Spencer Wells Building a family tree for all humanity

Summary

This script details a speaker's journey through 17 countries, exploring human diversity and origins. It delves into genetics, particularly population genetics, to understand how humanity's diversity emerged and the timeframe of our evolution. The narrative highlights the African origin of all humans, traced through DNA, and the recent exodus from Africa around 60,000 years ago. It also discusses the Genographic Project, an initiative that invites public participation in genetic research to map human migration and preserve cultural heritage.

Takeaways

• 🌏 The speaker has visited 17 countries and observed the incredible diversity of languages and cultures, highlighting the human species' variety in terms of language, appearance, and lifestyle.
• 🔍 The talk focuses on using genetics and population genetics to understand the origin and development of human diversity across the globe.
• 🧬 Charles Darwin's theory suggested that human ancestors likely originated in Africa, which is supported by the fossil record and the genetic similarity with our closest ape relatives.
• 🏺 The study of human ancestry has traditionally relied on paleoanthropology and morphology, but this approach has limitations in providing definitive genealogical probabilities.
• 🌲 Linnaeus' classification of human 'races' was based on skull shapes and other physical features, but such classifications have been largely dismissed due to their lack of scientific basis and racial bias.
• 🔑 DNA provides a more accurate way to trace human ancestry and construct a family tree. Genetic markers can indicate shared ancestry and help trace lineage back to common ancestors.
• 🌳 Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the Y chromosome are used to trace maternal and paternal lineages, respectively, showing that all humans can be traced back to a common African ancestor.
• 🕰️ The 'Out of Africa' theory is supported by genetic evidence, suggesting that modern humans migrated out of Africa around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago, a relatively recent event in evolutionary terms.
• 🌡️ Around 70,000 years ago, the climate was harsh, with Africa drying out and the human population nearly going extinct. This period of environmental stress coincided with significant cultural and cognitive advances in humans.
• 🎨 The development of modern language, art, and more sophisticated tool-making around 50,000 years ago is believed to have facilitated human survival and expansion out of Africa.
• 🌐 The Genographic Project, launched in 2005, aims to collect and analyze hundreds of thousands of DNA samples to map human migration patterns and understand our shared ancestry, with a focus on indigenous populations and public participation.

Q & A

How many countries has the speaker visited in the last six weeks?

The speaker has visited 17 countries in the last six weeks.

What is the main focus of the project the speaker is involved in?

The main focus of the project is to understand human diversity using the tools of genetics, particularly population genetics.

What is the significance of the diversity in human languages as mentioned in the script?

The diversity in human languages, with around 6,000 different languages spoken by 6.5 billion people, illustrates the vast cultural and genetic diversity across the globe.

What does the speaker suggest is the 'surface thing' that one takes away from traveling the world?

The 'surface thing' that one takes away from traveling the world is the recognition of how different we are, rather than the idea that we are all one.

According to Darwin, what was the likely origin of mankind based on the distribution of living mammals and their extinct relatives?

Darwin suggested that Africa was likely the origin of mankind because each great region of the world has living mammals closely related to the extinct species of the same region, and Africa was the origin of apes, our closest relatives.

What is the difference between studying human ancestry through paleoanthropology and using genetic markers?

Paleoanthropology studies human ancestry by digging up fossils and analyzing morphology, while genetic markers use DNA to trace ancestry and provide a more precise understanding of genealogical relationships.

What is the significance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the Y chromosome in genetic studies of human ancestry?

Mitochondrial DNA traces a purely maternal line of descent, while the Y chromosome traces a purely paternal line of descent, allowing scientists to construct detailed family trees for all of humanity.

What does the speaker suggest about the timing of when all humans shared a common ancestor, based on genetic evidence?

According to the genetic evidence, all humans shared a common ancestor, mitochondrial Eve, within the last 200,000 years, and the Y chromosome Adam lived around 60,000 years ago.

What environmental changes approximately 60,000 years ago may have influenced human migration out of Africa?

Around 60,000 years ago, the world was going into the worst part of the last ice age, causing significant climate changes including drying out of Africa, which may have influenced human migration.

What is the Genographic Project, and how can the public participate in it?

