This is a nice paper on European population structure with a large number of SNPs, which comes at the heels of some earlier studies:Genetic structure in Northern Europe with 250K SNPsGeography and Genetic structure in Europe (again)500K SNP Europe-wide study of genetic structureSome observations:In this study the first principal component of variation is along an east-west axis, rather than north-south as in previous studies. This is due to the limited number of southern European populations, ...

luv yall

Because their ancestors often were slaves during the 18th and 19th centuries, and therefore usually lacked birth or death certificates, it is very difficult for African American genealogists to trace their ancestors further than a few generations. Even when they can trace their ancestry to the slavery era, it is virtually impossible to find exactly where their ancestors originated because slave ships did not keep passenger lists of the people they captured from Africa. As ...

The American Society for Human Genetics (ASHG) has released a statement outlining a set of recommendations for genetic ancestry testing. At a press briefing on Thursday, members of the ASHG Ancestry Testing Task Force Committee discussed two main themes: the need for clear communication about the limitations of genetic ancestry testing, and the need for researchers and companies doing this type of testing to engage with the social sciences to put results in context. Michael ...

“I stand before you as an African-American. Many people have said to me you became secretary of state of the USA, is it still necessary to say that you are an African-American or that you are black? And I say yes, so that we can remind our children.” — Colin Powell, moderate Republican, earlier this week at the Africa Rising Festival in London