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From my experience with DNA matching for genealogy, there are some chromosome segments, known as "sticky segments", that are resistant to splicing. I have one segment on chromosome one (110-155M) that I have dozens of matches for, many in the range 15-25cM. Most of these matches only match me on...

Similar repeated population turnovers happened in Britain, Ireland and probably most European countries. The abruptness of the two major population replacements in Denmark is the most interesting finding.

A new Y-dna haplogroup is generated by a mutation that occurs when a father passes on his Y chromosome to a son. Mutations of Y-dna occur about every three generations on average. Each mutation potentially creates a new Y-dna haplogroup if the son with the mutation has sons, grandsons and so on...

I could have ticked all of the categories for my book reading over the years. There were even times when I didn't read much. However, I only ticked seven types to represent more recent years. Science and Nature (Non-Fiction) best represents my recent reading. Examples from this year include...

That might be true for the broad category southeast asian, but if you look at the more specific category of indigenous Taiwanese there is a notable resemblance to Polynesians. In a 2006 documentary called "Made in Taiwan" a well-known Maori and a well-known Samoan retraced their ancestors'...

In your case, probably the best strategy would be to examine your DNA matches. Since you know your genealogy, see if you can identify a match who has linked their family tree and who can be connected to either your mother's or father's side by genealogy. It would only take one such confirmed...

Yes, I also think we are in agreement in practice. Neither an agnostic nor an atheist would say "I have faith in God" or "I believe in God", but for different reasons. For agnostics, the statements are meaningless, so would not be said. Atheists would not make those statements because they have...

As you noted, the Greek root a- simply means "without". Just as atonal music means music without tonality, atheism means "without theism". I agree that Ludwig Wittgenstein was a great philosopher. One of his best known maxims was that "the meaning of a word is its use in the language". How is...

Is belief and disbelief in Satan also a matter of faith? His existence or non-existence will also never be proven. Must we also take the agnostic position on any fantasy that is beyond objective reality? Sprites, ghouls, demons, imps, fairies, spooks and spirits? There are thousands of...

Where were my ancestral places of origin, my ancestral homelands? On a timescale of hundreds of years, I could name maybe five countries. On a timescale of thousands of years, I could name a few regions in different parts of the world. But what if I take a longer view, a timescale of millions of...

Good point. The Y chromosome has less than 100 protein coding genes, far fewer than any other chromosome, and less than 0.5% of the 20,000 protein coding genes in the human genome. What's more, the mutations in Y that distinguish R1b from other haplogroups, such as I1 or G2, have little or...

Wow. I knew Nikola Tesla was ahead of his time, but who knew he predicted the greatest musical talent of the 21st century?

Those who watched too much Big Bang Theory may make the mistake of thinking that Sheldon Cooper represents all atheists. When I first saw Star Trek in the 1960s it was entertaining but silly. Even as a teenager I mocked it but still watched it. To me, it was in the same vein as Lost In Space...

Yes, remember how they liberated Afghanistan in the 1980s, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Hungary in 1956?

Even those who believe in a happy afterlife usually still do their best to avoid death, and may fight to stay alive when seriously ill. I think that might be because belief in an afterlife can co-exist with death realism, that is, the knowledge that death is the end of life as you know it. For...

Surveys show that older people are generally happier about everything than middle aged people, and that probably includes being less anxious about death. Before modern times parents might seem to shrug their shoulders even over the death of their own children because it was such an expected...

The U4 haplogroup is common in Balto-Slavic populations. Go to the U4 thread under mtDNA Haplogroups for a distribution map and discussion.

Personally I would interpret those results as statistical noise. Results at the individual chromosome level have a larger margin of error than the overall result. For example, in my own Eurogenes K13 results I have 3.8% Amerindian and 2.9% Red Sea on Chromosome 2, 2.9% Sub-Saharan African on...

Gert Stulp, (University of Groningen), who suggested a back-and-forth loop between slightly shorter and slightly taller generations, says that nutrition can also be a big factor. When better nutrition is driving average height upwards, that could swamp his proposed "battle of the sexes" effect...

Perhaps the explanation for the Dutch overtaking other countries in height over the last 70 years is that taller Dutch men have more children on average than other Dutch men. Dutch women of average height have more children than either taller or shorter Dutch women. In contrast, in most other...