Meanwhile, In Real Science News

Scientists have a new ally in the quest to discover the patterns of prehistorical migrations of ancient people: mummies' head lice.

Yes, mummies' head lice.

Female lice barf up some kind of sticky resin and use it to form a kind of gruesome "cement" which they use to attach their eggs to the hairs of their host. That "nit cement" traps skin from the scalp and voila, preserved human DNA.

The lice infesting South American mummies contains a veritable smorgasbord of disgusting human DNA.

Researchers say this opens whole new avenues in Gross Science.

Head lice found on ancient mummies contain more DNA than a tooth, according to scientists, who say it could help shed light on ancient people and migration.

A team were able to extract the DNA from the 'cement' head lice used to glue their eggs to hairs on mummified bodies in South America, thousands of years ago.

The DNA extracted from the cement was of better quality than that recovered through other methods, according to the team led by the University of Reading.

It revealed clues about pre-Columbian human migration patterns throughout South America, including that the original population of the San Juan province migrated from the land and rainforests of the Amazon in the North of the continent.

'There is a hunt out for alternative sources of ancient human DNA and nit cement might be one of those alternatives,' said study first author Dr Mikkel Winther Pederson, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

So it's kind of like Jurassic Park except you wouldn't want to go there or see it or frankly read any more about it.

So without reading more I guess they'll recover the DNA and then isolate the whostaamacallits in the mitochondria to try to figure out what race/tribe the mummies of 1200-1500 BC South America belonged to, to figure out when they branched off from whatever branch they branched off from.

If you are an enlightened male and as such, wish to discourage any young women you know from going into the STEM fields, please feel free to send them this article to let them know that Real Science Is Disgusting, and so they should just work at a magazine or as a producer for a British baking competition show or whatever.

posted by Ace at 05:05 PM

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