The Genographic Project is a global initiative that aims to map human migration patterns using DNA samples. The public can participate by ordering a DNA testing kit from the project's website, submitting their results to the database, and contributing to the scientific effort.

What is the purpose of the Legacy Fund associated with the Genographic Project?

The Legacy Fund is a charitable entity that receives a portion of the funds raised by the Genographic Project. It provides grants to indigenous groups around the world for educational and cultural projects that they initiate.

Outlines

00:00

🌏 Global Diversity and Human Origins

The speaker reflects on their travels to 17 countries and the profound diversity they've witnessed among people and languages. They discuss the use of genetics, specifically population genetics, to understand the origins and development of human diversity. The speaker emphasizes the distinction between our common ancestry with apes, which originated in Africa around 23 million years ago, and our human ancestry. They highlight the importance of studying human evolution beyond morphology, using DNA as a historical document to trace our genealogy and understand the timing and process of human diversification.

05:00

🔬 The Genetic Approach to Human Ancestry

This paragraph delves into the limitations of traditional paleoanthropology and the transition to genetic analysis for understanding human ancestry. The speaker critiques Linnaeus' racial categorizations and the lack of concrete data supporting the concept of distinct human races. They advocate for a genealogical approach using DNA as a historical record, explaining the basics of DNA structure and the significance of genetic mutations as markers of descent. The speaker outlines how these markers can be used to construct a comprehensive family tree for all of humanity, tracing back to our earliest ancestors.

10:01

🌳 The African Origin and Maternal Lineages

The speaker explains the genetic evidence supporting the African origin of all humans, with the deepest lineages found within Africa indicating a longer period of mutational diversity accumulation. They introduce 'Mitochondrial Eve', an African woman who lived around 200,000 years ago and from whom all current mitochondrial DNA diversity descends. The Y chromosome evidence also points to a single African male ancestor, suggesting a recent exodus from Africa within the last 60,000 years. The speaker ponders why humans remained in Africa until this point and didn't diversify earlier like other species, such as Homo erectus.

15:02

🏞️ Climate, Cultural Shifts, and Global Expansion

Discussing the environmental context of human migration, the speaker describes the harsh conditions of the last ice age and its impact on Africa, causing a significant reduction in habitable areas and a near-extinction event for humans. Around 60,000 years ago, a cultural and behavioral shift is hypothesized to have occurred, marked by the emergence of art, advanced tool-making, and possibly the development of complex language. These changes are believed to have facilitated human survival and expansion out of Africa, with early migrations along coastal routes and into new territories, leading to the global distribution of human populations.

20:02

📚 The Genographic Project and Public Participation

The speaker introduces the Genographic Project, launched in 2005 with the aim of expanding the study of human origins using DNA analysis on a global scale. The project encompasses field research with indigenous populations, public participation through DNA testing kits, and the establishment of a Legacy Fund to support cultural and educational initiatives. The speaker shares the success of the project, with thousands of samples collected and significant public engagement, highlighting the project's contribution to our understanding of human migration and diversity.

Keywords

💡Diversity

Diversity in the context of the video refers to the wide range of differences among people globally, including languages, cultures, appearances, and genetic makeup. The speaker emphasizes the vast diversity of human species, highlighting the existence of thousands of languages spoken by billions of people of different colors, shapes, and sizes. This concept is central to the video's theme, as it sets the stage for discussing how genetic studies can help explain the origins and spread of this diversity.

💡Genetics

Genetics is the study of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms. In the video, the speaker discusses how population genetics, a subfield of genetics, is used to understand human diversity and trace the lineage of modern humans. Genetics plays a crucial role in the narrative by providing the scientific tools to explore questions of human origins and migrations.

💡Paleoanthropology

Paleoanthropology is the study of human evolution through the examination of fossils and ancient human remains. The video mentions this field as a historical approach to understanding human ancestry, where scientists would infer relationships and lineages based on the morphology of fossils. However, the speaker points out the limitations of this method, suggesting that genetics offers a more precise way to trace human ancestry.

