Home Subscribe Print Edition Advertise National Editions Other Languages
Nation WorldChinaBusinessOpinionLifeHealthScienceArts & EntertainmentSports
Features
London BombingsAbout the Nine CommentariesQuitting the CCPDefections from the CCPThe Real Story of Jiang Zemin

Advertisement

Home > Science >

Printer version | E-Mail article | Give feedback

Retracing the Footsteps of Man

Beginnings of an ambitious project on the genetic wanderings of humans

By Francis Aymonier
Epoch Times Staff
 Aug 07, 2005

SOME THINGS JUST DON’T CHANGE: Recently discovered 40,000-year-old human footprint in Mexico made in volcanic ash (T) compared with a modern footprint on a San Francisco concrete sidewalk (B). National Geographic and IBM have embarked on a project to retrace the footsteps of our ancestors as they traveled the planet. (Liverpool John Moores University - Bournemouth University/A. Muir Ellsmore /The Epoch Times)
High-resolution image (1017 x 1128 px, 300 dpi)

National Geographic and IBM recently embarked on a new project to retrace the paths humans followed as they populated the planet. Over 100,000 people from around the world will have their DNA tested to help discover exactly how humans have relocated throughout the ages.

National Geographic and the computer group IBM announced at a press conference in May that they would cooperate on the project, titled Genographic. The companies’ representatives said they would go ahead with the research to discover the genetic ties between peoples, despite the risk of opposition from anti-racist and human rights groups.

“We are all interested in our roots, but this project goes much further,” said John Farey, the president of the National Geographic Society.

“It’s a giant step for anthropology,” said project director Specer Wells. “Our DNA carries a history that everyone shares. Within the next five years, we will decrypt this history, which risks being lost, as people migrate and mix much faster than they did in the past.”

According to National Geographic, the team conducting the study will consist of international researchers from ten countries. The scientists will gather and analyze the genetic data of hundreds of thousands of people from a variety of ethnic groups. They will then use this evidence to pinpoint the migratory patterns of the first humans as they spread out from Africa, their presumed continent of origin.

The information to be collected could shed light on a variety of historical questions, from revealing the origins of Native American tribes to confirming that the armies of Alexander the Great passed through Asia, leaving genetic traces behind.

Of course, the results will depend largely on the number of individual contributions and the good will of indigenous people like Native Americans or Inuits who often prefer not to involve themselves with modern Western science.

Furthermore, the success of the project depends on the validity of the scientific basis on which it rests, namely, genetics and the history of humankind. These two subjects are at the moment in the stage of hypothesis-testing, leaving them open to being rewritten with each new discovery.

For those who would like to participate in the study, National Geographic sells DNA sample kits for $99.95 on its website (www.nationalgeographic.com). With the kit, one can take a DNA test on one’s own, by simply removing a few cells from the inside of the cheek. The confidential test results are mailed back in approximately two months.