Re:Genetic testing is an inexact science with real consequences
by jaclaz on Saturday December 21, 2019 @05:07AM
(#21850602)
I would add that - of all Italy - Sicily is one of the regions where historically everyone ruled (and lived) over the centuries:
Greeks
Carthaginians
Romans
Germans/Franks/Vandals
Bizantines
Arabs
French (Normans)
Germans
French again (Angevins)
Spaniards (Aragonese first and later unified Spain)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sicily
Even Vikings (briefly) ruled it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sicily#Viking_Age
So - from a DNA analysis - you can probably find traces in the population of practically every "race" that existed in the basin of the Mediterranean sea (including Europe, Africa and the middle East) and even part of northern Europe.
Re:Genetic testing is an inexact science with real consequences
by thaumasiotes on Friday December 20, 2019 @11:19PM
(#21849589)
> Humans didn't evolve in Italy
Some of them did; some of them didn't. When did humans stop evolving?
The notion of genetic ancestry is inherently fuzzy. What does the author think it means to be "Italian"? Humans didn't evolve in Italy, nobody is "from" there in a truly genetic sense.
On the other hand, some of the health information 23andme provides is significant and behavior-changing. I don't mean the "you have 5% higher risk of developing hangnails" trivia. I mean the "60% of people with your genetic factors develop deep vein thrombosis" warning - which a person I know found out, and immediately stopped taking hormonal birth control.
For me it was "no news is good news", but that's valuable information too. I consider 23andme a good service.