By Jan Carey
 Spenser Wells of the Genographic Project lectures at Morning Forum March 21. |
Spenser Wells, leader of the Genographic Project, a collaboration among National Geographic, IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation, discussed his work on the largest genetic study of human migration at the March 21 Morning Forum.
As a child, Wells became fascinated by King Tutankhamen’s treasures and was inspired by his biologist mother to use science to study history. The same inquisitiveness has brought Wells, now with impressive credentials - a doctorate from Harvard and advanced study at Stanford - to direct the study of why people look so different if we’re all members of the same family.
As he explores patterns of human origin, diversity and the journey of humans to every corner of the earth, Wells describes himself as a historian as well as a geneticist.
“We are all members of an extended family,” he said.
Using DNA technology, Wells works from the present backwards. Historically, he said, researchers would hit a “brick wall” when trying to identify multiple generations of human ancestors. But, using blood samples and analyzing the DNA from thousands of indigenous peoples in remote locations throughout the world, Wells and his colleagues have discovered that all humans can be traced to a small tribe of hunter-gatherers in Africa.
Wells investigated when we last shared a common ancestor and why we look so different when humans are 99.9 percent identical beneath the skin.
There are 50 genetic markers that distinguish individuals. If we have even one of these in common with someone, there is a shared ancestor, according to Wells.
Studies demonstrate that Homo sapiens has expanded from a few thousand Africans to populate the entire world. The evidence that Aborigines in Australia inherited markers from African tribes provides proof of a leap across the Indian Ocean to Australia via India and Indonesia more than 40,000 years ago.
Wells theorized that humans migrated because of weather. The ice age in the Northern Hemisphere affected the moisture in the atmosphere, making Africa very dry, which caused the human population to drop to approximately 2,000 people.
As tools, language and art became more sophisticated, there was “a great leap forward.” Such advances allowed survival through the ice ages and populated the world.
While the research emphasizes obtaining DNA samples from indigenous populations before the information is lost, individuals can also participate in the project. Individual DNA sampling kits are available for purchase and can be used to obtain information about a person’s history.
For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic.com.
Morning Forum is a members-only lecture series held at the United Methodist Church of Los Altos. To get on a waiting list for membership, write to: Morning Forum, P.O. Box 274, Los Altos 94023-0274.