💡Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)

Mitochondrial DNA is the genetic material found in the mitochondria of cells, which is inherited solely from the mother. In the video, mtDNA is highlighted as a tool for tracing maternal lineages, providing insights into the ancestry of all living humans. The concept of 'Mitochondrial Eve,' an African woman from whom all modern humans inherited their mtDNA, is a key point in the script that illustrates the African origin of humanity.

💡Y Chromosome

The Y chromosome is a sex-determining chromosome found in males and passed from father to son. The video uses the Y chromosome to trace paternal lineages and discusses the concept of 'Y-Chromosome Adam,' an African man from whom all modern humans inherited their Y chromosomes. This concept supports the idea that all humans share a recent common ancestor in Africa.

💡Mutation

A mutation is a change in the DNA sequence. In the context of the video, mutations are significant because they create genetic markers that can be used to trace ancestry and construct family trees. The speaker explains that these mutations, which occur as DNA is passed down through generations, help scientists understand the genealogical relationships among individuals and populations.

💡Genographic Project

The Genographic Project is an initiative aimed at understanding human migration patterns and history through DNA analysis. The video describes this project as a way to involve both indigenous populations and the general public in the study of human origins. The project's goal is to collect and analyze DNA samples from around the world to fill in the gaps in our understanding of human migration and diversity.

💡Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous peoples are the original inhabitants of a particular region, who often have a strong connection to their ancestral lands. In the video, the speaker mentions the importance of studying indigenous populations for their genetic continuity and their potential to provide insights into the genetic history of humanity. The Genographic Project specifically includes field research with indigenous peoples to contextualize DNA results.

💡Paleoclimatology

Paleoclimatology is the study of past climates and their effects on the Earth's environment. The video references paleoclimatology to explain the environmental conditions around 60,000 years ago, which influenced human migration out of Africa. The speaker describes how the drying of Africa and the onset of the ice age may have prompted a subgroup of Africans to leave and populate the rest of the world.

💡Cultural Stasis

Cultural stasis refers to a period in which there is little or no change in a society's cultural practices or technology. The video script mentions a long period of cultural stasis in human history, from about a million years ago until around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago. The speaker suggests that a significant change in human behavior and technology occurred around this time, which may have facilitated the human migration out of Africa.

💡Legacy Fund

The Legacy Fund is a charitable entity associated with the Genographic Project. It is mentioned in the video as a means of giving back to indigenous communities by providing grants for cultural and educational projects. The fund represents the project's commitment to supporting the preservation of cultural heritage and diversity, which is central to its mission.

Highlights

The speaker has visited 17 countries and experienced a wide range of cultures, emphasizing the diversity of human languages and appearances.

The use of genetics and population genetics to understand human diversity and its origins is discussed.

Darwin's theory suggests that Africa is the most probable origin for human ancestors due to the fossil evidence and the continent's isolation.

The limitations of paleoanthropology and the need for a genealogical approach to understand human ancestry are highlighted.

DNA as a historical document that traces our ancestry and the concept of genetic markers of descent are introduced.

Mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome are used to trace maternal and paternal lineages, respectively.

African populations have the deepest lineages and the greatest genetic diversity, supporting the Out of Africa theory.

The concept of 'Mitochondrial Eve' and 'Y Chromosome Adam' as recent common ancestors for all humans is presented.

The environmental conditions during the last ice age and their impact on human migration are examined.

A discussion on the behavioral changes in humans around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago that allowed for survival and expansion.

The development of modern language and social networks as a critical factor in human success.

The Genographic Project, launched in 2005, aims to increase sample size and understand human migration patterns.

The project's public participation aspect, allowing individuals to test their own DNA and contribute to the study.

The Legacy Fund, a charitable entity that supports indigenous groups with educational and cultural projects.

The success of the Genographic Project with over 235,000 public participants and its impact on scientific understanding.

The importance of the project in documenting and preserving human genetic diversity and cultural heritage.

