Faces of America pt. 2 Tonight Feb. 17th

The second episode in the Faces of America series airs Wed. night, February 17th on PBS.

About the Program

What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new PBS series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Harvard scholar turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans — professor and poet Elizabeth Alexander, chef Mario Batali, comedian Stephen Colbert, novelist Louise Erdrich, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, actress Eva Longoria, musician Yo-Yo Ma, director Mike Nichols, Her Majesty Queen Noor, television host/heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz, actress Meryl Streep, and figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

Elizabeth Alexander

Mario Batali

Stephen Colbert

Louise Erdrich

Malcolm Gladwell

Eva Longoria

Yo-Yo Ma

Queen Noor

Mike Nichols

Dr. Mehmet Oz

Meryl Streep

Kristi Yamaguchi

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Stephen Colbert Learns He is the Whitest Person Ever DNA Tested

Henry Louis Gates Jr. goes on the Stephen Colbert show to inform him he is the whitest person ever DNA tested. Great satire!!! Humorous look at DNA testing. Stephen was among several celebrities tested as part of the Faces of America genealogy series. The first episode appeared February 10th. The second episode will air Wed. night February 17th at 7 CST 8 EST. But be sure and check your local listings.


Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Skate Expectations

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Comparing Apples to Oranges

by Janet Crain
After almost a decade of Y Chromosome and mtDNA testing dominating the layman user consumer market, autosomal tests have come within a price range that many Americans, despite the lousy economy, can afford. Here a reporter orders and uses tests from three different companies; Navigenics, 23andMe, and deCODEme to see which is the best. Guess who won out.

Web DNA Tests Raise Self-Absorption to a New Level

In which the writer compares the sometimes scary, sometimes entertaining services of Navigenics, 23andMe and deCODEme

By Rich Jaroslovsky

I have fascinating genes. At least, they're fascinating to me. For the last several weeks I've been getting up close and personal with my DNA as I compared three major direct-to-consumer genetic testing services. These companies, which claim to identify their customers' genetic predispositions for various diseases, are products of the multibillion-dollar, multiyear effort to map the human genome. It's a place where biotech meets infotech.

To test the services, I signed up for all three; Navigenics, 23andMe, and deCODEme at the same time. Once I registered and paid online, each service sent me a kit to collect my genetic material and a mailer to return it. Navigenics and 23andMe use saliva samples for analysis. DeCODEme has a more involved process, using what looks like a specialized tongue depressor to take a scraping of the inside of your cheek. I was a bit worried about messing things up, but a video on the Web site showed me how to do it properly. To measure response times, I made sure to send back the kits simultaneously.

Read it all here:

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_05/b4165079447289.htm

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First ancient human sequenced

Scientist.com

For the first time researchers have sequenced an ancient human genome, revealing characteristics of Greenland's first inhabitants and providing evidence of a previously unknown human migration, according to a study published in this week's Nature.
Past studies have sequenced partial genomes or mitochondrial DNA, which only codes for the mother's side of the genome, said David Lambert, an evolutionary biologist from Griffith University who was not involved in the study. "But this is really the first complete ancient human genome."
"This research brings new excitement to the field because it shows us that we can potentially reconstruct not only where people came from, but also what they looked like," said Lambert, who wrote an accompanying commentary to the study in Nature. This level of reconstruction is possible, he explained, because the Human Genome Project has provided extensive databases with which to compare this ancient individual's genome. cont here
cover article here


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Lost Colony Video Pt. 1

An interesting look at the Lost Colony as presented by In Search Of... Hosted by Leonard Nimoy and broadcast weekly from 1976 to 1982. Season 4 Episode 6 Part 1:






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o99Y4Brq-GY

Part 2 click here:

http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-colony-video-pt-2.html

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Lost Colony Video Pt. 2

An interesting look at the Lost Colony as presented by In Search Of... Hosted by Leonard Nimoy and broadcast weekly from 1976 to 1982,

Season 4 Episode 6 Part 2






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYb7P7wDvxI&feature=related

Part 1 Click Here:

http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/2010/02/lost-colony-video.html

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Skeleton of Western man found in ancient Mongolian tomb

DNA from 2,000-year-old skeleton may put Indo-Europeans in East Asia

Bruce Bower

Web edition :

Dead men can indeed tell tales, but they speak in a whispered double helix.

Consider an older gentleman whose skeleton lay in one of more than 200 tombs recently excavated at a 2,000-year-old cemetery in eastern Mongolia, near China’s northern border. DNA extracted from this man’s bones pegs him as a descendant of Europeans or western Asians. Yet he still assumed a prominent position in ancient Mongolia’s Xiongnu Empire, say geneticist Kyung-Yong Kim of Chung-Ang University in Seoul, South Korea, and his colleagues.

