DNA: The Dirt, uh, Finds a Way - Dirt 125

What this episode covers

This year is the 20th anniversary of the first publication of the Human Genome Project, and the 10th anniversary of the Neanderthal Genome Project. Since both of these projects began, DNA research has changed what we know about the human story more than we could ever possibly have imagined. Come learn about a tiny fraction of this knowledge with us, and listen to our brains explode. Links * Protein Synthesis: an Epic on the Cellular Level (Internet Archive) [https://archive.org/details/ProteinSynthesis] * Human Genome Project Information Archive 1990–2003 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) [https://web.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/index.shtml] * Human Genome Project FAQ (National Human Genome Research Institute) [https://www.genome.gov/human-genome-project/Completion-FAQ] * Game of chances: inheritance is a question of probability, not destiny (The Guardian) [https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/jun/21/adam-rutherford-inheritanceis-a-game-of-probability-not-destiny] * Why Race Is Not a Thing, According to Genetics (National Geographic) [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/genetics-history-race-neanderthal-rutherford] * How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference (The Experiment Publishing) [https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/spring-2020/how-to-argue-with-a-racist/] * The Neanderthal DNA you carry may have surprisingly little impact on your looks, moods (Science) [https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/neanderthal-dna-you-carry-may-have-surprisingly-little-impact-your-looks-moods] * Neanderthal DNA highlights complexity of COVID risk factors (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02957-3] * Neanderthal DNA in Modern Human Genomes Is Not Silent (The Scientist) [https://www.the-scientist.com/features/neanderthal-dna-in-modern-human-genomes-is-not-silent-66299] * Multiple lines of mysterious ancient humans interbred with us (National Geographic) [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/enigmatic-human-relative-outlived-neanderthals] * Denisovan DNA in the genome of early East Asians (Max Planck Gesellscheft) [https://www.mpg.de/15938812/1026-evan-019609-denisovan-dna-in-the-genome-of-early-east-asians] * The complete genome sequence of a Neandertal from the Altai Mountains (Nature) [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4031459/] * The Contribution of Neanderthals to Phenotypic Variation in Modern Humans (The American Journal of Human Genetics) [https://www.cell.com/ajhg/pdfExtended/S0002-9297(17)30379-8] * Evidence found of Denisovans interbreeding with humans in Southeast Asia more recently than thought (Phys.org) [https://phys.org/news/2019-04-evidence-denisovans-interbreeding-humans-southeast.html#:~:text=They%20report%20that%20in%20the,in%20the%20cave%20in%20Siberia.&text=And%20finally%2C%20they%20reported%20that,30%2C000%20and%2015%2C000%20years%20ago] * The CRISPR-baby scandal: what's next for human gene-editing (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00673-1] * In a possible step forward for gene therapy, Stanford researchers made mice glow like fireflies (Stanford News) [https://news.stanford.edu/2017/02/16/glowing-mice-suggest-new-gene-therapy-technique/] * Neanderthal-like 'mini-brains' created in lab with CRISPR (Nature) [https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00388-2] * 3 Human Chimeras That Already Exist (Scientific American) [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/3-human-chimeras-that-already-exist/] * This Woman Is Her Own Twin [https://www.livescience.com/61890-what-is-chimerism-fused-twin.html]