“I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.” ~ Carl Sagan
Eddie Neanderthal (instagram)
Yesterday I wished for access to the BBC because comedian Eddie Izzard, my favorite, was doing a two-part program that traced his human genome journey over 200,000 years. Friends to the rescue, BBC in hand, I saw part one. It was a completely fascinating trace of his mother’s Y chromosome journey. For instance, did you know that all blue eyed people can trace their DNA to a single common ancestor in Turkey? This genetic mutation was a way to attract more sexual partners, because, apparently, blue eyed people have more babies. Needless to say, I was equally excited to watch the second part this evening where Eddie traced his father’s X chromosome. Turns out that all of us who have not migrated from Africa in the last 30,000 years, give or take 10,000, also share a small percentage of Neanderthal DNA. While some of us evolved light skin through hemispheric osmosis, others skipped ahead a bit on the evolutionary timeline because Neanderthals were fair skinned with ginger hair. I am now completely fascinated with this science and just how much it proves that we’re really all the same. This planet is awesome!
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