During a recent trip to the zoo, this silverback gorilla walked up to an observation window, leaned forward, stared into my son’s eyes and struck a pose remarkably similar to that of my son’s. They were frozen in this state for a good 5-10 seconds. Long enough to fire up some neurons and remind me of our early relationship to primates.

Last year, I met Lynn Fellman, a talented artist who creates portraits based on a person’s DNA (as an extension to National Geographic’s Genographic Project which traces a  participant’s genetic lineage). She’s fascinating and has a unique ability to help one visualize mankind’s historic and scientific place in this world. I asked Lynn to produce a DNA portrait of my family based on my kids’ DNA data.

Here’s the final product (even prettier in “real life”).

And here is Lynn’s detailed description of what this all mean and how the information was gathered (yes, I swabbed by kids’ inner cheeks to collect DNA samples).

Farmers in the fertile crescent: Haplogroup J2 The Men
Haplogroup J2, the paternal line, lands her son’s ancestors smack dab in Italy. Aligning with family history, once the Y chromosome arrived they stayed in the neighborhood. See the blue route coming out of Africa? The northern branch ends close to what would become 15,000 years later — Rome, Italy (the boot is highlighted). Notes from the Genographic Project say that “J2″ pioneered the shift from gathering to farming, kick starting the Neolithic Revolution. Very impressive but mere youngsters compared to the DNA lineage of the female line.

Amazing global travelers: Haplogroup X The Women
Her daughter’s lineage is one of the rare groups that traveled the furthest across the globe — Hap Group X. There are three female and two male groups that eventually crossed the ancient, now submerged continent of Beringa, to North America. Haplogroup X is one of them. When I first saw the results I double triple checked, thinking I made an error. But no, there was a small branch of the route curving to left. That group decided to stay, in what would become about 30,000 years later, the Hungarian empire. So the family story in current time matched the deep ancestry. How interesting though, that some family members broke away to travel across Asia and into the New World. People who survived to found the Native American tribes such as the Ojibwa, Sioux and Navajo. See the image at the top to see how the route continues.

Read more.

Obviously, with a name like “Science Cheerleader” I spend a lot of time advocating (good) science, in addition to technology, engineering and math (but “STEM Cheerleader” just doesn’t sound as cool).

I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize the importance of other life-enriching subjects including, but limited to, music, art, dance, writing, religion, philosophy, history…

In this spirit, I present you with a wonderful article written by my very talented sister-in-law, Debbie Cavalier, a Dean at Berklee College of Music. To her thousands of adoring little fans, she’s just Debbie from the musical group Debbie and Friends. Not surprisingly, this article focuses on the importance of music.

DO WE REALLY NEED A REASON? by Debbie Cavalier

John J. Mahlmann, executive director of the National Association for Music Education, was quoted in the Washington Post as saying he is tired of having to defend the importance of music education. He often finds it necessary to rattle off statistics about how music improves the lives of people who study it. The sheer joy of playing and understanding music isn’t enough, he said.
So he has an unorthodox response to educators: “Why is math so high on the priority list?”

His answer: “Because we can test for it.”

The thing people forget, he said, is that musicians are assessed every time they play an instrument. “If you went to a concert and they only played 80 percent of the notes correctly, you wouldn’t like it,” he said. “Musicians strive for perfection. Lots of people don’t mind 80 percent on a math quiz.”

Here are some more “reasons” why music education matters, as collected and presented by Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

1. Schools with music programs have graduation rates of 90.2 percent, as compared with a 72.9 percent rate for schools without music education, according to a 2006 Harris Interactive poll of high school principals funded by the National Association for Music Education and International Music Products Association (NAMM). The poll also found that schools with music programs have attendance rates of 93.3 percent, compared with 84.9 percent for those that don’t.

2. In 2006, SAT takers with course work or experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the college entrance exam and 43 points higher on the math portion than did students with no such experience in the arts. Scores of those with course work in music appreciation were 62 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, according to the College Board’s 2006 Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report.

3. A November 2007 Harris poll found that 86 percent of college graduates had some music education when they were in school, compared with 65 percent for those who had not completed or completed only high school. Eighty-three percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education, the poll found.

Dr. Elliot W. Eisner of Stanford University reports the arts have cognitive effects, aiding in the preparation for entry into the workforce of the 21st century. Specifically, he cites the following key competencies as being developed through arts education: perception of relationships, skills in finding multiple solutions to problems; attention to nuance; adaptability; decision making skills; and visualization of goals and outcomes.For more “reasons,” there are many helpful resources such as musicforall.org, amc-music.com/ and schoolmusicmatters.com.

To me, the sheer joy of music making, for people from 0 to 100+, is reason enough!

I met many fascinating people in Minneapolis at Innovation 2008.  One of them is Lynn Fellman, an artist who creates personalized portraits–and I do mean personalized. Her portraits are based on DNA sequences and mutation markers.

I’m ordering one–choosing to ignore that nagging inner voice cautioning me against this. “Do you REALLY want your DNA information to end up in the hands of scientists, insurance agents, future employers or worse–marketers!?”  Lynn assures me my DNA will be kept top secret and remain nameless.

Hey, a couple of weeks ago, ten super smart people volunteered to donate their DNA to science. More from Scientific American:

Ten people  allowed their genetic maps to be publicly displayed on the Web in the name of research. The effort is part of Harvard Medical School’s Personal Genome Project (PGP), which aims to create a large public database of human DNA to aid researchers in their quest to find the causes and cures for genetic maladies.   

One of the participants explains how relatively inexpensive DNA sequencing technology works and why he believes this project has the potential to change the face of medical research.

While another argues that privacy issues may be a concern but that it’s overshadowed by the fear that insurance companies will refuse to provide coverage or will charge sky-high rates if aware that someone has a pre-existing genetic condition or risk of developing a certain disease.

Interested in having your health history and genes published online for the benefit of science?  The project got approval this spring to expand the project to 100,000 people, and they’re looking for volunteers.