Interesting BBC Articles Related to DNA Testing

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I discovered two interesting articles on the BBC News website today and both have a DNA angle.  The first is about a Brazilian DNA project that analyzed the results of 9 famous people who were surprised by the results.  According to the article, African ancestry is the dominant ethnic make-up of the country, but then most of the people tested were surprised when the results showed a larger percentage of European heritage then African.  Some said they never considered that they had ancestors that came from Europe.   There's one interesting quote from Sergio Pena, the man who was in charge of the analysis, who said "only a few genes are responsible for someone's skin colour, which is a very poor indication of ancestry."

The second article is about the discovery of a frozen 6 month old baby mammoth in Siberia.  Apparently this is the best preserved specimen ever found of a mammoth that probably died 10,000 years ago.  The article goes on to say that scientists are hoping to find viable DNA, and also discusses the possibility of cloning to bring the extinct species back to life - now isn't that an interesting possibility?   

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