Six hundred and fifty years ago, the Black Death was stalking Europe. It arrived on ships from Asia, carried by fleas that had infected rats on board the ships. Before it burned itself out, the epidemic had killed about a third of the European population. Today, another plague – AIDS – has ravaged the world. Although it seems very different from the Black Death, there is one … [Read more...]
The genetic legacy of Britain
In 2015, Oxford University researchers investigated and uncovered distinct geographical groupings of genetically similar individuals across the UK. The study, published in the journal Nature, found that: There was no single Celtic genetic group. In fact the Celtic parts of the UK (Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall) are distinct from each other … [Read more...]