New York Times: Study Offers New Twist In How Humans Evolved

We are in a weird place.

On the one hand, “The Science” is becoming more woke due to extreme political and cultural pressure. On the other hand, “The Science” also seems to be finding it harder to deny the existence of racial variation in the human species as the evidence from genomics accumulates.

New York Times:

“More than 20 years after scientists first released a draft sequence of the human genome, the book of life has been given a long-overdue rewrite.

A more accurate and inclusive edition of our genetic code was published on Wednesday, marking a major step toward a deeper understanding of human biology and personalized medicine for people from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Unlike the previous reference — which was largely based on the DNA of one mixed-race man from Buffalo, with inputs from a few dozen other individuals, mostly of European descent — the new “pangenome” incorporates near-complete genetic sequences from 47 men and women of diverse origins, including African Americans, Caribbean Islanders, East Asians, West Africans and South Americans.

The revamped genome map represents a crucial tool for scientists and clinicians hoping to identify genetic variations associated with disease. It also promises to deliver treatments that can benefit all people, regardless of their race, ethnicity or ancestry, researchers said. …”

Did anyone else catch the stunning return of polygenesis this week?

New York Times:

“Scientists have revealed a surprisingly complex origin of our species, rejecting the long-held argument that modern humans arose from one place in Africa during one period in time.

By analyzing the genomes of 290 living people, researchers concluded that modern humans descended from at least two populations that coexisted in Africa for a million years before merging in several independent events across the continent. The findings were published on Wednesday in Nature.

“There is no single birthplace,” said Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for Geoarchaeology in Jena, Germany, who was not involved in the new study. “It really puts a nail in the coffin of that idea.”

Paleoanthropologists and geneticists have found evidence pointing to Africa as the origin of our species. The oldest fossils that may belong to modern humans, dating back as far as 300,000 years, have been unearthed there. So were the oldest stone tools used by our ancestors.

Human DNA also points to Africa. Living Africans have a vast amount of genetic diversity compared with other people. That’s because humans lived and evolved in Africa for thousands of generations before small groups — with comparatively small gene pools — began expanding to other continents. …”