[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:00.00,0:00:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Jambo, bonjour, zdravstvujtye, dayo: these are a few of the languages
Dialogue: 0,0:00:09.00,0:00:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I've spoken little bits of over the course of the last six weeks,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.00,0:00:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as I've been to 17 countries I think I'm up to, on this crazy tour I've been doing,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.00,0:00:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,checking out various aspects of the project that we're doing.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.00,0:00:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I'm going to tell you a little bit about later on.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:23.00,0:00:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And visiting some pretty incredible places,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.00,0:00:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,places like Mongolia, Cambodia, New Guinea, South Africa, Tanzania twice --
Dialogue: 0,0:00:32.00,0:00:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was here a month ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:34.00,0:00:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the opportunity to make a whirlwind tour of the world like that
Dialogue: 0,0:00:39.00,0:00:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is utterly amazing, for lots of reasons.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:42.00,0:00:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You see some incredible stuff.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:44.00,0:00:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you get to make these spot comparisons
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.00,0:00:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between people all around the globe.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:48.00,0:00:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the thing that you really take away from that,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:50.00,0:00:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the kind of surface thing that you take away from it,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:53.00,0:00:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is not that we're all one, although I'm going to tell you about that,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.00,0:00:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but rather how different we are.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:59.00,0:01:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There is so much diversity around the globe.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:02.00,0:01:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,6,000 different languages spoken by six and a half billion people,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:05.00,0:01:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,all different colors, shapes, sizes.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:08.00,0:01:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You walk down the street in any big city, you travel like that,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.00,0:01:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you are amazed at the diversity in the human species.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:15.00,0:01:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How do we explain that diversity?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:18.00,0:01:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, that's what I'm going to talk about today,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:20.00,0:01:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is how we're using the tools of genetics,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.00,0:01:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,population genetics in particular, to tell us how we generated this diversity,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:28.00,0:01:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and how long it took.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.00,0:01:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, the problem of human diversity,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.00,0:01:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,like all big scientific questions --
Dialogue: 0,0:01:34.00,0:01:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,how do you explain something like that --
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.00,0:01:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,can be broken down into sub-questions.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:38.00,0:01:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you can ferret away at those little sub-questions.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.00,0:01:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,First one is really a question of origins.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:43.00,0:01:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Do we all share a common origin, in fact?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:45.00,0:01:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And given that we do -- and that's the assumption
Dialogue: 0,0:01:48.00,0:01:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,everybody, I think, in this room would make -- when was that?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.00,0:01:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When did we originate as a species?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:53.00,0:01:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How long have we been divergent from each other?
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.00,0:01:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the second question is related, but slightly different.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:59.00,0:02:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If we do spring from a common source,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:01.00,0:02:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,how did we come to occupy every corner of the globe,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:03.00,0:02:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in the process generate all of this diversity,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.00,0:02:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the different ways of life, the different appearances,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.00,0:02:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the different languages around the world?
Dialogue: 0,0:02:10.00,0:02:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, the question of origins, as with so many other questions in biology,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:13.00,0:02:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,seems to have been answered by Darwin over a century ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:15.00,0:02:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In "The Descent of Man," he wrote,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:17.00,0:02:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"In each great region of the world, the living mammals
Dialogue: 0,0:02:19.00,0:02:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are closely related to the extinct species of the same region.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:22.00,0:02:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's therefore probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes
Dialogue: 0,0:02:25.00,0:02:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:28.00,0:02:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and as these two species are now man's nearest allies,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:31.00,0:02:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's somewhat more probable that our early progenitors
Dialogue: 0,0:02:33.00,0:02:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,lived on the African continent than elsewhere."
