Biologists Create Genetic Map of Europe

Death Metal Maniac brings us a story from the New York Times about a team of scientists who were able to relate genetic differences to geographical origins. Countries such as Germany, Austria, and France occupy the central area of the genetic map, with Italy, Finland, and the UK being relative outliers. Quoting: "All the populations are quite similar, but the differences are sufficient that it should be possible to devise a forensic test to tell which country in Europe an individual probably comes from, said Manfred Kayser, a geneticist at the Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands. ... Genomic sites that carry the strongest signal of variation among populations may be those influenced by evolutionary change, Dr. Kayser said. Of the 100 strongest sites, 17 are found in the region of the genome that confers lactose tolerance, an adaptation that arose among a cattle herding culture in northern Europe some 5,000 years ago." Update: 08/16 15:11 GMT: Reader iminplaya points out the source article, which contains the technical details behind the study.

Comments

Re:Burnitdown made it up

[Das Modell]

I never thought the race-war bozos would make it onto /.

And once again Slashdotters manage to create accusations of racism out of thin air. It's amazing.

See? Hmmm ... seems plausible. But think: Maybe I'm different based on the country I was born in, the way my parents fed me, raised me (the fact that I had loving parents), their wealth and social connections, the forces and choices that formed my personality. My education, the books I read, what I chose to study, my teachers and role models, how hard I worked at it, how well I networked, the career and jobs I chose, the person I married, the city I live in ... Where does this genetic optimization come in?

As we all know, humans are incorporeal entities that are entirely constructed from culture. Biology? What's that?

Re:Burnitdown made it up

[Das Modell]

And once again Slashdotters manage to downmod someone without any valid reason whatsoever. I think it's baffling that 99,9% of the people on a computer technology site have no idea what a "flame" or "troll" is. I don't know, I guess most people here are 12 years old and thus not sufficiently aware of Internet culture.