History in a Genome

Each of us contains a history in our DNA. As I explain in my upcoming book, She Has Her Mother's Laugh, our genomes are each a sampling of genetic material from our distant ancestors. If scientists find a genome from a previously unknown population of people, that one person's DNA can profoundly change how we think about human history.

In 2010, archaeologists in Alaska discovered an infant girl's skeleton in a burial pit. She died 11,5000 years ago. Now, eight years later, they've finally recovered her genome. And she's giving us a new window into the great migration that brought people from Asia to the Americas. For the details of this remarkable discovery, you can read my account today in the New York Times.