On the basis of previous excavations and descriptions in ancient Chinese texts, researchers suspect that the Xiongnu Empire — which ruled a vast territory in and around Mongolia from 209 B.C. to A.D. 93 — included ethnically and linguistically diverse nomadic tribes. The Xiongnu Empire once ruled the major trading route known as the Asian Silk Road, opening it to both Western and Chinese influences.

Researchers have yet to pin down the language spoken by Xiongnu rulers and political elites, says archaeologist David Anthony of Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. But the new genetic evidence shows that the 2,000-year-old man “was multi-ethnic, like the Xiongnu polity itself,” Anthony remarks.

This long-dead individual possessed a set of genetic mutations on his Y chromosome, which is inherited from paternal ancestors, that commonly appears today among male speakers of Indo-European languages in eastern Europe, central Asia and northern India, Kim’s team reports in an upcoming American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The same man displayed a pattern of mitochondrial DNA mutations, inherited from maternal ancestors, characteristic of speakers of modern Indo-European languages in central Asia, the researchers say.

“We don’t know if this 60- to 70-year-old man reached Mongolia on his own or if his family had already lived there for many generations,” says study coauthor Charles Brenner, a DNA analyst based in Oakland, Calif.

Two other skeletons from the Xiongnu cemetery in Duurlig Nars show genetic links to people who live in northeastern Asia, according to Kim’s team. Other team members include Kijeong Kim of Chung-Ang University and Eregzen Gelegdorj of the National Museum of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar.

The Duurlig Nars man’s genetic signature supports the idea that Indo-European migrations to northeastern Asia started before 2,000 years ago. This notion is plausible, but not confirmed, says geneticist Peter Underhill of Stanford University. Further investigations of Y chromosome mutation frequencies in modern populations will allow for a more precise tracing of the Duurlig Nars man’s geographic roots, Underhill predicts.

Scholars have long sought to trace the origin and spread of related languages now found in Europe, India and other parts of Asia. One hypothesis holds that Indo-European languages proliferated via several waves of expansion and conquest by nomads known as Kurgans who had domesticated horses and thus could travel long distances. In this scenario, Kurgans left a homeland north of the Black Sea, in what’s now Russia, around 6,400 years ago.

Another view holds that farmers from ancient Turkey spread Indo-European tongues as they swallowed up one parcel of land after another, beginning around 9,000 years ago.

Since 1978, discoveries of 2,400- to 4,000-year-old mummified corpses with European features in northwestern China, not far from Mongolia, have fueled the Kurgan hypothesis (SN: 2/25/95, p. 120). Remains of large wheels found with these blond-haired individuals raise the controversial possibility that these foreigners introduced carts and chariots to the Chinese.

Cont. here:

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Popular BBC genealogy show set to jump the big pond in April

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE-BBC?", is a British TV show that has been running since 2004. It is a genealogical documentary series that unveils the family history of different well know individuals living today.

Personal History has been a passion for millions of individuals and families world wide. There are companies that have been developed to supply these genealogists with the records they need to trace their ancestry and create their own personal family histories. FOOTNOTE.COM is one of these organizations. They have teamed up with the National Archives and a number of other archival institutions to help people connect to their past. Some of the celebrities featured in this BBC TV show have been Jeremy Irons, Davina McCall, and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. The show runs for an hour with no commercial breaks. There is a great Facebook site that one can refer to, "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE - LIVE". Become a fan!

NBC has announced a new reality TV series premiering in April of 2010. The US's version of "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE" will take a celebrity, trace his/her family history, and present the results of their genealogical research to the public. If the show follows the same pattern as her BBC sister, it will be a weekly production. Even though this new series will be in an hour time slot, with commercials, it will run about 42 minutes.

The executive producer of the show is none other than Lisa Kudrow. She will share the spotlight with Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Surandon. They will be the first celebrities exploring their family histories on the this new live TV show. It doesn't look like NBC is holding anything back from this family history expose'. Fed by genealogical research, celebrities will be taken on a journey through their families history. Stories of courage and heroism will likely be found, along with some disappointing discoveries as well. What impact did their families have on this country? What kind of personalities existed that match their own? All of these facts will rise to the surface as we take our journey through the lives of these famous people. Reality shows have taken over the air waves, but I believe this new series is the first to link the present with the past.

The seven celebrities being featured this year will be EMMITT SMITH, LISA KUDROW, SUSAN SERANDON, SARAH JESSICA PARKER, MATTHEW BRODERICK, BROOK SHIELDS and SPIKE LEE.

http://www.footnote.com/page/110057251_who_do_you_think_you_are/

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Faces of America Profiles Released

Faces of America | PBS

www.pbs.org

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. turns to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans in Faces of America. Coming to your local PBS station in February 2010.

You can go there now and click on any of the participants photo to read about their profile and watch an exclusive video.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/

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