Finding Out Who I Am: A look into my DNA

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The 23 and Me Testing Kit (Photo courtesy of James Hadfield)

Earlier this month I submitted a sample of saliva to the genomics and biotechnology company called 23 and Me. The company, founded by the wife of Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, allows individuals to get a portion of their genome decoded and they give some health and ancestral information. Only around 1 million of the 3 billion base pairs are read by the company and based on this, the report shows people their genetic predisposition to some diseases and other traits. I haven’t explored this part yet and will do in the coming weeks.

I was really interested in the ancestry part of their services. I am adopted and have found my biological mother and know a bit about my heritage, but it was really amazing to see in detail the percentages. It was also awesome to think about how humans came out of Africa and some of my DNA sequences are the same as the Neanderthals and the cavemen who painted those beautiful drawings in France.

Humanity is just in the beginning stages of understanding our genome and I hope I live long enough to see the advances in the field. It would be a great field to go into if I was younger. I am not sure how accurate the results are given that only a small portion of my DNA was decoded. The “speculative” read of my DNA was as follows:

Overall, I am 99.3 % European ancestry. The breakdown of this European DNA reads:

  • 38.6 % Eastern/Northern European
  • 19.1 % French/German
  • 12.7% Non-specific Northern European
  • 8.4% Balkan (yea Serbia!!!!)
  • 1.2% Iberian
  • 1.1% Italian
  • 7.9 % Non-specific Southern European
  • 9.6% Non-specific European

There are too many “non-specifics” for my liking and I am not sure how they arrived at this. Is it because they didn’t read enough of my DNA? Could it be that because Europeans interbred so often, that to distinguish between countries, or groups is difficult? Living in Serbia and being of Slavic origin, I always wondered if I had some Balkan blood in me, and yes indeed I do. The 0.7% of non-European DNA was defined as Middle Eastern/Northern Africa.

The company is also crowd sourcing DNA for its mega database to find insights into the human genome. I gladly contributed to this and with the 300,000 other people who have done this also, wish them luck in their research. The company also matches genetic relatives, known and unknown from the database. I found I have a second cousin who also submitted a saliva sample. There were a bunch of third to sixth cousins. Out of respect to my biological mother, I probably won’t look them up.

Another part of the company are collecting health and ancestry surveys from the participants. With this they can get more specific regarding country origins. The top two countries for me were Poland and Slovakia, which matches what my biological family has told me. Other countries earning percentages were Russia, the Ukraine, Estonia, Romania, and strangely, El Salvador and Cuba.

I am 2.8% related to Neanderthals, and the average European is 2.7%. That puts me in the 72 percentile. Very odd to think that humans bred with Neanderthals and we still carry some Neanderthal DNA with us today.

In tracing my maternal and paternal DNA lines, on my mother’s side I am Haplogroup H, which is typical of Europeans, and found in the Basque and Scandinavian populations. On my father’s side, I am the R1b1b2a1a, which comes from the fringes of the North Sea and over 50% of European men possess this group. Sharing the same paternal line is the media sociologist and author, Malcolm Gladwell.

I will be blogging more about this as I delve into the reports on the web site.

 

 

Adriatic Magic

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We recently spent 4 glorious days on the island of Čiovo, located just off the Croatia mainland next to the beautiful town of Trogir. The island is in the center of Croatia’s Dalmatian coast and it is our third trip to the Croatian coast and each time I like it more and more.

The highlight for me was renting a sea kayak for an afternoon with Owen. It was a great way to spend the day with my son. We paddled out of Okrug Gornji and found some secluded coves that were perfect for “cliff diving” and swimming.

I can see the allure of the Adriatic Sea. The turquoise water, that Mediterranean bright sun, the smell of pines and sea, and the white limestone rocks, really renews one’s soul. We spent most of the time on the beach because the kids couldn’t get enough of the water. In the evenings we enjoyed fresh fish dinners and took the ferry over to the mainland Trogir for ice cream. The town is an UNESCO world heritage site and it was pleasant to see the yachts in the harbor and meander through the old city in search of ice cream.

Okrug Gornji Harbor – Our Dinner View

There were a lot of tourists, mostly from Germany, Poland and other northern European countries. There were enough places to get away however and it didn’t feel that crowded.

We stayed on Čiovo because our good friend, Nemenja, his mother is originally from there and they have a summer home there. He and his family showed us some typical Balkan hospitality and made our stay even more wonderful. I want to thank Dragica, Milena, and especially Nemenja for showing us the secrets of Dalmatia.

