My ancestors

Posted on November 17, 2012 by janstu

As you probably know, our species, homo sapiens, evolved, 200.00-150.000 years ago in Africa. From there they migrated all over the world. All humans living now, have common maternal and paternal ancestors.

How do we know this? By studying mutations in our DNA!

The idea is simple. Every now and then mutations occur in our DNA. If a mutation occurs in the DNA of an individual, will this mutation also be present in the DNA of its offspring? In the reproductive process the genes of father and mother are mixed, so that is difficult to say. There are however two exceptions!

One is the Y-chromosome, which inherits exclusively from father to son.The other one is the DNA in the mitochondria, the power plants of a cell. They come from the egg, and therefore from the mother.

By studying the mutations in the Y-chromosome we can trace back our paternal lineage to the Y-Chromosomal Adam. And in the same way, studying the mutations in the Mitochondrial DNA, we finally go back to Mitochondrial Eve

Here are the approximate migration patterns for the paternal lineage. When you click on the picture, you will get an enlargement, where you can see the numbers in the various branches, like M173, M175, etc. This are the markers for specific mutations in the Y-chromosome. In the table estimates are given when this mutation took place. People with the same mutation in their genes are said to belong to a haplogroup

Last year, surfing the Internet, I found the website of the Genographic Project, managed by National Geographic. For 99 USD you could order a DNA ancestry kit to determine either your paternal or your maternal lineage.

As I was just reading the impressive masterpiece by Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor’s Tale, I became interested and ordered a kit. Here I am taking a swab to collect some DNA from my cheek.

The kit contains a code number that you can use to check the progress of the analysis.

After about two months I got the result. My haploproup was R1B. Nothing special actually, the majority of Europeans belong to this group…:-)

Here is the migration path of my (paternal) ancestors. About 50.000 years ago my paternal ancestor (M168) left Africa. His descendants traveled through the Arabian peninsula to Central Asia. They were hunter-gatherers, following the big game through the savannas, until they (M45) reached the big mountain ranges of Hindu Kush and Himalayas.

About 30.000 years ago, a branch split off with a new mutation (M207) and traveled to the West. Keep in mind that they were not tourists, their movements were mainly determined by climate change and the availability of food!

In Europe this “Cro-Magnon” tribe met the Neanderthal people, which they outcompeted by their better skills and tools.

So that is my paternal lineage. Actually we ordered two sets, also one for Aric. His haplogroup turned out to be O, also nothing special, shared by the majority of Chinese in Southern China. It is interesting to see where our lineages split! In the image below I have combined our migration routes. The split occurred about 35.000 years ago in what is nowadays Tajikistan. In those days and in that region there has lived a man who is the (male) ancestor of both Aric and me. I find that fascinating.

So fascinating, that we ordered two more sets, this time to find out more about our maternal lineage.Here are the results combined in one picture.

Aric’s mtDNA haplogroup is D, mine is H Our common great……….great-grandmother migrated from Africa about 70.000 years ago. Still in Africa, about 65.000 years ago a split occurred, much earlier than in our paternal lineage. Aric’s maternal ancestor migrated far north to central Asia and Siberia. Members of haplogroup D eventually reached the Behring street and arrived in the Americas, about 15000 years ago

My maternal ancestors did not migrate as far east as my paternal ones, they remained in West-Asia and later migrated north across the Caucasus mountains into South-Russia and from there into Europe.

It is possible to make a more detailed (and more expensive) analysis of the mutations in the DNA, but for us this is enough. We know now, that we are family, LOL.

Mind you, our common maternal and paternal ancestors were NOT married, they did not even live in the same time! If you want know how that is possible, you should read Dawkin’s book.

Journal 15-11-2012

Posted on November 16, 2012 by janstu

Malaysia is well know for its large number of holidays. This week had two. One is the Hindu celebration of Deepavali, the second one was yesterday, Awal Muharram. It is the beginning of the Muslim New Year. The Islamic calendar starts in 622, the year when Muhammad emigrated with his followers from Mecca to Medina (the Hijra). As the Islamic calendar is lunar, years are shorter than in the Gregorian calendar, so Awal Muharram moves forward by 11/12 days each year. The present year is 1434 AH (Anno Hijra)

I decided to revisit on this holiday the Kanching waterfalls with my hiking friend Rani. I have been there countless times, but for Rani it was long ago. He was surprised how beautiful these falls actually are. Falls yes, because there are many tiers. The lower ones are crowded on a day like this, but the higher you climb, the fewer people you meet.