Dialogue: 0,0:02:35.00,0:02:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we're done, we can go home -- finished the origin question.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.00,0:02:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, not quite. Because Darwin was talking about our distant ancestry,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:43.00,0:02:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,our common ancestry with apes.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:45.00,0:02:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it is quite clear that apes originated on the African continent.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:49.00,0:02:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Around 23 million years ago, they appear in the fossil record.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:52.00,0:02:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Africa was actually disconnected from the other landmasses at that time,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:55.00,0:02:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,due to the vagaries of plate tectonics, floating around the Indian Ocean.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.00,0:03:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Bumped into Eurasia around 16 million years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:01.00,0:03:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then we had the first African exodus, as we call it.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:04.00,0:03:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The apes that left at that time ended up in Southeast Asia,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:06.00,0:03:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,became the gibbons and the orangutans.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:08.00,0:03:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the ones that stayed on in Africa
Dialogue: 0,0:03:10.00,0:03:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,evolved into the gorillas, the chimpanzees and us.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:12.00,0:03:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So, yes, if you're talking about our common ancestry with apes,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.00,0:03:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it's very clear, by looking at the fossil record, we started off here.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:19.00,0:03:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But that's not really the question I'm asking.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:21.00,0:03:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'm asking about our human ancestry,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:23.00,0:03:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,things that we would recognize as being like us
Dialogue: 0,0:03:26.00,0:03:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,if they were sitting here in the room.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:28.00,0:03:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If they were peering over your shoulder,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:30.00,0:03:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you wouldn't leap back, like that. What about our human ancestry?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:33.00,0:03:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because if we go far enough back,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:35.00,0:03:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we share a common ancestry with every living thing on Earth.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.00,0:03:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,DNA ties us all together, so we share ancestry with barracuda
Dialogue: 0,0:03:41.00,0:03:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and bacteria and mushrooms, if you go far enough back -- over a billion years.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:46.00,0:03:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What we're asking about though is human ancestry.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:48.00,0:03:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How do we study that?
Dialogue: 0,0:03:50.00,0:03:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, historically, it has been studied using the science of paleoanthropology.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.00,0:03:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Digging things up out of the ground,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:56.00,0:03:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and largely on the basis of morphology --
Dialogue: 0,0:03:58.00,0:04:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the way things are shaped, often skull shape -- saying,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.00,0:04:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"This looks a little bit more like us than that, so this must be my ancestor.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:05.00,0:04:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This must be who I'm directly descended from."
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.00,0:04:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The field of paleoanthropology, I'll argue,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:11.00,0:04:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,gives us lots of fascinating possibilities about our ancestry,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:14.00,0:04:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it doesn't give us the probabilities that we really want as scientists.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:17.00,0:04:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What do I mean by that?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:19.00,0:04:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You're looking at a great example here.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:21.00,0:04:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are three extinct species of hominids,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:23.00,0:04:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,potential human ancestors.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:25.00,0:04:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,All dug up just west of here in Olduvai Gorge, by the Leakey family.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:28.00,0:04:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they're all dating to roughly the same time.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:30.00,0:04:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,From left to right, we've got Homo erectus, Homo habilis,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:32.00,0:04:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and Australopithecus -- now called Paranthropus boisei,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:35.00,0:04:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the robust australopithecine. Three extinct species, same place, same time.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:40.00,0:04:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That means that not all three could be my direct ancestor.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:43.00,0:04:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Which one of these guys am I actually related to?
Dialogue: 0,0:04:46.00,0:04:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Possibilities about our ancestry, but not the probabilities that we're really looking for.
Dialogue: 0,0:04:52.00,0:04:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, a different approach has been to look at morphology in humans
Dialogue: 0,0:04:56.00,0:04:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,using the only data that people really had at hand until quite recently --
Dialogue: 0,0:04:59.00,0:05:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,again, largely skull shape.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:01.00,0:05:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The first person to do this systematically was Linnaeus,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:05.00,0:05:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Carl von Linne, a Swedish botanist,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:07.00,0:05:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who in the eighteenth century took it upon himself
Dialogue: 0,0:05:09.00,0:05:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to categorize every living organism on the planet.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:11.00,0:05:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You think you've got a tough job?
Dialogue: 0,0:05:13.00,0:05:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he did a pretty good job.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:15.00,0:05:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He categorized about 12,000 species in "Systema Naturae."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:19.00,0:05:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He actually coined the term Homo sapiens -- it means wise man in Latin.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:22.00,0:05:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But looking around the world at the diversity of humans, he said,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:26.00,0:05:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Well, you know, we seem to come in discreet sub-species or categories."