Transcripts

these are a few of the languages

that i've spoken little bits of over the

course the last six weeks as i've been

to

17 countries i think i'm up to on this

crazy tour i've been doing

uh checking out various aspects of the

project that we're doing that i'm going

to tell you a little bit about later on

and visiting some pretty incredible

places

places like mongolia cambodia new guinea

south africa tanzania twice i was here a

month ago

and the opportunity to make a whirlwind

tour

of the world like that is utterly

amazing for lots of reasons you see some

incredible stuff

and you get to make these spot

comparisons between people all around

the globe

and the thing that you really take away

from that the kind of surface

thing that you take away from it is not

that we're all one

although i'm going to tell you about

that but rather how different we are

there is so much diversity around the

globe six thousand different languages

spoken by six and a half billion people

all different colors shapes sizes

you walk down the street in any big city

you travel like that

and you are amazed at the diversity in

the human species

how do we explain that diversity well

that's what i'm going to talk about

today is how we're using the tools of

genetics

population genetics in particular to

tell us

how we generated this diversity and how

long it took

now the problem of human diversity like

all big scientific questions how do you

explain something like that can be

broken down into sub questions and you

can

ferret away at those little sub

questions first one is uh really a

question of origins do we all share

a common origin in fact and given that

we do

and that's the assumption everybody i

think in this room would make when when

was that

when did we originate as a species how

long have we been diverging from each

other

and the second question is related but

slightly different if we do spring from

a common source

how did we come to occupy every corner

of the globe and in the process

generate all of this diversity the

different ways of life the different

appearances the different languages

around the world

well the question of origins as with so

many other questions in biology seems to

have been answered by darwin

over a century ago and the descent of

man who wrote in each great region of

the world the living mammals are closely

related to the extinct species of the

same region

it's therefore probable that africa was

formerly inhabited by extinct apes

closely allied to the gorilla and

chimpanzee

and as these two species are now man's

nearest allies it's somewhat more

probable that our early progenitors

lived on the african continent than

elsewhere

so we're done we can go home finish the

origin question well not quite

because darwin was talking about our

distant ancestry our common ancestry

with apes and it is quite clear

that apes originated on the african

continent around 23 million years ago

they appear on the fossil record

africa was actually disconnected from

the other land masses at that time due

to the vagaries of plate tectonics

floating around the indian ocean

bumped into eurasia around 16 million

years ago and then we had the first

african exodus as we call it the apes

that left at that time ended up in

southeast asia became the gibbons and

the orangutans and the ones that stayed

on in africa evolved into the guerrillas

the chimpanzees and us so yes

if you're talking about our common

ancestry with apes it's very clear by

looking at the fossil record we started

off here

but that's not really the question i'm

asking i'm asking about

our human ancestry things that we would

recognize as being like us

if they were sitting here in the room

they were peering over your shoulder

you wouldn't leap back like that what

about our human ancestry because if we

go far enough back

we share a common ancestry with every

living thing on earth

dna ties us all together so we share

ancestry with barracuda and bacteria

and mushrooms if you go far enough back

over a billion years

what we're asking about though is human

ancestry how do we study that well

historically it has been studied

using the science of paleoanthropology

digging things up out of the ground

and largely on the basis of morphology

the way things are shaped

often skull-shaped saying this looks a

little bit more like us than that so

this

must be my ancestor this must be who i'm

directly descended from

the feel of paleoanthropology i'll argue

gives us lots of fascinating

possibilities about our ancestry but it

doesn't give us the probabilities that

we really want

as scientists what do i mean by that

you're looking at a great example here

these are three extinct species of

hominid potential human ancestors

all dug up just west of here and aldo by

gorge by the leaky family

and they're all dating to roughly the

same time from left to right we've got

homo erectus homo habilis and

australopithecus now called paranthropus

boisei

robust australopithecine three extinct

species same place

same time that means that not all three

could be

my direct ancestor which one of these

guys am i actually related to

possibilities about our ancestry but not

the probabilities that we're really

looking for

well a different approach has been to

look at morphology

in humans using the only data that

people really had at hand until quite

recently

again largely skull-shaped the first

person to do this systematically

was linnaeus carl von linney swedish

botanist who in the 18th century took it

upon himself to

