Big Data uncovers the mysteries of mankind

It’s funny how data comes along and undoes so many things that were once settled with conjecture and even with science. A great example is the study of human ancestry, anthropology. The world’s foremost experts have argued about the origins of the various peoples of the world based on everything available in their times. But today we have Big Data and remarkably improved analytics that changes the human ancestry story.

Big Data and paradise

A great example would be Pacific Islanders, who for centuries have been argued over as coming from the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia and just about every other source. But the Big Data of the human genome, with powerful analytics applied, tells us that Polynesians originated from aboriginal Taiwanese and coastal Chinese. But the data is even richer when we look at places like Europe, which have had “mixing events” for thousands of years. Genome Big Data analysis shows us that populations across the continent were infused at moments in history with genes from completely different cultures in ways that map very well to our knowledge of history.

Big Data and Europe’s cultures

Slavery, war, trade and other major movements of people perfectly align with analysis of the human genome in Europe. Alexander the Great’s march east caused the Kalash people of Pakistan to have DNA with far eastern as well as Scottish roots, dating to events around 350 BC. Suddenly their blue eyes and light hair make sense in a way classic science never could explain. Likewise, the Hazara people of Afghanistan and the Uighur people of Western China were both mixes created by the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 14th Century. What’s truly remarkable is that statistical analysis applied to massive amounts of data can tell us these things simply from strands of DNA that have been diluted many, many times and for thousands of years.

What else can Big Data do?

When we see the revelations that Big Data provides around questions of our ancestry, just think of how many things we can solve that involve data about the present day. There are sure to be even more remarkable discoveries in the coming years that change commerce, healthcare, government, and just about everything else that seems to have boundaries in today’s world. We’re in the new age of exploration but rather than going across oceans, we’re going to go down into the data that describes the micro as well as the macro.

Come join us for Interop’s Big Data Workshop in Las Vegas on March 31st. We’ll have a group of Big Data practitioners from retail, energy, healthcare and more. We look forward to seeing you there.