• Question: are we all related to Adam and Eve?

    Asked by 69sports to Adam, Alexander, Aron, Jess, Neil on 14 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Aron Kisdi

      Aron Kisdi answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      My mother is called Eve but my dad is Janos.

      This is not my field of research, someone studying genetics would be in a better position to answer it. It is also an active field of research with new results all the time. In order to answer the questions about our origin we need to find better ways to sequence DNA quicker. A machine capable of quick (and cheap) DNA sequencing would also help us understand a cure diseases.

    • Photo: Alexander Finch

      Alexander Finch answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      I would say no. There’s a lot of controversy on this very question in the world, but the scientific view is well established. Scientists have found that humans evolved slowly from monkey-like animals, and so it is hard to determine where or when the “first” humans were. But they wouldn’t have called each other Adam and Eve. We also wouldn’t all be related from them exclusively. If we were, we probably wouldn’t have the variety of humans traits we see today, like different eye or hair colours!

      As Aron suggests, DNA sequencing is the way we can tell so much about our genetic history (that is, how we are all related). Lots of good work is going on there now! But I am sure that the story of Adam and Eve is a story, and that early humans were quite different…

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