Geneticist explains ancient DNA

[@StefanMilo]

Big thanks to KiwiCo for sponsoring this video! Check out www.kiwico.com/stefan and use code STEFAN for 50% off your first crate of a monthly club.

[@DryptosaurusDavid]

I want to ask a question to a science communicator. If I want to make videos on archaeological sites and history like Ancient Egypt, and Ancient Polynesia, and I do as much reasearch into archaeology as possible, and do my best to tell every fact as possible, will I be labeled as a Pseudo-archaeologist or a science communicator?

[@InternetStranger476]

Wholesome sponsor, nice job

[@americannapalm]

You have evidence of their artwork but it's dismissed downplayed or completely misunderstood. The Venus of hohle fels is way more sophisticated than is realized. Start by turning it upside down

[@jinxedfates]

my neice and nephew are about to love this lol

[@Neilhuny]

50% is a great discount!!

[@oro7114]

The joy on this mans face when he discusses DNA is amazing, love seeing someone so passionate about there field

[@mickvonbornemann3824]

Yeh, I don’t know who Stefan is & where he comes from (NZ?), but I love his videos too.

[@TonyArrison]

@@mickvonbornemann3824 hes british

[@rdklkje13]

Yes! Laurits’s enthusiasm put a smile on my face throughout this video, very contageous 😍

[@christinakirtley-duffy1028]

I thought the same thing, and since I am currently studying DNA that enthusiasm is infections!

[@jilewa]

Nothing more joyous than nerds nerding out 🤓🥳🥰

[@Buffalozilla]

Uploading an hour long video at midnight is diabolical Stephan

[@omgmo1962]

It was only around 4pm where he lives 😂

[@tashleyh]

Stefan*

[@johntheidiotfarmer6410]

Stegan*

[@reekiereekie7264]

It's always midnight somewhere

[@deathwarmedover]

You know it's a good week when you get Stefan Milo and Dan Davis in the same time frame. Awesome stuff Stefan.

[@LudosErgoSum]

Dan Davis is the boss!!!💪💪💪

[@buttpub]

good video yet again, but a good week? nah, this has been a shitty week

[@FischerNilsA]

@@LudosErgoSum He is a great writer. But I sooo want him to be able to pay a decent voice actor for his YT. The man can make me fall asleep in a few sentences with his monotone, droning, constantly cut, painstakingly-reading-from-the-script-voice with no cadence worth mentioning I like very much what he has to tell. B ut he says it in a style inducing heavy sleepiness and boredom. In me at least.

[@rowanpost6063]

​@@FischerNilsA big disagree

[@temujanradari1105]

​@@rowanpost6063Concur! He has a distinct non-AI voice that I always know when a video of his autoplays

[@mythosboy]

Good lord, the tree analogy and counting the differences alone seriously made a hard, hard concept much more solid. You guys should work together more often: with you standing in for us and his guidance with this difficult topic. Great material.

[@alaskapuss]

You should watch any of Svante Pääbo's lectures! He's really good at explaining it.

[@SupahGeck]

Holy crap I watched the Nebula special about ancient people's fascination with medicinal plants and totally didn't expect a whole different hour episode to drop too! I appreciate you going hard for us man.

[@icedcoffee222]

Hey what’s that nebula special please? Sounds interesting

[@username65585]

@@icedcoffee222Nebula is a streaming service created by KZbinrs. Creators create exclusive videos for Nebula and also release their KZbin videos early there without ads.

[@JohnSmith-sk7cg]

@@icedcoffee222 Pretty sure KZbin's comments would autodelete you if you tried to type the title of the video. It's the first user of a certain plant in human history.

