Word: sforza
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that Cavalli-Sforza's mammoth study is finally complete, it's time to start a fresh survey. Reason: new analytical techniques that in recent years have revolutionized the field of genetics. Instead of using indirect markers like blood groups, researchers can now determine the exact chemical sequences of long strands of DNA itself. Cavalli-Sforza and his colleagues believe this technology can be used to resolve questions they were ill-equipped to answer, such as the origins of the Negrito tribes in the Indian Ocean, Malayan peninsula and the Philippines. Anthropologists suspect that they are descendants of a wandering people...
...book, however, is much more than a refutation of the latest pseudoscientific pronouncement. The prime mover behind the project, Cavalli- Sforza, 72, a Stanford professor, labored with his colleagues for 16 years to create nothing less than the first genetic atlas of the world. The book features more than 500 maps that show areas of genetic similarity -- much as contour maps match up places of equal altitude. By measuring how closely current populations are related, the authors trace the pathways by which early humans migrated around the earth. Result: the closest thing we have to a global family tree...
Collecting blood, particularly from ancient tribes in remote areas, was not always easy; potential donors were often afraid to cooperate, or raised religious taboos. On one occasion, when Cavalli-Sforza was taking blood samples from schoolchildren in a rural region of the Central African Republic, he was confronted by an angry farmer brandishing an ax. Recalls the scientist: "I remember him saying, 'If you take the blood of the children, I'll take yours.' He was worried that we might want to do some magic with the blood...
...rate of the Rh-negative blood type. Their language is of unknown origin and cannot be placed within any standard classification. And the fact that they live in the region adjoining the famous Lascaux and Altamira caves, which contain vivid paintings from Europe's early hunter- gatherers, leads Cavalli-Sforza to a tantalizing conclusion: "The Basques are extremely likely to be the most direct descendants of the Cro-Magnon people, among the first modern humans in Europe." All Europeans are thought to be a hybrid population, with 65% Asian and 35% African genes...
...daunting task of making a more refined genetic atlas now lies with the Human Genome Diversity Project (an offshoot of the ambitious Human Genome Project), which was set up by a committee of scientists chaired by Cavalli- Sforza. Its objective is to create a global data base over the next 10 years using the new techniques -- and unlock more secrets of the human gene pool...