All the world is literally kinfolk

[blacknblue]

Intriguing:

http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/fet ... en.1000078


Also:

http://cordis.europa.eu/search/index.cf ... _RCN=29474

...In this latest study, scientists from Ireland, the UK and the US analysed 2,540 genetic markers in the DNA of almost 1,000 people from around the world whose genetic material had been collected by the Human Genome Diversity Project.

The results include a number of surprises. For example, the Yakut people of northern Siberia were found to have received a significant genetic contribution from the population of the Orkney Islands, which lie off the coast of Scotland. Orcadian genes also showed up in other East Asian populations, namely the Han of northern China and the Hezhen, another north-east Asian population. From this the scientists conclude that there must have been a period of gene flow from northern Europe to east Asia.

The study also shed light on the peopling of the Americas, as the results suggest that the native populations of north and south America have different origins. The researchers explain this by suggesting a scenario involving multiple waves of migration. In their proposed scenario, the population which first colonised North East Asia also crossed the Bering Strait and eventually made it to South America. This population was subsequently replaced by a population more closely related to modern East Asians...

[Lady Rainbow]

This is really fascinating...everyone's related in some way.

I see this kind of genetic diversity in my own family. My daughter has reddish-brown hair, which you don't usually see naturally in Asian women. But if there was some genes that came in via the Orkneys and through the Chinese Han, it makes sense. (And my hubby has Scottish blood, so there you go...) IDIC at work...I wonder about the future (w/diverse races like Vulcans, Betazoids, etc.)

[JadziaKathryn]

Interesting, indeed.

Hmmm. Suppose there was a Trek story set in the year 5500 (time travel involved?) and there weren't any more distinct physical human 'races'...

[blacknblue]

Interesting, indeed.

Hmmm. Suppose there was a Trek story set in the year 5500 (time travel involved?) and there weren't any more distinct physical human 'races'...

I kinda doubt that there will be any distinct Human "races" left by the year 2500 at the rate we are going.

[Elessar]

This is really fascinating...everyone's related in some way.

I see this kind of genetic diversity in my own family. My daughter has reddish-brown hair, which you don't usually see naturally in Asian women. But if there was some genes that came in via the Orkneys and through the Chinese Han, it makes sense. (And my hubby has Scottish blood, so there you go...) IDIC at work...I wonder about the future (w/diverse races like Vulcans, Betazoids, etc.)

I've seen something similar - my stepbrother is red headed, nobody in his family above him has anything but dark hair and dark eyes, and his wife is full 100% Shoshoni-Bannock native american and they had a little girl with just white blonde hair and blue eyes. I suppose you could look at the mailman , but I don't think that's why.

By the way - thanks for creeping me out next time I go to the bar to pickup a chick ... or the star trek convention

[JadziaKathryn]

I was just reminded of an article I read looking at famous ancestors of the presidential candidates and how they were related. There was some part on two of them being twelfth cousins once removed or something like that. Not that they ever want to admit it.

I kinda doubt that there will be any distinct Human "races" left by the year 2500 at the rate we are going.

This fits with the idea of a human monoculture. (I do believe the in-process formation of this was referred to in Leiterian (I just know I spelled that wrong.)) Hmm. There's story potential here, although I'm not sure how.

[blacknblue]

Yeah, we kinda touched on it. But it didn't fit in with the main plot line at the time.

What puzzles me is why the scientists seem to think that this news is so startling. It seems pretty cut and dried to me. All this proves is that the Silk Road is older than the armchair historians were giving it credit for being. Big deal. People were hoofing it from one end of that land mass to the other all the way through recorded history. Why is it so amazing to find confirmation that they were doing it even before recorded history?

[justTripn]

That is the one unrealistic thing about Star Trek: Hundreds of years into the future there will be alot more tan-skinned people of indeterminate race than you see on Star Trek. Already, I can't tell what race my kid's friends are half the time. And especially about the significant others we are midly curious, but don't come out and ask.

[Lady Rainbow]

That is the one unrealistic thing about Star Trek: Hundreds of years into the future there will be alot more tan-skinned people of indeterminate race than you see on Star Trek. Already, I can't tell what race my kid's friends are half the time. And especially about the significant others we are midly curious, but don't come out and ask.

Really true, jT.

People ask me where I'm from a lot...but I'd much rather them ask than assume. It doesn't bother me much anymore...though you do still run into the occasional person who makes an ignorant comment. Luckily, most people see my kids for who they are, and not just the color of their skin.

[Alelou]

I assume this is true, also -- it's certainly reflected in my own family, and it's pretty characteristic of immigrant countries like the U.S. and Canada. It's even more apparent in island cultures like Puerto Rico where Africans, native Indians, and white Europeans have mixed like crazy. But I bet there will be corners of the world that are slow to change their characteristic look even into Enterprise's time. I can still remember my father's cousin Scott picking me up at the airport in Glasgow and giving me a long appraising look and saying, with a trace of disappointment, "Och, you could be from anywhere."

[Linda]

LOL, genetics is fascinating. My daughter has four kids. Three have dark brown hair and in the summer, very dark tans (the Native America heritage). But one of the girls has strawberry blond hair and very fair skin. Her hair may darken as she grows older. The boy as a baby had almost blond hair and now has dark brown hair.


Image (on left) with a friend a couple of summers ago:

Skyelar this year:

[Asso]

Here "Mixture" is norm.
And, exactly because of that, I hope very much we will manage to act right with the new immigrates.