[@vulcanfeline]

@@JohnSmith-sk7cg sounds like a can of bis

[@SiqueScarface]

I like how the "Neander" in Neanderthals literally means "new man". And the story behind the actual name is quite interesting too. It started out with a scholar and Lutheran priest in Bremen, Germany in the 17th century with the name Johann Joachim Neumann (Newman), who, in the fashion of the time, translated his name into Greek Neo Andros or short Neander to be more unique. His grandson, Joachim Neander, became a famous church hymn writer, so famous in fact, that the town council of Mettmann, Germany, decided to rename a lime rock formation, formerly called Hundsklipp (Dog's Cliff) into Neanderthal (Neander's Valley). The lime stone was mined for cement production, and that's where they found the bones of a new species of humans, literally a "new man" in "New Man's Valley". Today, you can take the suburban train line S28 from Düsseldorf, and step out at Neanderthal Station and be around real, living Neanderthals (people living in Neanderthal).

[@oldernu1250]

Thanks for sharing that story. Reminds me of James Burke's series Connections. So many interactions cause understanding to grow.

[@nickfosterxx]

Very cool, thank you.

[@raempftl]

And here is another interesting twist: In 1906 Germany had a spelling reform. One of the things that was changed was that it was thought to be superfluous to show that German Ts are aspirated by writing an H after each T because all Ts are aspirated in German. So the spelling of Thal (valley) changed to Tal. The new rules were optional for proper names. But the Neanderthal and the species named after it both are now spelled Neandertal and Neandertaler, respectively, in German.

[@SiqueScarface]

@@raempftl And to add to the twist: The railway station is still called Neanderthal, despite the suburb being renamed to Neandertal.

[@raempftl]

@@SiqueScarface Really? I went there last year and completely missed that!

[@theg0z0n]

Smilo Bro, if you read this, thank you for having Laurits back. his energy is just great. And real talk, thanks for showing when you're really thinking about what he's saying, parsing the knowledge in real time. I think it's important for people to see even knowledgeable people like you learning, and not just knowing. Anyway, Thanks Smilo, your efforts make some random dude in the southern US' day better!

[@dannybrown5744]

Im so glad i have a bell for Milo. Always good contest for years now, with the plastic spoon and during covid you kept me from going bonkers

[@cjscorah]

I like Stefan' s lightbulb moments. And Laurits' enthusiasm. Wonderful video, what a treat

[@DorchesterMom]

I can acutely visualize Laurits as a younger child going on and on about his latest special interest - the enthusiasm he shows in teaching Milo is so wholesome and contagious ❤ How awesome is this? I can see why he’s a three time guest speaker. Thanks guys!

[@t1t0s89]

It's funny seeing these tools being used and explained to one of my favourite anthropology creators. And really cool that deamination was so easily visualised. As a molecular biologist it's one of the reasons we use slightly alkaline buffers to store DNA because acidic environments leads to deamination.

[@omgmo1962]

Also mol bio, I love seeing our field being explained and people realizing the scope of it all! DNA is AMAZING

[@69Buddha]

Laurits was absolutely fantastic! I didn't realize this was over an hour long when I started, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I particularly love the geneticist question (not specifically stated, but inferred) of "how different does DNA have to get before we draw a line and say 'new species?'" I think we like things arranged neatly into boxes, and I also think nature just doesn't care.

[@drcurioustube]

Science without definitions would be difficult

[@rdklkje13]

My favourite comment in this respect came from David Reich. He made the point that for all we know, those of us who are non-Africans are not modern humans with a bit of Neanderthal DNA, but Neanderthals whose ancestors admixed with wave after wave of modern humans as they were leaving Africa. He said this would be just as valid an interpretation of our current data.

[@annepoitrineau5650]

nature really does not care.

[@GeneaVlogger]

This was really interesting! While I know a lot about DNA through my work in genetic genealogy, this filled in a lot of various gaps in my knowledge. The part about finding 'new' species was especially fascinating because it sounds like a technique we use in genetic genealogy called ancestral reconstructed genomes, where we use the DNA of multiple known cousins from a family to reconstruct the genome of their shared ancestor.

[@Neilhuny]

Thank-you to Laurits Skov for being so damned good at explaining everything

[@fred5763]

@19:05 "Little powerhouses"... "The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell" echos in my mind

[@krickrack]

This is by far the greatest video on how DNA works I've seen on youtube!

