Steve Olson (writer)
Encyclopedia
Steve Olson is a US writer who specializes in science, mathematics, and public policy. He is the author of two nonfiction trade books: Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins, which was nominated for the National Book Award
in 2002, and Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition. He also has written for many magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly, the Smithsonian, Science
, Scientific American
, Wired
, the Yale Alumni Magazine
, the Washingtonian
, Slate
, and Paste
. His articles have been reprinted in Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003 and 2007.
. They modeled the human population as a set of randomly mating subpopulations that are connected by occasional migrants. If the size of the population is n, then the time to the most recent common genealogical ancestor is a small multiple of the base-2 logarithm of n, even if the levels of migration among the populations are very low. Using a model of the world’s landmasses and populations with moderate levels of migration, the authors calculated that the most recent common genealogical ancestor
could have lived as recently as AD 55.
These results lead to some highly counterintuitive conclusions. In the generations before that of the most recently common genealogical ancestor
, more and more people are common ancestors of everyone living on Earth today. At a time 2,000 to 3,000 years before the appearance of the most recent common genealogical ancestor, everyone in the world is either an ancestor of everyone living today or an ancestor of no one living today. Thus, everyone living today has exactly the same set of ancestors who lived 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, even though those ancestors are represented in very different proportions on a person’s family tree
.
In an article published in the Los Angeles Times
on the day the movie of The Da Vinci Code
was released, Olson pointed to several other consequences of the analysis in the Nature
paper. If Jesus has any descendants living in the world today, then almost everyone in the world is descended from Jesus. Furthermore, if a person living today has four or five grandchildren, so that his or her genealogical lineage is unlikely to go extinct within a few generations, that person is virtually guaranteed to be an ancestor of all humans in the Universe who will be living 2,000 to 3,000 years from now,
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
in 2002, and Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition. He also has written for many magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly, the Smithsonian, Science
Science (magazine)
Science was a general science magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science . It was intended to "bridge the distance between science and citizen", aimed at a technically literate audience who may not work professionally in the sciences...
, Scientific American
Scientific American
Scientific American is a popular science magazine. It is notable for its long history of presenting science monthly to an educated but not necessarily scientific public, through its careful attention to the clarity of its text as well as the quality of its specially commissioned color graphics...
, Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, the Yale Alumni Magazine
Yale Alumni Magazine
The Yale Alumni Magazine is an alumni magazine about Yale University. It was founded in 1891. It is independent from the university, and is governed by a corporation, Yale Alumni Publications, Inc....
, the Washingtonian
Washingtonian (magazine)
Washingtonian is a monthly magazine distributed in the Washington, DC area since 1965. The magazine describes itself as "the magazine Washington lives by." The magazine's core focuses are local feature journalism, guide book-style articles, and real estate advice.-Editorial Content:Washingtonian...
, Slate
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, and Paste
Paste (magazine)
Paste is a monthly music and entertainment digital magazine published in the United States by Wolfgang's Vault. Its tagline is "Signs of Life in Music, Film and Culture."-History:...
. His articles have been reprinted in Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003 and 2007.
Research on Ancestry
Mapping Human History contained a conjecture about human ancestry that was disputed when the book was published. The book claimed that the most recent common genealogical ancestor of everyone living on the Earth today must have lived just 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, a number that geneticists thought much too small. However, a more formal version of the conjecture was proven by the author, working with coauthors Douglas Rohde and Joseph Chang, in a September 30, 2004, article in NatureNature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
. They modeled the human population as a set of randomly mating subpopulations that are connected by occasional migrants. If the size of the population is n, then the time to the most recent common genealogical ancestor is a small multiple of the base-2 logarithm of n, even if the levels of migration among the populations are very low. Using a model of the world’s landmasses and populations with moderate levels of migration, the authors calculated that the most recent common genealogical ancestor
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....
could have lived as recently as AD 55.
These results lead to some highly counterintuitive conclusions. In the generations before that of the most recently common genealogical ancestor
Ancestor
An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....
, more and more people are common ancestors of everyone living on Earth today. At a time 2,000 to 3,000 years before the appearance of the most recent common genealogical ancestor, everyone in the world is either an ancestor of everyone living today or an ancestor of no one living today. Thus, everyone living today has exactly the same set of ancestors who lived 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, even though those ancestors are represented in very different proportions on a person’s family tree
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
.
In an article published in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
on the day the movie of The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective novel written by Dan Brown. It follows symbologist Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu as they investigate a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discover a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus having been married to...
was released, Olson pointed to several other consequences of the analysis in the Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
paper. If Jesus has any descendants living in the world today, then almost everyone in the world is descended from Jesus. Furthermore, if a person living today has four or five grandchildren, so that his or her genealogical lineage is unlikely to go extinct within a few generations, that person is virtually guaranteed to be an ancestor of all humans in the Universe who will be living 2,000 to 3,000 years from now,