Analyzing ancient DNAs of different populations led to many astonishing discoveries about the past of our species. Unsurprisingly, like other areas, scientific findings through genome analyses collided with conventional wisdoms leading to cultural and political battle. This is especially true for India where a certain political ideology, deeply rooted in conjectured indigenousness, has been gaining strength for the last few decades. While earlier genome studies showed strong evidence (at least partially) refuting such conjecture, a new research on modern genomes of Indian population, and subsequent mapping with ancient genomes bolstered those evidence, in addition to finding new and somewhat surprising connection to Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Hosted by: Pratyay Mukherjee and Srinjoy Ganguly

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