Dialogue: 0,0:05:30.00,0:05:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And he talked about Africans and Americans and Asians and Europeans,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:34.00,0:05:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a blatantly racist category he termed "Monstrosus,"
Dialogue: 0,0:05:37.00,0:05:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which basically included all the people he didn't like,
Dialogue: 0,0:05:40.00,0:05:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,including imaginary folk like elves.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:44.00,0:05:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's easy to dismiss this as the perhaps well-intentioned
Dialogue: 0,0:05:49.00,0:05:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but ultimately benighted musings of an eighteenth century scientist
Dialogue: 0,0:05:52.00,0:05:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,working in the pre-Darwinian era.
Dialogue: 0,0:05:54.00,0:05:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Except, if you had taken physical anthropology
Dialogue: 0,0:05:56.00,0:06:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, in many cases you would have learned
Dialogue: 0,0:06:00.00,0:06:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,basically that same classification of humanity.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:02.00,0:06:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Human races that according to physical anthropologists of 30, 40 years ago --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:07.00,0:06:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Carlton Coon is the best example --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:09.00,0:06:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,had been diverging from each other -- this was in the post-Darwinian era --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:13.00,0:06:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for over a million years, since the time of Homo erectus.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:16.00,0:06:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But based on what data?
Dialogue: 0,0:06:18.00,0:06:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Very little. Very little. Morphology and a lot of guesswork.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:22.00,0:06:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, what I'm going to talk about today,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:24.00,0:06:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what I'm going to talk about now is a new approach to this problem.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:27.00,0:06:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Instead of going out and guessing about our ancestry,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:30.00,0:06:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,digging things up out of the ground, possible ancestors,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:32.00,0:06:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and saying it on the basis of morphology --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:34.00,0:06:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which we still don't completely understand,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:36.00,0:06:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we don't know the genetic causes underlying this morphological variation --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:40.00,0:06:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,what we need to do is turn the problem on its head.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:42.00,0:06:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Because what we're really asking is a genealogical problem,
Dialogue: 0,0:06:46.00,0:06:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or a genealogical question.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:48.00,0:06:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What we're trying to do is construct a family tree for everybody alive today.
Dialogue: 0,0:06:53.00,0:06:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And as any genealogist will tell you --
Dialogue: 0,0:06:55.00,0:06:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,anybody have a member of the family, or maybe you
Dialogue: 0,0:06:57.00,0:07:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have tried to construct a family tree, trace back in time?
Dialogue: 0,0:07:00.00,0:07:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You start in the present, with relationships you're certain about.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:02.00,0:07:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You and your siblings, you have a parent in common.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:04.00,0:07:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You and your cousins share a grandparent in common.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:06.00,0:07:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You gradually trace further and further back into the past,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:09.00,0:07:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,adding these ever more distant relationships.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:11.00,0:07:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But eventually, no matter how good you are at digging up the church records,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:15.00,0:07:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and all that stuff, you hit what the genealogists call a brick wall.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:19.00,0:07:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A point beyond which you don't know anything else about your ancestors,
Dialogue: 0,0:07:22.00,0:07:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you enter this dark and mysterious realm we call history
Dialogue: 0,0:07:26.00,0:07:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we have to feel our way through with whispered guidance.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:29.00,0:07:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Who were these people who came before?
Dialogue: 0,0:07:31.00,0:07:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We have no written record. Well, actually, we do.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:34.00,0:07:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Written in our DNA, in our genetic code --
Dialogue: 0,0:07:37.00,0:07:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,we have a historical document that takes us back in time
Dialogue: 0,0:07:39.00,0:07:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to the very earliest days of our species. And that's what we study.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:43.00,0:07:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, a quick primer on DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:45.00,0:07:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I suspect that not everybody in the audience is a geneticist.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:48.00,0:07:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is a very long, linear molecule, a coded version
Dialogue: 0,0:07:52.00,0:07:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of how to make another copy of you. It's your blueprint.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:55.00,0:07:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's composed of four subunits: A, C, G and T, we call them.