categorize every living organism on the

planet you think you've got a tough job

and he did a pretty good job he

categorized about twelve thousand

species in systemic naturai

he actually coined the term homo sapiens

means wise man in latin

but looking around the world at the

diversity of humans he said

well you know we seem to come in

discreet subspecies or categories

and he talked about africans or and

americans and asians and europeans in a

blatantly racist category he termed

monstrosus

which basically included all the people

he didn't like including imaginary folk

like elves

it's it's easy to dismiss this as the

perhaps well-intentioned but ultimately

benighted musings of an 18th century

scientist

working in the pre-darwinian era except

if you had taken physical anthropology

as recently as 20 or 30 years ago

in many cases you would have learned

basically that same classification of

humanity human races

that according to physical

anthropologists of 30 40 years ago

carlton is the best example

had been diverging from each other this

was in the post darwinian era for

over a million years since the time of

homo erectus

but based on what data very little very

little morphology and a lot of guesswork

well what i'm going to talk about today

what i'm going to talk about now is a

new approach to this problem instead of

going out and guessing about our

ancestry digging things up out of the

ground possible ancestors and

saying on the basis of morphology which

we still don't completely understand we

don't know the genetic causes underlying

most

morphological variation what we need to

do is turn the problem on its head

because what we're really

asking is a genealogical problem or a

genealogical question

what we're trying to do is construct a

family tree for everybody alive today

and as any genealogist will tell you

anybody have

member of the family or maybe you've

tried to construct a family tree trace

back in time you start in the present

with relationships you're certain about

you and your sibling share a parent in

common

you and your cousin share a grandparent

and comment and you gradually trace

further and further back into the past

adding these ever more distant

relationships but eventually

no matter how good you are at digging up

the church records and all that stuff

you hit what the genealogists call a

brick wall a point beyond which you

don't know anything else about

your ancestors and you enter this dark

and mysterious realm we call

history that we have to feel our way

through with whispered guidance

who were these people who came before we

have no written record well

actually we do written in our dna in our

genetic code

we have a historical document that takes

us back in time to the very earliest

days of our species

and that's what we study now a quick

primer on dna i suspect

that not everybody in the audience is a

geneticist it is a very long

linear molecule a coded version of how

to make another copy of you it's your

blueprint

it's composed of four subunits a c g and

t we call them and it's the sequence of

those sub units that that defines that

blueprint

how long is it well it's billions of

these subunits in length

a haploid genome we actually have two

copies of all of our chromosomes

haploid genome is around 3.2 billion

nucleotides in length

and the whole thing if you add add it

all together is over 6 billion

nucleotides long if you take all the dna

out of

one cell in your body and stretch it end

to end

it's around 2 meters long if you take

all the dna out of every cell in your

body and you stretch it

end to end it would reach from here to

the moon and back thousands of times

it's a lot of information and so when

you're copying

this dna molecule to pass it on it's a

pretty tough job

imagine the longest book you can think

of war and peace

and now multiply it by a hundred and

imagine copying that by hand

and you're working away until late at

night and you're very very careful

you're drinking coffee and you're paying

attention but occasionally

when you're copying this by hand you're

going to make a little typo a spelling

mistake

substitute an i for an e or a c for a t

same thing happens to our dna as it's

being passed on through the generations

it doesn't happen very often we have a

proofreading mechanism built in

but when it does happen and these

changes get transmitted down through the

generations they become markers of

descent if you share a marker with

someone

it means you share an ancestor at some

point in the past

the person who first had that change in

their dna and it's by looking

at the pattern of genetic variation the

pattern of these markers and people all

over the world

and assessing the relative ages when

they occurred

throughout our history that we've been

able to construct a family tree for

everybody alive today these are two

pieces of dna that we use quite widely

in our work

mitochondrial dna tracing a purely

maternal line of descent you get your mt

dna from your mother and your mother's

mother

all the way back to the very first woman

the y chromosome the piece of dna that

makes men

men traces a purely patronal line of

descent

everybody in this room everybody in the

world

falls into a lineage somewhere on these

trees

now even though these are simplified

versions of the real trees they're still

kind of complicated so let's simplify

them turn them on their sides combine

them so that they look like a tree with

the root at the bottom and the branches

going up

what's the take-home message well the

thing that jumps out at you first is