I would bet the Croatians have an ambivalent attitude towards the crowds of tourists. Most locals have gotten into the rental business and converted their homes into apartments. The tourists also bring lots of revenue to the supermarkets, restaurants, ferries, shops, etc. They have changed the character and physical look of the place however, and it was interesting to hear Nemenja’s description of the town pre-tourist boom. There were very few Serbs around, and that stems from still ill feelings of Croats towards Serbs from the war. A bit inland is the former Serbian enclave and short-lived independent country (Republic of Serbian Krajina), Knin. A lot of violence occurred there and it would be a fascinating place to visit. The city went from being 79% Serbian to 75% Croatian. Serbians usually go a bit further south to the Montenegrin coast. We did get quite a few looks because of our licence plates. Croatia was celebrating their recent membership to the EU (July 1) and I am closely watching the impact on the country. Serbia is in the process of membership and so I am curious to see what benefits and disadvantages EU membership brings.

Ocean and Ollie Take a Break at Labadusa Beach

I learned that the Dalmatian breed of dog is not common in Dalmatia. The breed was originally from there, used as a guard dog for nomads, but the breeding and popularization of Dalmatians took place in England. The unofficial capital of Dalmatia is Croatia’s second city of Split. I would like to go and visit there. I also did not understand much of the Croatian language. They have a different accent and in this part of Croatia, they mix in a lot of Italian and Croatian terms that differ from Serbian. For example, they do not say prijetno, but dobar tek instead.
We will definitely be back to Dalmatia. It is seven hours from Belgrade via a fast, four-lane highway, although it goes in a roundabout way and not a direct route. Someone needs to put a large, straight highway from Belgrade through both Bosnia and Montenegro. Travelling through those countries is an uncomfortable and slightly dangerous experience due to the winding narrow roads.

Latest Reading – Gulp: Adventures in the Alimentary Canal

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I haven’t read many books about science lately, and it was refreshing to get back into it. The author, Mary Roach’s book Gulp was an informative, and entertaining read. I learned a lot of facts (summarized below) and she also put her personality into the book with humorous sentences interspersed in the writing and footnotes. It gave me “food for thought” to the workings of my digestive system. This book is really great for any biology or general science teachers and also easy to read for the general public. I never really thought of the digestive track to be one, long tube, but that is what it is.There are hundreds of interesting facts and stories. Below are some facts I found interesting in the book.

  • 5 tastes, but infinite odors – 80-90 % of the pleasure of eating is smell
  • Dogs put their heads out car windows because it is an awesome way to smell
  • Le Nez Du Vin – kits for learning specific smells
  • We only smell 5-10 % of inhaled air (imagine if it was more)
  • Average person only eats 30 differen food – 4-day repertoire
  • Eating animal organs are good for u – packed with nutrients, the most on earth – wild animals eat organs first
  • Saliva raises pH of food – antibacterial as well
  • Detergent and fabric softeners are digestive enzymes
  • Colds transmitted thru fingers more than mouth – don’t pick your nose
  • Hot dogs, grapes, round candies top 3 choking hazards – resulting in death of young children
  • Bristol Stool Scale – classifying shape and consistency of stool
  • Anus can tell if it is a solid liquid or gas and is rich in nerves
  • Flatulance 80% H 1/3 people CH4 as well
  • Beyond suckling there is no reason for absorbing lactose, so people should not drink milk
  • A person farts on avg. 22 times per day
  • Biggest risk factor in colon cancer is amount one eats – fiber does not help
  • Why does aspirin only inflame in stomach?
  • morning breath is H2S, bacteria eating shed tongue cells and there is no saliva to wash them away
  • Ecoli, Staph bacteria only aerobic type in stools;
  • colon, anus cancer taboo
  • Enteric nervous system is a primitive brain for the digestive system and immune system

Goodbye Bolivia!

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We all had a restful and joyous holiday, despite us being apart for most of it. The family stayed in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, while I started my Ed.D. program at Lehigh University. Shown above is the family with Nadia’s father and the family nanny, Modesta. The kids had a wonderful time with their grandfather, affectionately known as “Popa” and getting to know their Bolivian and Spanish language heritage a bit more. My absence meant they were immersed in Spanish and a closer bond was formed with Popa. He is such a nice guy!

The kids especially enjoyed being with the family dog, Lulu. It really makes me want to get a dog for them! We will look into it this year. The kids spent a lot of time on the four-wheeler Popa had waiting for them, and they had swimming and soccer lessons and visits with relatives to keep them occupied. There was some bad weather that kept them indoors at times, but that didn’t stop them from having lots of fun anyway.

American Rheas run free on the grounds of the Viru Viru airport in Santa Cruz.

I did get a few days in Santa Cruz and ate all of my favorite foods (salteñas, achachairu, empanadas) and my beloved “bolo” of coca leaves. The city is fast becoming an Andino city, with immigration from La Paz, Potosi, Cochabomba, etc. is really drowning the traditional “Camba” (the people from the lowland Bolivian provinces) families. I really noticed spotting lighter-skinned Crucenos is getting quite rare. It is a bit sad that the city is growing so fast, it is losing it’s frontier charm. It would have been better for Paraguay to win the Chaco War (1930s) because the people and the city are more Paraguayan than Bolivian. There is an autonomous Camba movement that I wrote about extensively during my last visit in 2011, but it is really too late. My advice would be to go further east, but that too will eventually become “Bolivian” as well. The climate and economy are so much better than on the altiplano that immigration will always be an issue.

