If you asked me to name any three subjects at random about which I know very little, I might very well mention biology, statistics, and genealogy. Somehow I managed to get through high school, college, and graduate school without ever taking a biology course. My mathematical studies never progressed much beyond garden-variety trigonometry. And when it comes to genealogy, I still haven’t been able to work out which one of the Baltic states my paternal great-grandfather hailed from. So you can imagine my dismay when a friend of mine told me about the notion of a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA). Apparently some Very Smart People had determined based on genetic evidence and statistical calculations that everyone of European ancestry now alive descended from Charlemagne. At first I found this claim utterly ridiculous, but as I began reading up on it my incredulity softened to mere incomprehension. For me, at […]

Original post by Joe Kissell