Who Are Our Ancestors and Why Does It Matter? – A Question of Science with Brian Cox
The Francis Crick Institute
240,068 views
Professor Brian Cox and our expert panel are talking all things ancient DNA.
Over the past 50 years, new technology has allowed researchers to sequence and study centuries-old DNA taken from ancient, long-buried human remains. This new insight into our past has led to a whole new understanding of our ancestors, from our migration across the globe, to the environmental changes we’ve experienced, and even the spread of ancient deadly pandemics like the black plague. Our panel of scientists answers questions from a studio audience about the usefulness of commercial DNA tests, the true meaning of ancestry, and what our ancient genetic material could reveal about our future.
Panellists
• Pooja Swali – Research Fellow in Pathogen Genomics, UCL
• Pontus Skoglund – Group Leader, Ancient Genomics Lab, Francis Crick Institute
• Adam Rutherford – Lecturer in Biology and Society, UCL
• Tom Booth – Senior Research Scientist and Archaeologist, Francis Crick Institute
In this episode
0:00 What’s this episode about?
1:48 Have the panel taken ancestry tests?
4:12 What is ancient DNA?
10:23 Is ancient DNA hard to study?
12:19 Is ancestry important?
14:49 How do we study migration?
21:03 Can we see pandemics in ancient DNA?
24:23 Can ancient DNA help with modern disease?
26:50 Are we immune to the plague?
28:37 Is it ethical to study human remains?
34:25 Do we have Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA?
37:22 Is red hair really Scottish?
38:30 How much ancient DNA is from unknown species?
41:22 Can ancient DNA unite us?
A Question of Science
A Question of Science is a groundbreaking series of panel discussions where experts from different fields respond to your questions, sharing the scientific perspective on society’s most pressing questions.
A Question of Science is BBC Studios Production for the Francis Crick Institute.
The Francis Crick Institute
The Francis Crick Institute is one of the biggest research institutes in Europe. We’re an independent lab and registered charity, and home to more than 1,500 scientists working to understand health, disease and how life works.
© BBC Studios / Francis Crick Institute 2025
20 Comments
All humans are, depending on whether you count differing numbers of duplicate sequences of DNA, from 99.5% to 99.8% genetically identical. All of the differences between people, including any Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA they may carry, are in that 0.2% of actual genetic difference. If 2% of that variable 0.2% shows Neanderthal ancestry, that's only 0.004% of your total genome.
Some geneticists are in the habit of treating the variable 0.2% as the only important part of the human genome, because that's where all the differences are - I've heard Adam Rutherford give the same seriously misleading percentages several times, too. But they all need to start being clear that they're citing percentages of the tiny variable part, and not the whole genome. It is dangerous to say that some groups of people are genetically very different from others - that fuels racism and eugenics. We're not that different, we're almost completely identical.
If people were as much as 2% genetically different from each other, they would be in different species, like chimpanzees and bonobos, which share more than 98% of their genomes with us. But all humans, whatever their ancestry, are the same species.
Thank you the panel for riffing off one another seamlessly to illustrate responses to the topic!
I wholeheartedly agree that working toward understanding our ancestry helps bring the human race together as a whole. For example, and as stated, recognizing that on average the human genome is two-percent Neanderthal — an attribute that likely expresses as immunity for epidemics and pandemics.
Personally, in addition to likely Neanderthal descents, I can share American Indian ancestry gifted developed immunity to virii like varicella — now cureable with vaccines as of the late 20th century in the U.S.
Most informative and trustworthy channel on the net.
Thanks for the great work!
Who Are Our Ancestors and Why Does It Matter? – A Question of Science with Brian Cox
The Francis Crick Institute
240,068 views
Professor Brian Cox and our expert panel are talking all things ancient DNA.
Over the past 50 years, new technology has allowed researchers to sequence and study centuries-old DNA taken from ancient, long-buried human remains. This new insight into our past has led to a whole new understanding of our ancestors, from our migration across the globe, to the environmental changes we’ve experienced, and even the spread of ancient deadly pandemics like the black plague. Our panel of scientists answers questions from a studio audience about the usefulness of commercial DNA tests, the true meaning of ancestry, and what our ancient genetic material could reveal about our future.
Panellists
• Pooja Swali – Research Fellow in Pathogen Genomics, UCL
• Pontus Skoglund – Group Leader, Ancient Genomics Lab, Francis Crick Institute
• Adam Rutherford – Lecturer in Biology and Society, UCL
• Tom Booth – Senior Research Scientist and Archaeologist, Francis Crick Institute
In this episode
0:00 What’s this episode about?
1:48 Have the panel taken ancestry tests?
4:12 What is ancient DNA?
10:23 Is ancient DNA hard to study?
12:19 Is ancestry important?
14:49 How do we study migration?
21:03 Can we see pandemics in ancient DNA?
24:23 Can ancient DNA help with modern disease?
26:50 Are we immune to the plague?
28:37 Is it ethical to study human remains?
34:25 Do we have Neanderthal or Denisovan DNA?
37:22 Is red hair really Scottish?
38:30 How much ancient DNA is from unknown species?
41:22 Can ancient DNA unite us?
A Question of Science
A Question of Science is a groundbreaking series of panel discussions where experts from different fields respond to your questions, sharing the scientific perspective on society’s most pressing questions.
A Question of Science is BBC Studios Production for the Francis Crick Institute.
The Francis Crick Institute
The Francis Crick Institute is one of the biggest research institutes in Europe. We’re an independent lab and registered charity, and home to more than 1,500 scientists working to understand health, disease and how life works.
© BBC Studios / Francis Crick Institute 2025
The views and opinions expressed in the comments to this video are solely those of the individuals and do not represent the views of The Francis Crick Institute.