Oliver with his abuelo, Popa.

On Broadway

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I went to Cyndi Lauper’s Broadway musical, Kinky Boots at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Manhattan yesterday. The scene above is from a play I went to earlier this summer, The Book of Mormon.

I am amazed at the popularity of Broadway plays, since the tickets are quite expensive (average price for a musical is $100) and there are so many people at the performances that tickets are a bit difficult to get. I looked up some statistics on the Broadway League web site and was again impressed at the size of the business.

Broadway plays outsell the top 10 professional New York sports teams combined! They grossed over $1 billion and over 11 million people saw plays last season. In confirming my suspicions looking at the crowd, 2/3 of the patrons are women and “women are more likely to make the purchasing decisions than their male counterparts”. The around 40 new productions each year are most musicals and they employ 86,000 people. The average Broadway play viewer attends four shows per year (which I did in 2013) and 2/3 of the audience are tourists.

Looking north on Sixth Avenue

Despite a definite feminine bent, I really enjoy going to Broadway. I am continually amazed at the aspect of the live performance, not only the singers, dancers, and actors, but the musicians under the stage, the sets and choreography. It is truly a professional and awe-inspiring performance and highly entertaining.

I would guess many of the performers are gay, but there were no stats on the Broadway League web site on this aspect. The flamboyant nature of theatre lends itself to this impression, but I could be wrong. It doesn’t bother me, I marvel at their talent. I wish I could sing and dance as well as them. They are truly incredible artists, but it makes the high school performances that I usually see pale in comparison.

I also wonder why the theatres are not larger. Most of them seat around 1,000 – 1,500, but I guess the intimate nature of them, gives the audience a better experience.

Bryant Park in July

I won’t be back to New York until next summer, but we are planning to take the kids again. I would like to see a regular play instead of a musical next time I am in town.

After the show we went for dinner in Greenwich Village, or as the locals call, The Village. I looked up an apartment in the area to see how much it would cost. A three-bedroom, two-bath, with terrace/garden between 2,000-2,500 square feet runs about 3.5 million. (ouch) Definitely an upscale section of Manhattan, but because of the densely packed nature of the island, real estate prices are crazy. I don’t know how most people can afford to live there. We also ate lunch in Bryant Park, the most densely packed park in the world and the scene of many TV and movies. It was really nice under the London Plane Trees.

I am getting to know NYC more every time I visit. It really is the capital of the world and a marvel.

The view of the new World Trade Center, looking south from The Village

The Jersey Shore

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No, this is not a blog post about the television reality series, but about the actual shore itself. I spent the day today in the Island Beach State Park, which is coincidentally, adjacent to where the show was filmed in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.

I really had a fantastic day, soaking up the sun, swimming in the cool Atlantic Ocean, and checking out the bird life on the other side of the barrier island, Barnegat Bay. I was skeptical, thinking that the beach would be crowded and commercialized, but the park was very well preserved and it was a quiet day under the hot sun.

I spent about an hour in the bird blind at Spizzle Creek. The blind overlooks the brackish flats of Barnegat Bay. It was truly awesome to watch the Osprey soar and the large egrets gliding near by. There were also no signs of damage from this spring’s Superstorm Sandy.

The Great Egret

I highly recommend this part of New Jersey! I came on a Monday and there was not much traffic and the beaches were not crowded. If you are going to the bay side, I would wear insect repellent as the flies were relentless.

Hawk Mountain Hike

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I went for a long hike yesterday in the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, an international center for raptor conservation. The reserve is located close to Bethlehem in the Appalachian Mountains, and is called the Kittatinny (American Indian tribe Lenape, meaning “endless”) which is a pretty appropriate name as the Appalachian Trail goes right by here on its way to Georgia or Maine. This is an important flyway for migrating raptors and they come through in the thousands every spring and fall.

I am pictured above in the “river of rocks” which are these long, narrow spaces with thousands of huge boulders. It is amazing to consider that this mile long field of boulders was formed 11,000 years ago by the ice age. The intense cold of that period, loosened the rocks and they tumbled down the valley. They are sometimes called upside down rivers because of the stream of water beneath them.

The reserve has a lot of rocks! It was fun to climb and scramble over them during my 6-mile hike yesterday. The rocks probably saved the area from the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers! The area is surrounded by old farms and new “McMansions” and so unfortunately while hiking, the sound of cars and motorcycles can still slightly be heard.

I saw one raptor flying through the canopy and got some great photos of these black vultures on the East Rocks area. Vultures are scientifically classified as raptors.