that the deepest lineages

in our family trees are found within

africa

among africans that means that africans

have been accumulating this mutational

diversity

for longer and what that means is that

we originated

in africa it's written in our dna every

piece of dna we look at

has greater diversity within africa than

outside of africa

and at some point in the past a subgroup

of africans left the african continent

to go out and populate the rest of the

world now how recently do we share this

ancestry was it

millions of years ago which we might

suspect by looking at all this

incredible variation around the world

no the dna tells a story that's very

clear within the last 200 000 years

we all share an ancestor a single person

mitochondrial eve

you might have heard about her in africa

an african woman who gave rise to all

the mitochondrial diversity in the world

today

but what's even more amazing is that if

you look at the y chromosome side

the male side of the story the y

chromosome atom

only lived around 60 000 years ago

that's only about 2 000 human

generations

the blink of an eye in an evolutionary

sense

that tells us we were all still living

in africa at that time

this was an african man who gave rise to

all the y chromosome diversity around

the world

it's only within the last 60 000 years

that we have started to generate this

incredible diversity we see around the

world

such an amazing story we're all

effectively part of an extended african

family

now that seems so recent why didn't we

start to leave

earlier why didn't homo erectus evolve

into separate species or subspecies

rather human races around the world

why was it that we we seem to have come

out of africa so recently

well that's a that's a big question

these why questions particularly

in genetics and the study of history in

general are always the big ones the ones

that are tough to answer and so

when all else fails talk about the

weather

what was going on to the world's weather

around 60 000 years ago well

we were going into the worst part of the

last ice age last ice age started

roughly 120 000 years ago

it went up and down and it really

started to accelerate around 70 000

years ago lots of evidence

from sediment cores and the pollen types

oxygen isotopes and so on

we had the last glacial maximum around

16 000 years ago

but basically from 70 000 years on

things were getting really tough

getting very cold the northern

hemisphere had

massive growing ice sheets new york city

chicago seattle all under a sheet of ice

most of britain all of scandinavia

covered by ice several kilometers thick

now

africa is the most tropical continent on

the planet about 85 percent of it lies

between cancer and capricorn

and there aren't a lot of glaciers here

except in the high mountains here in

east africa

so what was going on here we weren't

covered in ice in africa

rather africa was drying out at that

time this is a paleoclimatological map

of what africa looked like between 60

and 70 000 years ago

reconstructed from all these pieces of

evidence that i mentioned before

the reason for that is that ice actually

sucks moisture out of the atmosphere if

you think about antarctica it's

technically a desert it gets so little

precipitation

so the whole world was drying out the

sea levels were dropping

and africa was turning to desert the

sahara was much bigger then

than it is now and the human habitat was

reduced to just a few small pockets

compared to what we have today the

evidence from genetic data is that the

human population around this time

roughly 70 000 years ago crashed to

fewer than 2

000 individuals we nearly went extinct

we were hanging on

by our fingernails and then something

happened

great illustration of it look at some

stone tools the ones on the left are

from

africa from around a million years ago

the ones on the right

were made by neanderthals our distant

cousins not our direct ancestors

living in europe and they date from

around 50 or 60 000 years ago

now the the risk of offending any

paleoanthropologists or

physical anthropologists in the audience

basically

there's not a lot of change between

these two

stone tool groups ones on the left are

pretty similar to the ones on the right

we are in a period of long

cultural stasis from a million years ago

until around 60 to 70 thousand years ago

the tool styles don't change that much

the evidence is that the human way of

life didn't change that much

during that period but then 50

60 70 000 years ago somewhere in that

region all hell breaks loose

art makes its appearance the stone tools

become much more finely crafted

the evidence is that humans begin to

specialize in particular prey species at

particular times of the year

the population size started to expand

probably according to what many

linguists believe

fully modern language syntactic language

subject verb object that we use to

convey complex ideas

like i'm doing now appeared around that

time we became much more social the

social networks expanded

this change in behavior allowed us to

survive these worsening conditions

in africa and they allowed us to start

to expand

around the world we've been talking at

this conference about african success

stories

well you want the ultimate african

success story look in the mirror

you're it the reason you're alive today

is because of those changes

in our brains that took place in africa

probably somewhere in the region where

we're

sitting right now around 60 70 000 years

ago

allowing us not only to survive in

