MIDSUMMER NIGHTS' SCIENCE: WHO WE ARE AND HOW WE GOT HERE: ANCIENT DNA AND THE NEW SCIENCE OF THE HUMAN PAST: Broad Institute

In 2010, the first genome-wide data from ancient humans was published. Since that time, the number of ancient genomes available has increased by three orders of magnitude, and the amount of data continues to rise at an extraordinary rate. These new data make it possible, for the first time, to understand how ancient human populations are related to each other. Studies have demonstrated surprise after surprise, including the existence of a previously unknown human population called the Denisovans and interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.

In this 2017 Midsummer Nights' Science talk, David Reich described his laboratory’s work in the area of ancient DNA and the prospects for further discoveries about the past from this burgeoning field.

  

Consider as well the quotation from foremost primatologist - 

“The view of morality as a set of immutable principles, or laws, that are ours to discover ultimately comes from religion. It doesn't really matter whether it is God, human reason, or science that formulates these laws. All of these approaches share a top-down orientation, their chief premise being that humans don't know how to behave and that someone must tell them. But what if morality is created in day-to-day social interaction, not at some abstract mental level? What if it is grounded in the emotions, which most of the time escape the neat categorizations that science is fond of? Since the whole point of my book is to argue a bottom-up approach, I will obviously return to this issue. My views are in line with the way we know the human mind works, with visceral reactions arriving before rationalizations, and also with the way evolution produces behavior. A good place to start is with an acknowledgment of our background as social animals, and how this background predisposes us to treat each other. This approach deserves attention at a time in which even avowed atheists are unable to wean themselves from a semireligious morality, thinking that the world would be a better place if only a white-coated priesthood could take over from the frocked one.”

The Bonobo And The Atheist, Chapter 1 – EARTHLY DELIGHTS, page 23

Frans de Waal (2013)

what if #morality is created in day-to-day social interaction, not at some abstract mental level? Frans De #Waal

ANCIENT #DNA AND THE NEW SCIENCE OF THE #HUMAN PAST -

Creationism has EVOLVED :)  #CRISPR #Morality 

ANCIENT #DNA AND THE NEW SCIENCE OF THE #HUMAN PAST -

Creationism has EVOLVED :)  #mRNA saves lives #CRISPR #Morality is bottom up not top down