Top 10 human genetics & evolution developments of the 2010s

The Insight Show Notes — Season 3, Episode 1: the decade in review in human evolution and genetics

This week on The Insight (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts) Razib and Spencer kick-off season 3 with a mega-episode reflecting on ten years in human genetics and evolution!

10 — Rise of China in genetics (BGI, CRISPR babies, etc.). We discuss the changing geopolitical configurations in genetics over the past decade and inexorable the pivot to Asia. We review the He Jiankui fiasco with the “CRISPR babies.”

9 — The $1,000 genome and beyond! The promise and arrival of whole-genome sequencing to the masses.

8 — Personal genomics goes from niche to mainstream. Spencer, in particular, reflects on the development of a whole economy and cultural space since the 2000s and the Genographic Project.

7 — The emergence of quantitative genomics as a field. The synthesis of a century-old discipline with 21st-century technology! The missing heritability and polygenic risk scores. What it means for health, wellness, and the understanding of inherited traits.

6 — Deep structure in Africa. We talk about the fact that not only is Africa the most diverse continent genetically, but it has a lot of ancient deep lineages that have been mixing each for hundreds of thousands of years.

5 — Decentering of modern humans origins from purely Sub-Saharan Africa. Along with the fact that modern humans have been within Africa for hundreds of thousands of years…it seems likely that outside of Africa Southeast Asia, in particular, plays a role in human evolution that has been understudied. Additionally, the oldest modern-like human is now to be found in northwest Africa, rather than south of the Sahara. This points to greater complexity and texture in the human past than we had been able to imagine.

4 — Ancient DNA and Classical history. Here Spencer and Razib discuss the shift to more recent analyses of genetic relationships in the context of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, as historians begin to process the newest genetic results.

3 — Taking a step back, we discuss how the peopling of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistoric Europe occurred. In particular, how ancient DNA solved all the major questions.

2 — The Denisovans. Ancient DNA and the discovery of a new “species.” Enough said.

1— The Neanderthals, and the reality that most of us descend from them. How a single publication in 2010 transformed our view of our “cousins,” from nasty brutes to sensitive ancestors. Kicking off a decade in ancient DNA.

Insitome

Discoveries and insights into the story of you.

Razib Khan

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Genetics.

Insitome

Discoveries and insights into the story of you.

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