Feb 11, 2006

We began this workshop with a discussion about patterns and the importance of pattern recognition in science. Our goal for the workshop was to explore patterns in human migration and to use those patterns to see if there might be some tools or sets of tools that would help us to answer the question, 'Where did we come from?'

At the scale of the United States, we stopped the applet and began to talk about what we knew about each of our families' histories. Most of us knew about 2-3 generations of family history and then our family histories became a little foggy. We all had a pretty good idea of how our families came to be in the United States and where in the United States they had migrated to and from. To explore our own family histories in the US, go here.

Based on family names to map migratory patterns over the years between 1850, to 1990. We made our own individual maps and saved them for later printing. For example, here are the maps for the family name 'Michaels' showing changes in settlement patterns between 1850 and 1880.

We noticed that looking for patterns that would help us to discover our own origins at this scale was quite limited, especially as we were using only surnames. We continued to go to smaller and smaller scales using the 'Powers of Ten' applet until we reached the scale at which DNA can be examined. Perhaps there are patterns of DNA distribution around the globe and through time that would help us determine where we came from.

So that we could get a better idea of how scientists might collect DNA samples, we each collected samples of our own DNA by rinsing our mouths with a small amount of Gatorade, adding some detergent to break down the cell walls and then layering 70% ethanol on top of the detergent/cheek wash layer so that the DNA would be separate into the ethanol layer. Then we transferred the DNA in the ethanol layer into a small vial to make a necklace out of our own DNA.

We studied the molecular structure of DNA and then used some games to consider how knowing something about DNA and patterns of inheritance might be used to trace ancestry backwards in time. We played a card game that simulated the way in which a genetic marker can be passed down through many generations. We also discussed how to follow a family tree using mitochondrial DNA through the maternal line and markers on the Y-chromosome to follow the paternal line.

To see how this information could be used to trace ancestry we looked at the case of the Oetzi, the 5300 year old iceman who was found preserved and with his clothing and weapons in the Alpine glacier in 1991. We used the Genographic Project Tool, 'Atlas of the Human Journey' which you can find here.

Information we found about Oetzi's haplogroup to see what happened to his ancestors. Oetzi's DNA put him in the haplogroup K as determined from mitochondrial DNA. People now living in Italy and much of southern Europe are often share the same genetics markers as Oetzi and several of his ancestors have been identified in the United States.