Dialogue: 0,0:07:58.00,0:08:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's the sequence of those subunits that defines that blueprint.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:02.00,0:08:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How long is it? Well, it's billions of these subunits in length.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:05.00,0:08:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A haploid genome -- we actually have two copies of all of our chromosomes --
Dialogue: 0,0:08:08.00,0:08:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a haploid genome is around 3.2 billion nucleotides in length.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:12.00,0:08:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the whole thing, if you add it all together,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:14.00,0:08:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is over six billion nucleotides long.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:16.00,0:08:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you take all the DNA out of one cell in your body,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:19.00,0:08:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and stretch it end to end, it's around two meters long.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:23.00,0:08:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you take all the DNA out of every cell in your body,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:25.00,0:08:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you stretch it end to end, it would reach from here to the moon and back,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:29.00,0:08:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,thousands of times. It's a lot of information.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:32.00,0:08:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so when you're copying this DNA molecule to pass it on, it's a pretty tough job.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:38.00,0:08:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Imagine the longest book you can think of, "War and Peace."
Dialogue: 0,0:08:42.00,0:08:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now multiply it by 100.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:44.00,0:08:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And imagine copying that by hand.
Dialogue: 0,0:08:46.00,0:08:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you're working away until late at night,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:48.00,0:08:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you're very, very careful, and you're drinking coffee
Dialogue: 0,0:08:50.00,0:08:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you're paying attention, but, occasionally,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:52.00,0:08:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when you're copying this by hand,
Dialogue: 0,0:08:54.00,0:08:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you're going to make a little typo, a spelling mistake --
Dialogue: 0,0:08:56.00,0:09:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,substitute an I for an E, or a C for a T.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:00.00,0:09:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Same thing happens to our DNA as it's being passed on through the generations.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:04.00,0:09:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It doesn't happen very often. We have a proofreading mechanism built in.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:07.00,0:09:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But when it does happen, and these changes get transmitted down
Dialogue: 0,0:09:09.00,0:09:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,through the generations, they become markers of descent.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:12.00,0:09:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you share a marker with someone,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:14.00,0:09:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it means you share an ancestor at some point in the past,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:17.00,0:09:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the person who first had that change in their DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:19.00,0:09:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's by looking at the pattern of genetic variation,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:22.00,0:09:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the pattern of these markers in people all over the world,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:25.00,0:09:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and assessing the relative ages when they occurred throughout our history,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:29.00,0:09:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we've been able to construct a family tree for everybody alive today.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:32.00,0:09:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These are two pieces of DNA that we use quite widely in our work.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:35.00,0:09:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mitochondrial DNA, tracing a purely maternal line of descent.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:38.00,0:09:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You get your mtDNA from your mother, and your mother's mother,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:41.00,0:09:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,all the way back to the very first woman.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:43.00,0:09:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Y chromosome, the piece of DNA that makes men men,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:46.00,0:09:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,traces a purely paternal line of descent.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:49.00,0:09:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Everybody in this room, everybody in the world,
Dialogue: 0,0:09:53.00,0:09:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,falls into a lineage somewhere on these trees.
Dialogue: 0,0:09:57.00,0:10:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, even though these are simplified versions of the real trees,
Dialogue: 0,0:10:00.00,0:10:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they're still kind of complicated, so let's simplify them.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:02.00,0:10:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Turn them on their sides, combine them so that they look like a tree
Dialogue: 0,0:10:04.00,0:10:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with the root at the bottom and the branches going up.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:07.00,0:10:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What's the take-home message?
