Written by Meagan Cantrell and based on an “Early Show Exclusive” interview video by Julie Chen dated 11/29/2007:

After 5 years of knowing each other, hometown best friends, Brandy Hersh and Heidi Wickware discovered they’re actually full sisters. Only two years apart in age, these two women, from Springfield, MO, attended the same elementary and middle schools, but became best friends when they stated dating two boys who introduced them to each other.

Although they have uncommon features, among them different eye and hair color, they were interested in, and liked to do, the same things and even finished each other’s sentences. The two became fast friends and were closer than the other longtime friends they had had for years. It was as if they had a special connection… and, in fact, they did!

As it turns out, biological mother, Lisa Russell, got pregnant by her boyfriend with Brandy in 1980. However, they weren’t married and Lisa couldn’t afford to take care of the baby, so she gave Brandy up for adoption. Not long afterward, she married that same man who first got her pregnant and had another child, Heidi, who, while growing up, had no idea that her mom had given birth to another child. However, from the time that she can remember, Brandy had always known that she was adopted. She figured that it really sunk in when she was six years old and her family adopted another child.

Brandy’s adoption was “closed”, so the two mothers never met, or actually knew each other, and had no real information about each other beyond generalities. Eventually, Brandy met her biological mother through Heidi. (They are carbon copies of each other on the video interview!) After Lisa found out Brandy’s birthday and at which hospital she was born, she admitted that she had given up a child for adoption. Heidi went to Brandy and said, “Mom mom gave a baby up for adoption and she thinks it’s you!” Brandy informed her adoptive mother, Debbie Visio, who had some clues as to who the birth mother was at the time. Debbie gave Brandy the only clues that she had about Lisa and it was a match!

After everyone put two and two together, Brandy tried to open up her adoption records. As it turned out, it was going to take years get to through the bureaucracy so the two girls decided to get DNA Sibling Test through Chromosomal Laboratories in Phoenix, AZ. Not too long afterwards they got the tests results back… a 99.999% match!

At the time of the interview the families had just received the results a few days prior. Although it seemed like the news was still sinking in, the sisters were overjoyed, thrilled and full of happy emotions… Best friends actually turned out to be sisters!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - DNA scraped from inside clay vessels show that a ship that sank off the coast of Greece 2,400 years ago was carrying a cargo of olive oil, oregano, and probably wine, researchers reported on Friday.The new research may offer a way to analyze the long-gone contents of hundreds of containers, said Brendan Foley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.Writing in the Journal of Archeological Science, Foley and colleagues at Lund University in Sweden said they were able to get DNA sequences from the insides of two amphoras recovered in 230 feet of water in 2005.

The clay containers appeared empty, but the researchers decided to try testing for DNA anyhow. To their surprise, they got some — and not the DNA they were expecting.

The island of Chios where the shipwreck was found was well-known in the ancient world as a major exporter of highly prized wines. But the two amphora in fact carried DNA from olives and oregano.

They also found evidence of wine and perhaps pistachios, they said.

Foley hopes to use the technique to find out more details about the ancient shipping trade.

“Imagine if you were asked to analyze the American economy just by looking at the empty shells of 40-foot (12-metre) shipping containers,” he said in a statement.

“You could say something, but not much.”

While on a climbing expedition to Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2001, Sacramento State biological science professor Ruth Ballard and a Graduate Student got the idea to create a Tanzanian DNA database based on the fact that there were still many tribes with unstudied DNA markers. When Ballard approached the Tanzanian government for permission, they asked her to develop a database for the entire country that would help establish and resolve paternity issues and crimes like rape, murder and theft.

“It was a bigger project than I first imagined,” Ballard said. “The government wanted me to leave their country a legacy. We would go out on ’saliva safaris’ in a great, big vehicle for the day,” Ballard said. “We took over 1000 samples from many different tribes.”

According to the article in The State Hornet:

“Due to increasing industrial growth, many Tanzanian men have moved to other cities to find jobs. In the process, most have left their wives and children behind,” Ballard said. “These women and their children are left in abject poverty and are desperate for the ability to force the men to pay for their kids. It’s a bad situation…the women want it solved.”

Ballard, along with agencies that help women and children rise above poverty, is working on trying to make the paternity test affordable and accessible to all women.

If the government enforces the paternity law in a stricter manner, the goal of making the test more readily available for women will be possible.

The team’s next goal involves building a new forensics laboratory in Tanzania so Tanzanian researchers can update their database independently without the need for outside help. The database will play a huge role in helping Tanzanian people with their paternity issues, Ballard said.

Professor Ballard has announced that the Tanzanian database will be featured in the Journal of Forensic Sciences in January.

Posted October 22, 2007, in the online edition of “The Hindu”, India’s National Newspaper:

Scientists say Neanderthals did speak

London: They may be primitive brutes but the Neanderthals, who inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia, probably have had the gift of the gab.

DNA Revelations
Scientists in Europe have investigated DNA from Neanderthal bones, collected from a cave in northern Spain, and discovered that the humanity’s closest extinct relatives had a “language gene” found in modern humans, The Daily Telegraph reported here on Sunday.

Language Gene
“The presence of the language gene would change the way people view Neanderthals. It is not a compliment to be called a Neanderthal, but we are finding that the Neanderthal DNA looks much more like contemporary humans than chimps.

“The human variations of this gene involved in the use of language are not found in apes and for a long time, there has been speculation Neanderthals would have a different gene and so a different linguistic ability.

Lots of Views
“By looking at their DNA, we have found that from the point of view of this gene, there is no reason they would not have spoken like we do. It is a very contentious area with a lot of different views,” lead researcher Professor Svante Paabo was quoted as saying.

Previous Work
In fact, the findings of Professor Paabo and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, support previous work that attempted to model the Neanderthals throat and larynx from their remains.

While some scientists had earlier insisted they would have spoken, others had dismissed the idea. — PTI

Hello, my name is Meagan Cantrell, welcome to my blog! I am the owner of DNA Identifiers of California which provides DNA testing services and products to organizations and the general public. You can visit my site from the link on the right side of the page.

Many of our clients ask interesting questions, which I track and compile in an effort to keep abreast of this ever-changing technology and it’s impact on our lives. I decided to start this blog in an effort to share that information, plus news and current events in the DNA and Genetics community. I hope you find my blog useful and informative. I’ll admit, I am excited to see how it turns out myself!

If you ever have anything to add, by all means, please jump in with two feet! And, of course, you are welcome to contact me directly with any questions or comments… or the need to purchase a DNA test!

Enjoy!