Two recent studies from Harvard Medical School researchers demonstrate the power of population genetics for probing not only human biology but human history as well. One study describes the discovery of 20 million “missing” base pairs of the human genome sequence. The other shows that the population makeup of modern-day India is the result of recent population mixture among divergent demographic groups.
In the Latino Genomes Study, researchers used a mathematical modeling system that analyzed data from the genomes of Latinos to find previously unaccounted-for genetic material.
The findings in the Indian Population Mixture Study shed light on present-day Indian populations and suggest that the current structure of the caste system came into being relatively recently in Indian history.