Dialogue: 0,0:10:09.00,0:10:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, the thing that jumps out at you first
Dialogue: 0,0:10:11.00,0:10:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is that the deepest lineages in our family trees
Dialogue: 0,0:10:14.00,0:10:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,are found within Africa, among Africans.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:19.00,0:10:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That means that Africans have been accumulating
Dialogue: 0,0:10:22.00,0:10:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,this mutational diversity for longer.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:25.00,0:10:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And what that means is that we originated in Africa. It's written in our DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:29.00,0:10:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Every piece of DNA we look at has greater diversity within Africa than outside of Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:34.00,0:10:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And at some point in the past, a sub-group of Africans
Dialogue: 0,0:10:37.00,0:10:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,left the African continent to go out and populate the rest of the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:41.00,0:10:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, how recently do we share this ancestry?
Dialogue: 0,0:10:43.00,0:10:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Was it millions of years ago, which we might suspect
Dialogue: 0,0:10:47.00,0:10:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by looking at all this incredible variation around the world?
Dialogue: 0,0:10:50.00,0:10:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No, the DNA tells a story that's very clear.
Dialogue: 0,0:10:53.00,0:10:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Within the last 200,000 years, we all share an ancestor, a single person --
Dialogue: 0,0:10:58.00,0:11:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mitochondrial Eve, you might have heard about her -- in Africa,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:02.00,0:11:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,an African woman who gave rise to all the mitochondrial diversity in the world today.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:05.00,0:11:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But what's even more amazing
Dialogue: 0,0:11:07.00,0:11:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is that if you look at the Y-chromosome side,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:09.00,0:11:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the male side of the story, the Y-chromosome Adam
Dialogue: 0,0:11:13.00,0:11:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,only lived around 60,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:15.00,0:11:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's only about 2,000 human generations,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:18.00,0:11:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the blink of an eye in an evolutionary sense.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:22.00,0:11:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That tells us we were all still living in Africa at that time.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:25.00,0:11:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This was an African man who gave rise
Dialogue: 0,0:11:27.00,0:11:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to all the Y chromosome diversity around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:29.00,0:11:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's only within the last 60,000 years
Dialogue: 0,0:11:31.00,0:11:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we have started to generate this incredible diversity we see around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:35.00,0:11:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Such an amazing story.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:37.00,0:11:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're all effectively part of an extended African family.
Dialogue: 0,0:11:41.00,0:11:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, that seems so recent. Why didn't we start to leave earlier?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:44.00,0:11:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why didn't Homo erectus evolve into separate species,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:48.00,0:11:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or sub-species rather, human races around the world?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:50.00,0:11:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Why was it that we seem to have come out of Africa so recently?
Dialogue: 0,0:11:54.00,0:11:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, that's a big question. These "why" questions,
Dialogue: 0,0:11:56.00,0:12:01.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,particularly in genetics and the study of history in general, are always the big ones,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:01.00,0:12:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the ones that are tough to answer.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:03.00,0:12:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so when all else fails, talk about the weather.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:06.00,0:12:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What was going on to the world's weather around 60,000 years ago?
Dialogue: 0,0:12:09.00,0:12:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, we were going into the worst part of the last ice age.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:12.00,0:12:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The last ice age started roughly 120,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:15.00,0:12:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It went up and down, and it really started to accelerate around 70,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:19.00,0:12:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Lots of evidence from sediment cores
Dialogue: 0,0:12:21.00,0:12:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the pollen types, oxygen isotopes and so on.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:24.00,0:12:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We hit the last glacial maximum around 16,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:27.00,0:12:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but basically, from 70,000 years on, things were getting really tough,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:31.00,0:12:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,getting very cold. The Northern Hemisphere had massive growing ice sheets.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:36.00,0:12:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,New York City, Chicago, Seattle, all under a sheet of ice.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:40.00,0:12:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Most of Britain, all of Scandinavia, covered by ice several kilometers thick.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:45.00,0:12:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, Africa is the most tropical continent on the planet --
Dialogue: 0,0:12:48.00,0:12:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,about 85 percent of it lies between Cancer and Capricorn --
Dialogue: 0,0:12:52.00,0:12:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and there aren't a lot of glaciers here,
Dialogue: 0,0:12:54.00,0:12:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,except on the high mountains here in East Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:56.00,0:12:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So what was going on here? We weren't covered in ice in Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:12:59.00,0:13:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Rather, Africa was drying out at that time.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:02.00,0:13:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is a paleo-climatological map
