You and I are related. It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. According to an article in yesterday’s Boston Globe, scientists are hot on the trail of DNA analysis that can trace the route a person’s ancestors traveled from Africa, where the male and female antecedents of every single human on earth originated 60,000 years ago, to where we each live today.

 

The Genograhic Project, a research initiative conducted in partnership between the National Geographic Society and IBM, uses laboratory and computer analysis of DNA to map how Earth was populated. The five-year study, which commenced in 2005, is expected to result in a public database that will house one of the largest collections of human population genetic information ever assembled.

 

In their initial report, released last June, researchers revealed the results of the analysis of genetic data collected from 78,590 participants. Interested in discovering the route your ancestors took from the cradle of humankind in East Africa ― east through Asia and perhaps across the once ice-covered Bering Strait into the Americas, or northwest through Europe and eventually across the Atlantic Ocean?

 

The study is open to the public. Participation information is posted on the Genograhic Project Web site. There’s also an interesting video that tracks the results of DNA tests conducted on four individuals selected at random in New York’s Grand Central Terminal.

 

Look around. That’s your long-lost relative sitting across from you.