Anyone who is interested in genetic genealogy has likely heard of Professor Bryan Sykes. Sykes is the founder of the genetic genealogy testing company Oxford Ancestors and author of very influential books such as Blood of the Isles, Adam’s Curse, and The Seven Daughters of Eve.
Sykes was recently interviewed by The Telegraph in an article entitled “Curiosity Drives the Gene Genie to a £1m Turnover.” The article mentions that Oxford Ancestors, created in 2000, is currently bringing in £ 1m year (USD $1.96million), which is an increase of 10 times its initial year! There is discussion of Sykes’ upbringing, and the difficulty in commercializing scientific research.
Lastly, Sykes discusses some future directions, including using genetic research to help solve crimes:
” ‘We have revolutionized genealogy in the last few years. If we reversed it there could be great forensic benefits. For example, if we took a sample of DNA from a crime scene we are able to predict a range of surnames that might match that of the offender,’ says Sykes.”
Hopefully there will always be a very clear, understandable, and bright division between genetic genealogy for fun and genetic genealogy for any other purpose.
2 Comments
I’m intriqued by Mr. Sykes’ conclusion that the male species will become extinct. I think it’s going to happen sooner than later. I have thought for a very long time that men seem to to be becoming more feminine. Most men today have breasts and many have a sort of “softening” to their appearance. I think the culprit is hormones i.e., estrogen. Crazy stuff.
Vanuit een totaal ander onderzoek, vraag ik mij af of de DNA van een overleden persoon overeen komt met een levend persoon, van wie de reincarnatie is “vastgesteld”.
2 Trackbacks