Dialogue: 0,0:13:04.00,0:13:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of what Africa looked like between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:07.00,0:13:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,reconstructed from all these pieces of evidence that I mentioned before.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:11.00,0:13:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The reason for that is that ice actually sucks moisture out of the atmosphere.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:15.00,0:13:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you think about Antarctica, it's technically a desert, it gets so little precipitation.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:19.00,0:13:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the whole world was drying out.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:21.00,0:13:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The sea levels were dropping. And Africa was turning to desert.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:25.00,0:13:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Sahara was much bigger then than it is now.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:28.00,0:13:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And the human habitat was reduced to just a few small pockets,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:31.00,0:13:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,compared to what we have today.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:33.00,0:13:35.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The evidence from genetic data
Dialogue: 0,0:13:35.00,0:13:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is that the human population around this time, roughly 70,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:38.00,0:13:41.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,crashed to fewer than 2,000 individuals.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:41.00,0:13:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We nearly went extinct. We were hanging on by our fingernails.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:45.00,0:13:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then something happened. A great illustration of it.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:48.00,0:13:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look at some stone tools.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:50.00,0:13:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The ones on the left are from Africa, from around a million years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:13:54.00,0:13:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The ones on the right were made by Neanderthals, our distant cousins,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:57.00,0:13:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,not our direct ancestors, living in Europe,
Dialogue: 0,0:13:59.00,0:14:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they date from around 50,000 or 60,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:03.00,0:14:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, at the risk of offending any paleoanthropologists
Dialogue: 0,0:14:06.00,0:14:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or physical anthropologists in the audience,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:09.00,0:14:14.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,basically there's not a lot of change between these two stone tool groups.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:14.00,0:14:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The ones on the left are pretty similar to the ones on the right.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:17.00,0:14:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We are in a period of long cultural stasis from a million years ago
Dialogue: 0,0:14:21.00,0:14:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,until around 60,000 to 70,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:23.00,0:14:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The tool styles don't change that much.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:25.00,0:14:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The evidence is that the human way of life
Dialogue: 0,0:14:27.00,0:14:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,didn't change that much during that period.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:29.00,0:14:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But then 50, 60, 70 thousand years ago, somewhere in that region,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:34.00,0:14:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,all hell breaks loose. Art makes its appearance.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:37.00,0:14:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The stone tools become much more finely crafted.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:40.00,0:14:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The evidence is that humans begin to specialize in particular prey species,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:43.00,0:14:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at particular times of the year.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:45.00,0:14:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The population size started to expand.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:48.00,0:14:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Probably, according to what many linguists believe,
Dialogue: 0,0:14:50.00,0:14:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,fully modern language, syntactic language -- subject, verb, object --
Dialogue: 0,0:14:54.00,0:14:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we use to convey complex ideas, like I'm doing now, appeared around that time.
Dialogue: 0,0:14:58.00,0:15:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We became much more social. The social networks expanded.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:02.00,0:15:07.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This change in behavior allowed us to survive these worsening conditions in Africa,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:07.00,0:15:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and they allowed us to start to expand around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:12.00,0:15:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've been talking at this conference about African success stories.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:15.00,0:15:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, you want the ultimate African success story?
Dialogue: 0,0:15:18.00,0:15:21.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look in the mirror. You're it. The reason you're alive today
Dialogue: 0,0:15:21.00,0:15:25.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is because of those changes in our brains that took place in Africa --
Dialogue: 0,0:15:25.00,0:15:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,probably somewhere in the region where we're sitting right now,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:28.00,0:15:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,around 60, 70 thousand years ago --
Dialogue: 0,0:15:31.00,0:15:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,allowing us not only to survive in Africa, but to expand out of Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:34.00,0:15:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,An early coastal migration along the south coast of Asia,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:37.00,0:15:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,leaving Africa around 60,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:39.00,0:15:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,reaching Australia very rapidly, by 50,000 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:43.00,0:15:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,A slightly later migration up into the Middle East.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:45.00,0:15:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,These would have been savannah hunters.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:47.00,0:15:49.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So those of you who are going on one of the post-conference tours,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:49.00,0:15:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you'll get to see what a real savannah is like.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:51.00,0:15:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's basically a meat locker.