[@epochalypsemeow5732]

The visual of Stefan’s wheels turning in his mind while listening is 🤌🤌 Amazing as always!

[@DALLYWALL2015]

I have had questions about this for so long. I'm very excited to watch. Just quality content Stefan!

[@davidharrison7072]

I really enjoyed that introduction to ancient genetics. I feel like I understand it so much better now. I'm so thrilled by all the information ancient DNA is providing about the past, but details and the science behind it can seem daunting. Thanks for tackling this topic!

[@ben8521]

How lucky are we to be able to listen to two enlightened individuals discussing such interesting topic with so much passion, with a single click. Thank you Stefan and Laurits.

[@philomenahearn1717]

Thank you Milo for introducing us to such diverse and obscure subjects but that still follow our archaeological thread. This topic had me feeling puzzled as you often looked …. But it became clearer by the end. And yes the tangent over Chinese data compared to European data ( no doubt we have USA to thank for that data) was particularly interesting tome - I had my dna and that of my daughter compared on two different dna research sites. One was more “accurate” than the other and it was because one was more USA based and the other relied more on family trees from paper/historic records… an illegitimate grandmother put a spanner in the works records wise but dna showed that her father was from the Indian continent. The site relying on predominantly paper records missed that connection (even though they claimed to use dna) so perhaps it was also down to their company not having enough diverse dna data

[@fusilly__]

This is the first time I really understood a lot of the stuff that Svante Pääbo and others have talked about regarding ancient dna. Thanks to both of you for explaining it with great examples and for asking the right questions.

[@sharkyhmh]

Learned more about biology from these two in a windowless room, than I have in decades of life. Awesome video!

[@salathe]

I just want to say that this is an incredible episode.

[@paulwhite6995]

Really wish after that I had a beer in the fridge! Very enlightening. Laurits Skov is a great communicator and filled in some blanks for me too.

[@fridocalifornia6276]

Loarie Scott

[@paulwhite6995]

@@fridocalifornia6276 thanks for that. Just pasted the name from the introduction: "Geneticist Laurits Skov sits down to discuss all things..."

[@rosssmith8087]

Thank you Stefan for an awesome video on a topic I've been wanting to understand. It's fair to say I still don't really understand (this video is going to get a lot of repeat views), but it is such a an amazing subject that really enriches who we are and where we have come from. Laurits did a fantastic job at trying to explain such a complex topic. I think at the end of the day I'm going to trust the science and all the people like Laurits doing this work. I can't wait to see more of this story unfold.

[@callistaaguilar]

Finally I have a horrible virus so I can stay home and catch up on Stefan Milo. I wish I could love DNA and genetics like this dude. He has pure joy as he explains the beauty of it. My brain is exploding. The amount of mutations!

[@vickiwalker3486]

Wonderful experience for me as an ancient English major! I do enjoy your channel, Milo, and thanks for your ongoing discussions with guests like Laurits Skov.

[@kwlalfie]

I don't normally comment on videos but I have to say thank you for making such interesting content dude! i'm a layman but the way you (and Laurits Skov) explain stuff has me fascinated in ancient human genetics!!

[@daveb7122]

I loved the sentence analogy! Really great way to explain things that are similar, different and stand out even when you dont know where it came from

[@kb3964]

Really enjoyed this and actually understood when you both broke it down. Thanks so much, look for to collab four in the future.

[@Davey-Boyd]

That was absolutely fascinating Stefan! Thank you both!

[@AWildBard]

Great stuff! I appreciate your questions Stefan Milo, I felt the same way. It's not easy to take in right away but totally fascinating. And big thanks to Laurits Skov for answering the questions with such enthusiasm and detail.

[@huffalot6764]

Wow! Big thanks to Laurits for taking time to do this. 🤯

[@DryptosaurusDavid]

Never been this early to a video about human history.

[@kyleschoonover8013]

Me either 😅

[@nicomartinez2168]

how tf

[@ivanthegreat1004]

Same

[@kurtoogle4576]

Laurits Skov is a pretty awesome guy and I love his research!! Thanks for covering this in-depth! We learned a lot!

