are not applicable to the past at all," said one project worker.

They considered themselves white, but DNA tests told a more complex story

Nicole Persley of Boca Raton, Fla. says a genetic test validated what she had dug up about her family's heritage.

The Famine Ended 70 Years Ago, but Dutch Genes Still Bear Scars

Babies born during the Dutch Hunger Winter became adults with higher rates of health problems. Now researchers may have found the genetic switches that made it happen.

In the Bones of a Buried Child, Signs of a Massive Human Migration to the Americas

The second-oldest human genome ever found in North America, it sheds new light on how people — among them the ancestors of living Native Americans — first arrived in the Western Hemisphere.

A New History of the First Peoples in the Americas

The miracle of modern genetics has revolutionized the story anthropologists tell about how humans spread out across the Earth.

Gathering the Genetic Testimony of Spain’s Civil War Dead

New research by anthropologists and forensic scientists is bringing hope to the relatives of war victims as it challenges Spain’s “pact of forgetting.”

Neanderthal Mutations Could Still be Affecting Humans

Breeding with Neanderthals may have had a heavy price for early humans, according to a new study published recently in the journal GENETICS.

If we’re not careful, epigenetics may bring back eugenic thinking

by Maurizio Meloni

Today, we generally are educated about the dangers of eugenics. But it is important to keep talking about these issues, before minority groups such as racists try to hijack epigenetics to further their cause.

Harvard Medical School geneticist David Reich says genetics is providing a new way to investigate the past

But geneticists may be about as welcome as barbarians at the gates, he warns.

Humans Hard-Wired to Teach, Anthropologist Says

An anthropologist from Washington State University says that, based on his research into modern hunter-gatherer societies, the desire to teach is hard-wired into humanity’s genetic code.