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Grandpa!

That there’s a sculptural reconstruction of Oetzi the Iceman. ‘Member him?

I did not realize they’d fully sequenced his DNA in 2008 and published it a couple of years back. Turns out, he’s genetically more of a Southern Italian, if not a Middle Easterner.

It reveals that he had brown eyes, “O” blood type, was lactose intolerant, and was predisposed to heart disease. They also show him to be the first documented case of infection by a Lyme disease bacterium.

Lyme disease? Holy shit, that one had a slow fuse!

Anyway, it turns out Oetzi had a particular genetic mutation that is traceable. So researchers from the Institute of Legal Medicine at Innsbruck Medical University tested samples of all male blood donations that came through Tyrol (apparently, a different procedure would be needed for female blood samples). Of 3,700 samples, 19 modern men turn out to be related to Oetzi.

They did this without permission, which I think is a bit unethical. And they haven’t told the 19 men who their grandpa is, which I think is very uncool. I’d sure as hell want to know. But, well…I just thought that was a thing worth knowing. And now you do.

G’night! Have a good weekend!

October 11, 2013 — 11:05 pm
Comments: 23