[@Chompchompyerded]

That looked more like an iced late than a beer, but either way, it must have been good, and was well deserved. My thanks probably aren't worth much, but I'll offer it anyway. This video was very interesting. I'm glad that I'm not in any classes in which Laurits Skov is teaching, because I'm afraid I'd be asking endless questions which would drive him nuts, and would either get a muzzle put on me, or get me removed from class entirely. This is just fascinating science that simply wasn't around when I was in college. We thought we were too hot to touch because we'd figured out how to date things using nuclear decay. The big news of the day was remains of an ancient up-right walking, gracile ape who the discoverer had whimsically named "Lucy". Neanderthals were oafish hunchbacks which we might or might not be related to, and there was a first year professor who was stirring the departmental pot by making the wild claim that not only were they related to us, but that if you put a suit coat and tie on one, gave him a good shave, and made him wear a hat, he probably wouldn't stand out much from all the other people running around the city at the time. I had a hard time deciding if that was a serious dis- of the people who lived there at the time, or if they actually were that similar to us. As we learn more, things change, and that is the beauty of scientific thought. I only wish the battle over new ideas didn't have to be so contentious. I don't know... Maybe it needs to be that way. I went on to be a very successful concert musician and professor of music, where the wars aren't so much like blood sport, though they can get quite serious if and when someone's bull gets gored. Oh Academia, I am so glad I'm divorced from you by retirement... but at the same time I'm not. Strange, this love hate relationship.

[@HavardStreAndresen]

Sometimes I go back, and rewatch your videos. Thats how good they are😄

[@paulsherriff6337]

What an excellent guest. Thank you a brilliant one Stefan.

[@Exit311]

You mention that you're lucky to have access to experts but it's really more of a testament to your informed enthusiasm and effectiveness as an educator

[@ruththinkingoutside.707]

Perfect start for the one morning off! .. Stefan talking about Neanderthals!! Thank you!!!😊

[@Etothe2iPi]

I may look lazy, but I'm EXTREMELY busy on the cellular level.

[@martinlea224]

Fascinating. Thank you Stefan and Laurits. Very intellectually stimulating.

[@emo-sup-sock]

Always happy to see a new video from you on my homepage :) You've turned me into a major archeology and anthropology nerd. I had a brief stint in academia and very much enjoy seeing this sort of "what's on the scientist's screen" stuff, I miss it quite a bit.

[@imperfectclark]

Always good vibes... love learning about human origins with Stefan 👍

[@TheStarBlack]

I love that such a huge part of human history is just us finding new and interesting people to bonk!

[@simonereadstexts]

that last bit was a real eye-opener, because I'd just been reading about stuff that only survives in the *textual* record through quotation, and maybe, maybe, allusion in some other sources and trying to work out the contours of that people jumping between Spain, Norht Africa and the Levant around 900 CE were maybe doing the same kind of thing in more ways than one

[@iDk-dp1bi]

You’re currently carrying me (motivationally) through my archaeology degree

[@robertdiehl1281]

Always so grateful for a Stefan Milo archaeological video. Just fun learning.

[@nikolavideomaker]

I doubt you will ever see this, but thank you for all of this content. I am a Molecular Biology student, who has always had a passion in history. And only last year I found out about ancient DNA, largely through you. I have decided to pursue a PhD in the field after I finish my master's degree. I hope that one day we can talk some on the topic. Cheers!

[@GoBlueGirl78]

I studied molecular biology too, it’s great to hear younger people are so interested in it, it’s truly a fascinating science, especially when we add history into it. Best wishes on your PhD!

[@JanjayTrollface]

Awesome! Cheers for asking a few of the same questions I've wanted clarification on over the last year or so

[@Gfoot1]

Title: How can we find new species of ancient human? Stefan when Laurits Skov appears in the first second: "I found him!" You're ruthless to your guests, Stefan 😂

[@sarcastaball]

One hour video from mr Milo? Yes please! ❤

[@mikejay3713]

Lets goo! New Stephan Milo. milo Rossi, Lindsay Nikole, and new Casual Geographic all in one week!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@icedcoffee222]

Hey Stefan your content is amazing I look forward to your videos all the time! Thanks for all your hard work! Keep em coming x

[@basilbrushbooshieboosh5302]

I'm a science teacher but it's genetics that still ties me in knots.

