Wednesday 16 March 2011
Spencer Wells builds a family tree for humanity
Summary:
Spencer Wells is a genetics who wants to create a family tree of humanity from our DNA. He has travelled around the world investigating the diversity and the origin of people. He is analyzing our direct ancestors and how the world’s population spread from one place. He approaches this question with different manner. He is looking for the answer in our DNA. Our DNA contains information which can unveil the origin of our ancestors. The DNA carries information from paternal and maternal side which traces our ancestors to Africa. This means that Africans had been accumulating this mutational diversity. In other words, we have been originated in Africa, it’s written in our DNA. The DNA proves that within 200 000 years we all share one ancestor, a single person, - Mitochondrial Eve who gave rise to all the diversity of the world today.
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Response:
The presentation of Spencer Wells is very interesting. I never thought about that all the world’s population goes back to a one single person. Moreover, our DNA carries information which can say who was our predecessor. I found it very useful because it can help those people who want to create more precise family tree and find their distant relatives. He described how the human population diverted from Africa and spread to the world. Furthermore, the fact that we all came from Africa and the center of human evolution is there amazed me.
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ReplyDeleteI think one of the most important discoveries of this century is DNA. It’s a discovery that revolutionized our lives: it helped find who our ancestors are, has provided new means of identifying criminals where there is little physical evidence, it is the genetic material of all organisms, it is the molecule of life and it determines all of our physical characteristics. I agree with you that the theory of Spencer Wells is interesting, but I’m not sure that all the information provided by him is real. If we stay and watch five reports about human evolution we can observe that the scientists have five theories. Maybe DNA is the answer for many of our questions, because many scientists play very easy with some millions of years. In my opinion we don’t know exactly what happened millions of years ago; the scientists still make some suppositions and try to demonstrate that they are right. After several years they will discovered other evidence and thus a new theory will be born. However, the genetic is one of the most fascinated sciences and catches the attention of anybody, even if the person doesn’t have any interest in this area. (Words:197)
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