Dialogue: 0,0:15:53.00,0:15:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,People who would have specialized in killing the animals,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:56.00,0:15:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hunting the animals on those meat locker savannahs, moving up,
Dialogue: 0,0:15:59.00,0:16:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,following the grasslands into the Middle East around 45,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:03.00,0:16:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,during one of the rare wet phases in the Sahara.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:05.00,0:16:08.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Migrating eastward, following the grasslands,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:08.00,0:16:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,because that's what they were adapted to live on.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:10.00,0:16:12.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And when they reached Central Asia,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:12.00,0:16:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,they reached what was effectively a steppe super-highway,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:15.00,0:16:17.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a grassland super-highway.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:17.00,0:16:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The grasslands at that time -- this was during the last ice age --
Dialogue: 0,0:16:19.00,0:16:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,stretched basically from Germany all the way over to Korea,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:22.00,0:16:24.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the entire continent was open to them.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:24.00,0:16:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Entering Europe around 35,000 years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:26.00,0:16:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and finally, a small group migrating up
Dialogue: 0,0:16:28.00,0:16:32.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,through the worst weather imaginable, Siberia,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:32.00,0:16:34.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,inside the Arctic Circle, during the last ice age --
Dialogue: 0,0:16:34.00,0:16:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,temperature was at -70, -80, even -100, perhaps --
Dialogue: 0,0:16:38.00,0:16:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,migrating into the Americas, ultimately reaching that final frontier.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:42.00,0:16:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,An amazing story, and it happened first in Africa.
Dialogue: 0,0:16:46.00,0:16:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The changes that allowed us to do that,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:48.00,0:16:51.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the evolution of this highly adaptable brain that we all carry around with us,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:51.00,0:16:53.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,allowing us to create novel cultures,
Dialogue: 0,0:16:53.00,0:16:56.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,allowing us to develop the diversity
Dialogue: 0,0:16:56.00,0:16:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that we see on a whirlwind trip like the one I've just been on.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:00.00,0:17:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, that story I just told you is literally a whirlwind tour
Dialogue: 0,0:17:04.00,0:17:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of how we populated the world, the great Paleolithic wanderings of our species.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:09.00,0:17:11.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that's the story that I told a couple of years ago
Dialogue: 0,0:17:11.00,0:17:15.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in my book, "The Journey of Man," and a film that we made with the same title.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:15.00,0:17:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And as we were finishing up that film --
Dialogue: 0,0:17:18.00,0:17:20.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it was co-produced with National Geographic --
Dialogue: 0,0:17:20.00,0:17:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I started talking to the folks at NG about this work.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:23.00,0:17:27.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And they got really excited about it. They liked the film, but they said,
Dialogue: 0,0:17:27.00,0:17:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"You know, we really see this as kind of
Dialogue: 0,0:17:29.00,0:17:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the next wave in the study of human origins, where we all came from,
Dialogue: 0,0:17:33.00,0:17:38.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,using the tools of DNA to map the migrations around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:38.00,0:17:40.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You know, the study of human origins is kind of in our DNA,
Dialogue: 0,0:17:40.00,0:17:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we want to take it to the next level.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:42.00,0:17:44.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,What do you want to do next?"
Dialogue: 0,0:17:44.00,0:17:46.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Which is a great question to be asked by National Geographic.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:46.00,0:17:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I said, "Well, you know, what I've sketched out here is just that.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:50.00,0:17:54.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is a very coarse sketch of how we migrated around the planet.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:54.00,0:17:57.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it's based on a few thousand people we've sampled from,
Dialogue: 0,0:17:57.00,0:17:59.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you know, a handful of populations around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:17:59.00,0:18:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Studied a few genetic markers, and there are lots of gaps on this map.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:03.00,0:18:05.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've just connected the dots. What we need to do
Dialogue: 0,0:18:05.00,0:18:09.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is increase our sample size by an order of magnitude or more --
Dialogue: 0,0:18:09.00,0:18:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people all over the world."
