What Neanderthal Genes Are Doing in Your DNA, The Time Photosynthesis Killed Nearly All Life on Earth, and the Inventor of “Do, Re, Mi” Notation
Curiosity Weekly
Warner Bros. Discovery
4.6 • 964 Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2020
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Learn about what Neanderthal genes might be doing in your DNA; Guido d’Arezzo, the 11th-century Benedictine monk who invented “Do, Re, Mi” notation, or solfège; and how photosynthesis killed off 99 percent of life on Earth during the the Great Oxygenation Event.
How Neanderthal genes might be influencing your skin, mood, and immune system by Andrea Michelson
- Genetic data on half a million Brits reveal ongoing evolution and Neanderthal legacy. (2019, January 3). Genetic data on half a million Brits reveal ongoing evolution and Neanderthal legacy. Science | AAAS. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/genetic-data-half-million-brits-reveal-ongoing-evolution-and-neanderthal-legacy
- Modern humans inherited viral defenses from Neanderthals. (2018, October 4). Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2018-10-modern-humans-inherited-viral-defenses.html
- Akst, J. (2019, September). Neanderthal DNA in Modern Human Genomes Is Not Silent. The Scientist Magazine. https://www.the-scientist.com/features/neanderthal-dna-in-modern-human-genomes-is-not-silent-66299
- Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. (2010, March). Homo neanderthalensis. The Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Program. https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-neanderthalensis
"Do, Re, Mi" Notation Was Invented by One Man 1,000 Years Ago by Reuben Westmaas
- Guido d’Arezzo | Italian musician | Britannica. (2020). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guido-dArezzo-Italian-musician
- Liturgical Year : Activities : Hymn: Ut queant laxis (text). (2011). Catholicculture.org. https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=1128
- Reisenweaver, A.J. (2012). Guido of Arezzo and His Influence on Music Learning. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Guido-of-Arezzo-and-His-Influence-on-Music-Learning-Reisenweaver/bf534cc325162c9503f586bbd8d744ee5e7b37e4
- Magill, F. N., Aves, A. (1998). Dictionary of World Biography: The Middle Ages. https://books.google.com/books?id=CurSh3Sh_KMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
The time that photosynthesis killed off 99% of life on Earth by Cameron Duke
- Kendall, B. (2013, March 18). Earth’s oxygen revolution. Wat on Earth. https://uwaterloo.ca/wat-on-earth/news/earths-oxygen-revolution
- Great Oxidation Event: More oxygen through multicellularity. (2013). ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130117084856.htm
- Marshall, M. (2009). Timeline: The evolution of life. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17453-timeline-the-evolution-of-life/
- Plait, P. (2014, July 28). When a Species Poisons an Entire Planet. Slate Magazine. https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/the-great-oxygenation-event-the-earths-first-mass-extinction.html
- Tarlach, G. (2018, July 19). The Five Mass Extinctions That Have Swept Our Planet. Discover Magazine. https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/mass-extinctions
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Curiosity.com. |
| 0:05.9 | I'm Cody Gough. And I'm Ashley Hamer. |
| 0:08.0 | Today you learn about what Neanderthal genes might be doing in your DNA, |
| 0:12.1 | the person who invented Do Ray Me notation, also known as Sulfage, |
| 0:16.0 | and that time photosynthesis killed off 99% of life on Earth. |
| 0:21.0 | Let's satisfy 99% of your curiosity. |
| 0:26.0 | Before you go calling someone a Neanderthal, |
| 0:28.8 | you might want to take a look at your own DNA. |
| 0:32.1 | You may find that you have more Neanderthal in you than you'd think. |
| 0:36.5 | That's because about 50,000 years ago our ancestors actually mated with the other ancient hominins. |
| 0:43.0 | And this was no casual fling. |
| 0:45.0 | Our species were interbreeding enough |
| 0:47.0 | that pieces of Neanderthal DNA still exist in some people's genomes today. |
| 0:52.0 | Scientists discovered evidence of human Neanderthal relations |
| 0:56.0 | shortly after they first sequenced the Neanderthal genome in 2010. |
| 1:00.0 | They found that modern humans of Eurasian descent could trace about 2% of their DNA back to Neanderthal origins. |
| 1:07.0 | Since this discovery, scientists have been trying to understand how much the gene variance we've inherited from Neanderthals affect who we are today. |
| 1:15.6 | They haven't found any variants that have a unique effect the way they have with many human genes. |
| 1:20.9 | But they have been able to identify some associations between Neanderthal |
| 1:25.5 | DNA sequences and the expression of certain characteristics. |
| 1:30.2 | By studying the genomes of more than 100,000 modern British people, |
| 1:34.4 | scientists found that people with Neanderthal ancestry were paler and more likely to get sunburned. |
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