africa but to expand out of africa in

early coastal migration along the south

coast of asia leaving africa around 60

000 years ago

reaching australia very rapidly by 50

000 years ago

slightly later migration up into the

middle east these would have been

savannah hunters

so those of you who are going on one of

the post-conference tours you'll get to

see what a real savannah is like and

it's basically a meat locker

people who would have specialized in

killing the animals hunting the animals

on

those meat lockers savannahs moving up

following the grasslands into the middle

east around 45 000 years ago

during one of the rare wet phases in the

sahara

migrating eastward following the

grasslands because that's what they were

adapted to live on

and when they reached central asia they

reached what was effectively a step

super highway a grassland superhighway

the grasslands at that time this is

during the last ice age stretched

basically from germany all the way over

to korea

and the entire continent was open to

them entering europe around 35

000 years ago and finally a small group

migrating up through the worst

weather imaginable siberia inside the

arctic circle during the last ice age

temperatures of minus 70 minus 80 even

minus 100 perhaps

migrating into the americas ultimately

reaching that final frontier

an amazing story and it happened first

in africa the changes that allowed us to

do that

the evolution of this highly adaptable

brain that we all carry around with us

allowing us to create novel cultures

allowing us to develop the diversity

that we see on a whirlwind trip like the

one i've just been on

now that story i just told you is

literally

a whirlwind tour of how we populated the

world the great paleolithic wanderings

of our species

and that's the story that i told a

couple of years ago in my book the

journey of man and the film

that we made the same title and

as we were finishing up that film it was

co-produced with national geographic

i started talking to the folks at ng

about this work

and they got really excited about it

they you know

they liked the film but they said you

know we really see this as kind of the

next

wave in the study of human origins where

we all came from

using the tools of dna to uh map the

migrations around the world

you know study of human origins is kind

of in our dna and we want to take it to

the next level what do you want to do

next

which is a great question to be asked by

national geographic

and i said well you know what i've

sketched out here is just that

it is a very coarse sketch of how we

migrated around the planet

and it's based on a few thousand people

we've sampled from

you know a handful of populations around

the world studied a few genetic markers

and there are lots of gaps on this map

we've just connected the dots

what we need to do is increase our

sample size by an order of magnitude or

more

hundreds of thousands of dna samples

from people all over the world

and that was the genesis of the

genographic project

the project launched in april of 2005 it

has three core components

obviously science is a big part of it

the field research that we're doing

around the world with indigenous peoples

people who've lived in the same location

for a long period of time retain a

connection to the place where they live

that many of the rest of us have lost so

my ancestors come from all over northern

europe i live in the eastern seaboard of

north america when i'm not traveling

where am i indigenous to nowhere really

my genes are all jumbled up but there

are people who retain that link to their

ancestors

that allows us to contextualize the dna

results

that's the focus of the field research

centers that we've set up all over the

world 10 of them top population

geneticists

but in addition we wanted to open up

this study to anybody around the world

how often do you get to participate in a

big scientific project

the human genome project or a mars rover

mission in this case you actually can

you can go onto our website

nationalgeographic.com

genographic you can order a kit you can

test your own dna

and you can actually submit those

results to the database and tell us a

little bit about your genealogical

background

have the data analyzed as part of the

scientific effort

now this is all a non-profit enterprise

and so the money that we raise after we

cover the cost of doing the testing and

making the kit components gets plowed

back into the project the majority going

to something we call the legacy fund

it's a charitable entity basically a

grant giving entity that

gives money back to indigenous groups

around the world for educational

cultural projects initiated by them they

apply to this fund

in order to do various projects and i'll

show you a couple of examples

so how are we doing in the project we've

got about 25 000 samples collected from

indigenous people around the world

the most amazing thing has been the

interest on the part of the public 210

000 people have ordered these

participation kits since we launched two

years ago

which has raised around five million

dollars the majority of which

at least half is going back into the

legacy fund we've just awarded the first

legacy grants totaling

around five hundred thousand dollars

projects around the world documenting

world poetry in sierra leone preserving

traditional weaving patterns in gaza

language revitalization in tajikistan

etc etc

so the project is going very very well

and i urge you to check out the website

and

watch this space thank you very much

do

you

do

you