Tag Archives: DNA

I Have No Words

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On Friday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s ex-husband co-founded a DNA testing company and wrote one of the first computer codes for making genetic comparisons.

Jim Warren’s career involved him in the kinds of genetic testing that Elizabeth Warren controversially invoked this month to prove that she had Native American ancestry.

One of the two other co-founders of his testing company, FamilyTreeDNA, has worked with Carlos Bustamante, the Stanford University geneticist who administered a DNA test at Elizabeth Warren’s request.

Why do I think 23 and Me might have gotten different results? Actually I am not sure 1/1024 Indian would even show up on a 23 and Me DNA test.

On October 15th, The National Review reminded us:

In fact, at the far end of the range — if her Native American ancestor is ten generations removed — then she is only 1/1024 Native American. By that measure, “white” Americans are also commonly black, and black American are also commonly white. It turns out that at least some mixing is routine in American racial groups. In 2014, the New York Times reported on the results of a massive DNA study and found that “European-Americans had genomes that were on average 98.6 percent European, .19 percent African, and .18 Native American.” Black Americans were “73.2 percent African. European genes accounted for 24 percent of their DNA, while .8 percent came from Native Americans.”

In other words, Elizabeth Warren isn’t a Cherokee. She’s a relatively normal White American — a person with some bit of mixing somewhere in their distant past. How distant? If you move to the older end of the generation range, her Native American ancestor could predate the founding of the country. She had no business holding herself out as Native American in faculty directories, in a book, or in her personal narrative.

This is a living example of how silly quotas are. Everyone needs to have any application judged on the basis of their qualifications and nothing else. Can we please put all of this group identity behind us and simply identify as Americans?

Bigfoot?

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Yesterday The Blaze reported that scientists analyzing hair samples from different sources around the world found something interesting. Periodically we hear about a new species of animal discovered deep in the ocean or somewhere in a remote forest–they found DNA that closely resembled something very old.

The article reports:

Using a rigorous decontamination method and conducting RNA sequencing to identify species origin from the hair samples, the team found a few samples were closely related to a prehistoric polar bear. All the other samples were from known mammals that are still living, like cows, dogs, sheep and more.

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, some of the samples were a 100 percent match to the DNA recovered from a more than 40,000-year-old Pleistocene fossil of Ursus maritimus. This finding, the study suggests, could mean that descendants this prehistoric polar bear could still be living in the Himalayas.

The bottom line here is simple–we don’t know everything we think we know. I am going to continue watching “Finding Bigfoot” and loving it!

 

 

Jurassic Park Revisited

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Yes, I realize that what I am about to report does not have to do with the Jurassic Era–it has to do with the movie. Fox News reported yesterday that Professor George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard’s Medical School, wants to bring Neanderthal man back to life. He is looking for an ‘adventurous woman’ to help him in his quest.

The article reports some of Professor Church’s previous comments:

“We have lots of Neanderthal parts around the lab. We are creating Neanderthal cells. Let’s say someone has a healthy, normal Neanderthal baby. Well, then, everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid. Were they superstrong or supersmart? Who knows? But there’s one way to find out.”

Last year, researchers finished sequencing the genome of another extinct human relative, the denisovan — based solely off a piece of fingerbone and two molars.

I guess I am hopelessly old fashioned, but I really would prefer that Neanderthal man continue to rest in peace.

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Amanda Knox Is Acquitted

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John Hinderaker at Power Line posted an article yesterday about the acquittal of Amanda Knox in an Italian court. As a lawyer, Mr. Hinderaker followed the case closely and in his post he details some of the reasons he felt the innocent verdict was appropriate. I will admit that I had not followed the case very closely, and much of what I read at Power Line was new information to me.

There was no evidence linking Ms. Knox or Raffaele Sollecito to the murder of Meredith Kercher. There was evidence linking Rudy Guede to the rape of Meredith Kercher.

Mr. Hinderaker points out:

The most bizarre aspect of this miscarriage of justice, perhaps, was that Guede’s sentence was reduced to 16 years, while Knox was sentenced to 26 years and Sollecito–the forgotten man of the story, who must wonder more than anyone what he did to be trapped in such a nightmare–got 25 years. How on earth did the prosecution justify this focus on Knox and Sollecito, in preference to the man whose DNA showed that he (and he alone) had raped Kercher? Simple: Knox was a “she devil,” whereas Guede was merely her tool–seriously! The evidence for this claim? There wasn’t any. This kind of fantasy is inconceivable in a modern court.

When you read the details in the Power Line article, you begin to appreciate the justice system in America. The case against Amanda Knox would never have made it through an American court with the evidence the police had–it would have been either thrown out or dismissed as soon as the lack of evidence was apparent. This is the kind of story that makes me truly glad to live in America.

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