Mitochondrial DNA – a new look at the past

I just finished “The Seven Daughters of Eve” by Dr. Bryan Sykes. Dr. Sykes is a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford. Although his book was originally published in 2001, I recently became more interested in archeology and wanted to better understand this amazing new tool. The book provides a good explanation of how the field developed and how Mitochondrial DNA became a recognized option – one that changed many of the original stories of how our planet’s humans evolved. Sykes traced back human migration patterns, discussed the “out of Africa theory”, indicated that Polynesians came from Indonesia instead of Peru, determined the genetic makeup of modern Europe and used mitochondrial DNA to identify the remains of Czar Nicholas II.

Bryan Sykes is an amusing author – and as he described the events that transpired while mtDNA was being validated, I can only imagine what it must have been like for him.  It seems that science moves slow and painfully from one idea to another.

The basic idea of mtDNA is that it is (1) only passed through the maternal line so it remains unchanged from generation to generation (2) has mutations that survive at a fairly well determined rate of about one mutation in 10,000 years and (3) a mini-chromosome of about 16,500 base pairs for easier analysis.

Using mtDNA gives you a view into how humans evolved and populated this planet. Sykes’ view of 7 original source mothers reflects the data that had been collected at the time of publishing. These seven mothers were used to classify of all modern Europeans into seven groups, called mitochondrial haplogroups. Each haplogroup is defined by a set of characteristic mutations on the mitochondrial chromosome, and can be traced along a person’s maternal line to a specific prehistoric woman.

Further research since 2001 has expanded the number of haplogroups throughout the world and added additional sub-types.  But the fundamental mechanism is still providing additional vision into Earth’s past by looking at the human body today.

Cold Fusion – Dead or Alive?

Cold fusion is a type of nuclear reaction that would occur at relatively low temperatures compared with hot fusion.

In 1989, cold fusion gained media attention after electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced they had built an apparatus which produced excess heat they claimed was created by nuclear processes. Massive rejection by the scientific community, as other scientists were unable to duplicate the process and identified flaws in the initial experiment, sounded the death knoll of cold fusion.  Two chemists dabbling in the area of physics… unthinkable.

However, work has quietly continued on cold fusion since then.  Very much flying below the radar…

During the past few years the cold fusion buzz has increased.  Best known is Andrea Rossi’s Energy Catalyzer or “E-Cat” system. The E-Cat is a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) or “cold fusion” device that generates large amounts of heat for a miniscule cost.  Naturally, it is being subjected to intense ridicule while the world waits for a production deployment.  Stay tuned…

Norman Borlaug – Credited with saving a billion lives

Have you ever heard of Norman Ernest Borlaug? An Iowa farm boy who received his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota, Borlaug helped win the “battle to feed humanity”. He dedicated his life to thinking about ways to get more crops from every acre, especially in poor countries.

Borlaug took up an agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving a billion people worldwide from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply and has been called the “father of the Green Revolution”. Later in his life, he helped apply these methods of increasing food production to Asia and Africa.

Saving the lives of a billion people seems pretty significant. But how many of you have ever heard of him before?

Apple and Microsoft – Drop-outs change the World

Have you ever thought about the significance of the two most important personal computer/software companies in existence today being started by college drop-outs?

In 1976, Steve Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple computer in the garage of Jobs’s parents.

Bill Gates was attending Harvard and – with the support of his parents – left school in November of 1975 to form Microsoft. Gates never returned to Harvard to complete his studies.

One could say that this is a prime example of what makes America great. Of how brilliant young entrepreneurs can build powerful companies out of nothing.

One could also look at it from a different perspective…

These two companies were formed by individuals that were not very visible. No one perceived of them as a threat to the established computer industry. Large corporations with tremendous resources could have launched similar technologies. The largely unrealized innovations of Xerox PARC are a prime example. Instead, these two companies and their founders were flying below the radar and ultimately had more impact on how the world uses computers today.

Earthlights – a Call for New Energy

Earthlights

Several years ago I attended a keynote presentation by Dr. Bob Metcalf at the Metro Ethernet Forum. Bob Metcalf is famous as one of the actual inventors of the Ethernet. The audience waited excitely to hear what he had to about the future of Ethernet technology. But what he talked about surprised us all.

Dr. Metcalf showed us all a beautiful picture of the Earth from space. It showed the night side of the Earth. You could easily see which countries were using the most energy. What he said about the image struck a note. Dr. Metcalf said (I’m paraphrasing) “The rest of the world doesn’t want the United States to go dark, the rest of the world wants to be lit up”. He talked about the fact that we could not “conserve” our way out of this situation. We needed a new form of energy that could light up the planet.

I’ve thought about his comments often over the past few years. Conservation, while very important to preserve the quality of the planet, will never address the growing need to light up the planet. It will never make the “have nots” feel better. They will only feel better when they “have too”. Forgetting about how we get the energy for a moment… think about the goal to give everyone on the planet access to clean, cheap energy. If everyone had access to energy, the quality of their lives would improve incredibly. There would be less jealousy, less hatred if people didn’t feel like they were being deprived. It would defuse much of the global tension.

Just like we set a goal to land a man on the Moon within 10 years, I believe we are totally capable of solving this problem. But we may need to fly under the radar to accomplish this.