Genography Project: tracking human development through DNA.

[ddk]

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/n...I&code=MR20028

This blows my mind. I love that someone is doing this and that anyone can become involved. At $99 it's on the expensive side but if you're fascinated by science and human history, then it's almost a no-brainer.

Any time anyone brings up race as a reason for prejudice, I like to remind them of our origins. I especially like to bring it up when white people say or do anything racist against black people, since in the end, we are all out of Africa

[yanman]

My wife and I did this about 6 years ago. That reminds me I havent' checked on the progress for a while

One interesting feature (not sure if it's still open) but we had a free option to share the data with MyFamilyTreeDNA. They have a lot more participants and are more focused on recent origins rather than the National Geographic project.

Having then got the MFTDNA accesss you can upgrade your marker results to be more specific, which makes finding closer matches easier. I haven't taken that option yet but I've watched the price drop.

The personal DNA-scanning industry is moving in leaps and bounds. Interesting to watch.

[ddk]

Originally Posted by yanman

My wife and I did this about 6 years ago. That reminds me I havent' checked on the progress for a while

Wow, I didn't realise this has been going on for six years now. I thought it was something that just kicked off!

[yanman]

Originally Posted by ddk

Wow, I didn't realise this has been going on for six years now. I thought it was something that just kicked off!

My mistake, was just under 4 years ago that we got our kit and about 4 months later the results (Found the original email!) Not sure how long it'd been going before we ordered but I was under the impression it was pretty new then.

[asher001]

Hmm, I used 23andme recently, was just over $200, and seems to include a lot more stuff. Just getting family tree data seems fairly limited.

Anyone have a screenshot of the data they got back from this?

[yanman]

Originally Posted by asher001

Hmm, I used 23andme recently, was just over $200, and seems to include a lot more stuff. Just getting family tree data seems fairly limited.

Anyone have a screenshot of the data they got back from this?

Won't compare to anything you get from 23andme. It's only the basic markers and 23andme gives you a wealth of medical genetic knowledge. This is mostly helping contribute to a scientific project. The side-benefit is you get a basic scan that you can use in MyFTDNA etc

[asher001]

Originally Posted by yanman

Won't compare to anything you get from 23andme. It's only the basic markers and 23andme gives you a wealth of medical genetic knowledge. This is mostly helping contribute to a scientific project. The side-benefit is you get a basic scan that you can use in MyFTDNA etc

23andme does family tree and place-of-origin stuff too, and the data is exportable. Do you know if you can use your exported data at MyFTDNA or whatever? I would be interested in knowing the relative sizes of the number of samples the various places have too, I would guess with 23andme's success they might be on top.

[Danske]

$99 worth it for 23andme?

[Embercide]

Originally Posted by Danske

$99 worth it for 23andme?

Currently considering 23andme also, but remember its $99 + 9/pm

[chip]

Originally Posted by ddk

Any time anyone brings up race as a reason for prejudice, I like to remind them of our origins. I especially like to bring it up when white people say or do anything racist against black people, since in the end, we are all out of Africa

You can also point out to them that something like less than 40 out of the 20-30,000 genes in the human genome are responsible for all the differences in human morphology that racists focus on.

[yanman]

Something to consider if you sign up for a service like 23andme... there might be information in there that you would rather not have found out. I contemplated signing up but only asking for info on genetic info that points to life threatening conditions and to mask the smaller stuff. Otherwise I could end up with a lot of angst about nothing.

For those who might not have known.. 23andme check your genetic material and can pinpoint specific genes that will mean you could have higher than normal susceptibility to certain diseases, disorders etc. The on-going payment means you'll be notified as they add more.