In “Scottish DNA Unexpectedly Diverse” (The Scientist, April 18, 2012), Bob Grant reports,
Scotland contains an unexpected amount of human genetic diversity, according to a new study of the country’s inhabitants. The project, called “Scotland’s DNA,” found 150 different genetic lines of female ancestry from Europe, Asia, and Africa and 100 different groups of male ancestry from Europe and beyond. For example, more than one percent of Scottish men are direct descendants of the Saharan Berber and Tuareg tribes, which belong to a lineage that researchers have determined to be about 5,600 years old.
Hey, we coulda called that one. McLatchie, Noble, you listening?
Yet the Scots manage to be culturally distinctive, as anyone who has lived through Robbie Burns Day in small-town Canada will know. Haggis!! 😥 Guys who should stick to trousers!! 😥 😥 People who can’t really play the bagpipes, but insist … !! 😥 😥 😥 😥
Actually, we love it; we just don’t love admitting it.
The Irish are next up for the gene map, and one thing the findings surely won’t do is explain the St. Patrick’s Day madness. Though history and culture might …
Which is why all that looneyism about race that got Derbyshire and Weissberg fired by their editor is an utter, sad waste of time.
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