[@danielm81]

That was great! Thanks to both of you!

[@liammelville8704]

A neat coincidence, I am currently taking a Pestilence in Antiquity class and we talk about aDNA all of the time. So this video was great at reinforcing some of the ideas I learned in class, Molecular Clock Analysis, SNPs, Phylogenetic trees, and how the actual process of comparing aDNA to modern DNA samples.

[@oscartjerrild9689]

I was giggling so much over the fact that they kept bringing up the example of Laurits' mom being homo erectus and no disrespect to Laurids or his mom but that's just such a funny thought to me. Imagine a homo erectus just living in modern-day Denmark and no one noticing. Should be a sitcom.

[@eternalfizzer]

This is amazing - thanks so much for slogging thru the details so we can gain an inkling of what is happening in your field. I appreciate watching someone who has mastery of a topic explain to someone who still remembers what the most abecedarian questions are. Thanks to Laurits for sharing his passion and Stefan for patiently teasing out answers to stretch the brains of viewers without degrees in the subjects.

[@ratman6525]

Hell yeah !! Never been this early!

[@S-uuuu]

What an excellent video. I really enjoyed this. Thanks lads!

[@KetchupLettuce]

The new haircut looks great! Adding a fade to the humble buzzcut is simple and adds quite a bit of sophistication

[@efowlermail]

Awesome interview, learned alot.

[@Lerial-v8q]

Thanks a lot for this. Laurits is such a nerd but I actually felt I understood this even though I am far from a science major. The analogy with the Nordic languages was SO spot on! Keep up the good work Stefan and keep giving us stuff that is a little hard to grasp. 0

[@siberianfastfood]

Epic video. And so cool that low production videos can be that good if they have the right content and are presented by the right people. Absolutely crisp, I always wanted to know how working on these things look like in real life. Now I know. Thanks Stefan !

[@ohyeayea6692]

Listened to the whole video; have little idea what was going on but picked up a couple of points. Still, overall I found it very interesting, quite profound and maybe not as difficult to understand as I had imagined.

[@robertvesetas8751]

Spooky Sefan, at 17:17 I saw GATTACA.... Fantastic interview.

[@jasonburbank2047]

So incredibly wholesome and fascinating!

[@WillaLamour]

This is an AWESOME video. Thank you Laurits and Stefan. Brilliant. I’ve learnt soooooo much.

[@Reginaldesq]

Thanks Stefan and thanks Laurits. Awesome

[@Idellphany]

As someone who sorts her DNA matches for fun, to confirm my family tree.... I am so happy to see the same techniques at a global scale!! and I am working on dna painting my X chromosome from my grandmother also! Thank you so much!

[@WaterShowsProd]

Very interesting. If you want to learn more about phylogenetic trees, Clint's Reptiles does episodes where he picks a group of animals and shows how they are placed on trees in relation to each other. He doesn't go deep into genetics, though sometimes he points out how the genetic mapping determined their place on the tree rather than morphological similarities which are sometimes down to convergent evolution. He also explains how shared traits can be used to determine which species must come before or after a less derived species.

[@stirwoodcraft]

Just watched this on Nebula, I learnt more about how DNA is looked at, more here than anywhere else I've come across. Thanks so much to you both 💛

[@phillipmitchell2254]

Stefan! Thank you for existing king

[@Petty_Mason]

Awww my alma mater GO BEARS ‘’93. Thank you for the fascinating vid and for the sweet nostalgia. Lucy was in my anthro lab and started my fascination w archaeology

[@DemetriSelas-u6o]

Thanks for your channel Stefan. Thanks for your interest in the topic because we learn from your knowledge and enthusiasm.