Dialogue: 0,0:18:13.00,0:18:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And that was the genesis of the Genographic Project.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:16.00,0:18:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The project launched in April 2005.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:19.00,0:18:23.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It has three core components. Obviously, science is a big part of it.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:23.00,0:18:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The field research that we're doing around the world with indigenous peoples.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:26.00,0:18:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,People who have lived in the same location for a long period of time
Dialogue: 0,0:18:29.00,0:18:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,retain a connection to the place where they live
Dialogue: 0,0:18:31.00,0:18:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that many of the rest of us have lost.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:34.00,0:18:36.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So my ancestors come from all over northern Europe.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:36.00,0:18:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I live in the Eastern Seaboard of North America when I'm not traveling.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:39.00,0:18:42.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Where am I indigenous to? Nowhere really. My genes are all jumbled up.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:42.00,0:18:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But there are people who retain that link to their ancestors
Dialogue: 0,0:18:45.00,0:18:48.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that allows us to contextualize the DNA results.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:48.00,0:18:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's the focus of the field research,
Dialogue: 0,0:18:50.00,0:18:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the centers that we've set up all over the world --
Dialogue: 0,0:18:52.00,0:18:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,10 of them, top population geneticists.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:55.00,0:18:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But, in addition, we wanted to open up this study to anybody around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:18:58.00,0:19:02.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How often do you get to participate in a big scientific project?
Dialogue: 0,0:19:02.00,0:19:04.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Human Genome Project, or a Mars Rover mission.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:04.00,0:19:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In this case, you actually can.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:06.00,0:19:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You can go onto our website, Nationalgeographic.com/genographic.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:10.00,0:19:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You can order a kit. You can test your own DNA.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:13.00,0:19:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you can actually submit those results to the database,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:16.00,0:19:18.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and tell us a little about your genealogical background,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:18.00,0:19:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,have the data analyzed as part of the scientific effort.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:22.00,0:19:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, this is all a nonprofit enterprise, and so the money that we raise,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:26.00,0:19:29.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,after we cover the cost of doing the testing and making the kit components,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:29.00,0:19:31.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,gets plowed back into the project.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:31.00,0:19:33.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The majority going to something we call the Legacy Fund.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:33.00,0:19:37.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a charitable entity, basically a grant-giving entity
Dialogue: 0,0:19:37.00,0:19:39.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that gives money back to indigenous groups around the world
Dialogue: 0,0:19:39.00,0:19:43.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,for educational, cultural projects initiated by them.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:43.00,0:19:45.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,They apply to this fund in order to do various projects,
Dialogue: 0,0:19:45.00,0:19:47.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I'll show you a couple of examples.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:47.00,0:19:50.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So how are we doing on the project? We've got about 25,000 samples
Dialogue: 0,0:19:50.00,0:19:52.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,collected from indigenous people around the world.
Dialogue: 0,0:19:52.00,0:19:55.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The most amazing thing has been the interest on the part of the public;
Dialogue: 0,0:19:55.00,0:19:58.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,210,000 people have ordered these participation kits
Dialogue: 0,0:19:58.00,0:20:00.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since we launched two years ago,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:00.00,0:20:03.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which has raised around five million dollars,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:03.00,0:20:06.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the majority of which, at least half, is going back into the Legacy Fund.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:06.00,0:20:10.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We've just awarded the first Legacy Grants totaling around 500,000 dollars.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:10.00,0:20:13.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Projects around the world -- documenting oral poetry in Sierra Leone,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:13.00,0:20:16.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,preserving traditional weaving patterns in Gaza,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:16.00,0:20:19.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,language revitalization in Tajikistan, etc., etc.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:19.00,0:20:22.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So the project is going very, very well,
Dialogue: 0,0:20:22.00,0:20:26.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I urge you to check out the website and watch this space.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:26.00,0:20:28.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Thank you very much.
Dialogue: 0,0:20:28.00,0:20:30.00,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Applause)