The idea that we’re all related, all “mixed” and richly intermingled, is no platitude. Genetic science solidly supports it. Shake our family tree, as Spencer Wells has been doing, and all kinds of hidden connections fall out. The big one is that we’re all out of Africa.
Wells, author of The Journey of Man and producer of the documentary of that name, and director of the Genographic Project, spoke at TED.
All humans share some common bits of DNA, passed down to us from our African ancestors. Geneticist Spencer Wells talks about how his Genographic Project will use this shared DNA to figure out how we are — in all our diversity — truly connected.
Spencer Wells studies human diversity — the process by which humanity, which springs from a single common source, has become so astonishingly diverse and widespread.
The human family tree records an ever-branching journey that leaves a Y-chromosome genetic trail. Follow the Y. As we kept marveling at the zoo yesterday, we’re all related.