[@haleylitogot8436]

this was such a fun watch thank you guys for sharing this knowledge

[@maybellejohnson4424]

This interview was great, thank you! And best of luck in your upcoming research, hopefully we get to see a follow up interview to find out some of your results one day!

[@evanozaroff4742]

Love this deep dive into something I would otherwise probably never get the chance to see. Super interesting

[@Hellemokers]

I want this 5 hours

[@annepoitrineau5650]

One thing we must not forget: these populations of the past were tiny in fact. Never more than 100 000 humans, adding all species, across Eurasia before farming began. The territory was huge, bigger than now during glaciations. Neanderthals were living there from 400 000BCE. Therefore they knew how to use the resources on offer, no matter the climate. Also, hunter gatherer populations expand slowly. Much more slowly than farming populations, and when a group gets too big, there is a split, and part of the group goes off on its own. Moreover: if Sapiens had been hostile, it would have been easy for Neanderthals to hide from them, or move away, since they knew the terrain. People get a sense of perspective when I tell them that there are 90 000 Khoisans in the Kalahari. The population is stable, and the Kalahari is roughly the same as france+Italy. The Khoisans have all they need. In my opinion, we will discover that Neanderthals/Denisovans merged into us or disappeared due to fertility issues/populations falling beyond critical levels and being too inbred (just like today's endangered species)/illness (whether from Sapiens or animals).

[@jpg1789]

That was an amazing talk. Thanks love each second of it ❤

[@Metal_Malachy]

Took me a few sessions to watch the whole thing through, but I this video was SO FASCINATING. CHEERS!

[@cheryldueck318]

This was fantastic! I think I came in with slightly more DNA knowledge than you did at the outset of the video, but there are a few times I went back and listened to a section a few times before it clicked! Super interesting! Thanks so much for bringing this to us.

[@thefamousmattjackson]

This was great. Really interesting. Thanks for this one

[@TwitchPunk]

Thank you for such an enlightening video

[@Kalanchoe_]

awesome video! what an incredibly fascinating topic

[@Taylor_in_Southern_Oregon]

Before even watching this, I just want to say thank you for finally getting out another video. I can hardly wait.

[@markusresch9889]

A master piece, Stefan! Thank you!

[@susanpatterson7088]

I really enjoyed the genetics talk!

[@somebodyandthem]

Me too that’s why I voted for trump

[@chrisg2307]

Great video as always!!

[@janiwal75]

Awsom video! Thanks so much. For someone who doesn't know a lot about DNA it was so well explained through the question/answer process. I learned so much! A real eye opener👍

[@TheTrekkie12]

Ah jeez now i can't wait for genetics to identify the first generation neanderthal/sapiens. that would tell us so much!

[@maggiebrinkley4760]

Wow! What a brilliant video! Yes, my brain is melting, and I'm going to have to re-watch to understand more, but I think I'm beginning to grasp how ancient dna 'works.' Mr Skov has the rare talent of being able to explain complex ideas in a comprehensible way. And, Stefan, you have the equally rare talent of being able to ask the questions that we are thinking! I hope you enjoyed your beer (though to be brutally honest I don't think much of American beer. A nice East Anglian IPA would be my preference - perhaps it's genetic?????) With love from the UK.

[@patricio.brevis-acuna]

That was a great conversation. The signs of good research sometimes are: 1). data or evidence over egos; 2). gradual advancement in knowledge (baby steps at a time); 3. Embrace uncertainty (research that generates more questions than answers). I saw all of that during the chat. I feel that the link between linguistics and palaeogenetics is still underutilised. There are language hotspots like PNG which probably hold huge human diversity, and the answer to many questions regarding ancient human migration.

[@niamhfox9559]

That was so informative! I was just glued to the screen the whole time! I had to think of the DNA being like a 4 note song, that copying such a long song will change it over the years in order to grasp the concept. I always wondered how genetically diverse Neanderthals were and how much they moved or changed over time.

[@kraekennedy]

I absolutely loved this video! It has been fascinating to watch.

[@891Henry]

Excellent video. Have him back again please. Thanks Stefan.