It was a wonderfully relaxing day, being alone in the woods. I sweated profusely, but the heat probably kept most hikers away and I had the far reaches of the park to myself. It would be awesome to be here during the migration periods.

The Appalachian Mountains do not have the majestic quality of the Rockies, but they have a beauty and mystery in their own right. I always get recharged being in the wilderness and the hike was a welcomed respite from my doctorate classes this summer. I will definitely be back with my kids, they would love to scale the rocks!

Visit to Central Park

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In my third trip to New York, I finally went to Manhattan’s Central Park. It has been featured in many movies and I wanted to check it out for myself. I only visited a small part of the park and do want to tour it thoroughly. The park is quite impressive and a big space, but I was surprised at the large number of people in the park. There were some bits, especially as you got further in that truly were bucolic, but it is hard to escape the city’s noise and man-made structures.

There was a pretty competitive softball game between teams of Broadway actors on the beautifully kept softball field. (photo below) There were also too many vendors, bike rickshaws, “buskers” and general riff raff in the park to take away from the peaceful experience.

I also thought about the super expensive luxury apartments with central park views. Yes it is nice, but not worth what you get from it. An apartment on the ocean or in the mountains is much more valuable in the pleasure one would receive from it.

The photo on the top of the blog is looking west across Sheep’s Meadow. I want to run completely across the park on one of my next visits.

I also met my friend Melissa for lunch. She spent the day with me in my workshop I had at the Jazz at Lincoln Center, and she talked about moving to Manhattan. The Columbus Circle area and the Time Warner Center is very beautiful. New Yorkers are also very friendly – one guy offered to help me find Central Park when I looking obviously lost at the map. This is not the first time it happened.

Me and Melissa at Columbus Circle

Probably the most impressive thing about New York is the amazing number of experts that congregate there. The best and brightest musicians, actors, businessmen, scientists, etc. all work in the various museums, institutes, offices, etc. There is an endless amount of experiences and things to learn. It truly is the capital of the world! I have yet to see Beijing or Tokyo, but I have been to London and it does top that in my “Capital of the World” rankings.

 

Lehigh Canal Bike Ride

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One of the nice things about being away from my family is the opportunity to go on long, solo bike rides. This is one of the items that went by the wayside when I started having children. I would rather spend time with them than alone.

This afternoon I went for a ride down the Delaware and Lehigh National Historical Corridor trail. The trail follows the former towpath and the section I rode down today runs from Allentown to Easton. The Lehigh Canal used to be the superhighway in the mid-1800’s and was used to transport the coal of the Pocono Mountains down to the steel mills of Bethlehem and beyond. The canal lost prominence with the rise of trains and finally ceased to function in the 1940s. You can still see the old locks, that allowed boats to go back up to the Poconos. As with the rails to trails in Michigan, I am glad that the communities here got together and made this initiative. It provided me some exercise and a lovely day watching the turtles and birds, and the flowing Lehigh River.

A group of Red-eared Sliders enjoys the sun with me!

I am a huge proponent of more bike and hiking trails and preservation of wilderness. This is a wonderful initiative an d I hope more trails are developed in the Lehigh Valley. I might even try to bike to school this week, leaving from Allentown.

These obnoxious Canadian Geese were very rude while I was trying to go by them.

A Pennsylvania Dutch Fourth of July

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I had an interesting Independence Day celebration here in south eastern Pennsylvania, the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch cultural region. The Pennsylvania Dutch were immigrants from Switzerland, Germany, and the Czech Republic who settled this area in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were seeking religious freedom, as many American immigrants. Over 300 years later, Pennsylvanians still affiliate with this culture, but most has been lost through the generations of American life and modern influences.

I attended the Kutztown Folk Festival, a celebration of values of these settlers. The Pennsylvanian Dutch are still evident today in the Amish settlements here, as well as private church affiliated universities like Moravian College. At the fair there were many old fashioned crafts, livestock shows, and a quilting competition. We stopped at an Amish farm (wheat field shown above) and bought some corn and tomatoes.

The Lehigh Valley Historical Society has done a good job in preserving the sites and promoting the teaching of history. It is amazing to think that this region was once on the frontier of America. The farmhouse below is from 1756 and is typical of the early frontier Pennsylvanian Dutch farms.

The Troxell-Steckel Farmhouse – 1756 – Ironton Rail Trail

It is nice that people recognize their heritage and remember the historical roots of America. With modern American culture, so much is homogenized that most US cities and towns are indistinguishable from each other. There is a lightly distinctive feeling of uniqueness here and the rolling hills of corn and wheat, the Mennonite horse carriages and the beautiful stone farm houses bring back memories of the first American settlers. It was a good way to spend birthday number 237 of the United States of America. Here in Pennsylvania, so close to many sites (Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Philadelphia) that played an important role in forming our nation.