The two falls at the bottom right of this collection are virtually unknown and require river trekking. Unfortunately, many of the popular tiers are quite polluted, Malaysian style..:-(

It is durian season now, and today the Kiara Bunch has been to a stall in Kepong where they sell Raja Musang, the “King of Durians” for a very reasonable price.

Each of us bought durians to take home and we also took a few to nearby restaurant Kah Hing in Taman Sri Sinar, where we had a lunch with their famous Pork Trotter Noodles and Vietnamese coffee.

Just now Aric and I had the ones, taken home. The taste was excellent. But the number of ‘biji’ inside was very disappointing. Here are the two (!) durians and their content

Aric said immediately, when he saw the durians, they are too small, the bigger ones contain a lot more seeds. Actually BC had told me that the shop owner also had warned him that the big ones (RM 14/kg) contained “twice as much” as the small ones (RM 12/kg. Still, BC had made a booking for the cheaper ones. Penny wise, pound foolish…:-)?

Thanks anyway, BC, for bringing us to this shop. But next time I will pay the few ringgits more.

Journal 12-11-2012

Posted on November 12, 2012 by janstu

It is now about two months ago that I started this blog. I am very happy with the concept, should have done it much earlier..:-).

Until now my posts all had a specific topic, science, a waterfall, a trip, etc. Today I have created a new category, Journal, for my posts with mixed news. Here is the first one.

Today during my walk in Kiara with BC, I spotted a lot of mushrooms on a slope. When I pointed them out to BC, he got very excited, they were delicious, he said. So we started collecting them, just in time, for more people had already discovered them. Forgot to take pictures of the picking, but here is our harvest:

There were other mushrooms as well, as it had been raining heavily the last two weeks. This one is a beauty, the Bridal Veil Stinkhorn, apparently edible too, but we did not try.

Later that day, doing my shopping at TESCO, I noticed this beautiful rangoli , you see these Indian decorations in many places these days, as it will be Deepavali tomorrow. This “Festival of Lights” is one of the most important Hindu festivals and a national holiday in Malaysia.

BC had given me a portion of the collected mushrooms, assuring me that they were not poisonous. I believed him, but of course also checked it on the Internet..:-) The Malay name is Cendawan Busut, meaning Termite’s Nest Mushroom. They can only be found near termite’s nests! They are edible and considered a delicacy. So I prepared and tasted them. Yummie, delicious indeed!

Thanks BC, for the treat.

To my followers: you will have noticed that I am adding posts quite often these days. If you do not like to get an email after each post, you can edit your profile here and choose for a weekly digest.

Pisang waterfall

Posted on November 11, 2012 by janstu

It was about 9 years ago that I visited this waterfall, near KL, for the first time. On a camping trip with Aric along the Gombak river I had noticed a sign to the Pisang waterfall. Searching the Internet I came across a web page by a guy, named Khong, about this and many other waterfalls.

I contacted him, we met and we found out that we shared many interests, so we became friends. Without him my life in Malaysia would have been very different…:-)

A few days ago I went back to this fall with my friends Rani and Grant.

A detailed report about the trip can be found here

I also used my iPhone to record an EveryTrail report about the trip.

Enjoy

Various faces of Bukit Kiara

Posted on November 8, 2012 by janstu

Bukit Kiara has many faces. Here I show a few.

First of all, for those readers not familiar with Bukit Kiara, it is one of the remaining green lungs of Kuala Lumpur, enclosed by residential areas. In the past it was a rubber plantation, later some tar roads were built for easier access, the grey lines in the map.

Most of the regular walkers limit themselves to these tar roads. That is the first, slightly boring, road face of Bukit Kiara

Related to this road face of KIara is the maintenance face. A landslide occurs, trees fall down during a storm, a drain has to be repaired.

Much more interesting is the maze of trails, created and maintained by TRAKS . They are doing a wonderful job. During weekends it can be busy with mountain bikers, but on weekdays you will hardly meet a living soul. Here is the trail face

Then there is the river face of Bukit Kiara. A river? Yes, the Sg Penchala has its source here. Along this budding stream runs one of the most attractive trails.

Then there are the birds, the flowers, the fungi. An occasional snake, squirrel, tortoise. No deer or wild boar, so no leeches! The nature face

Is it therefore the garden of Eden? No, there are less pleasant faces. During the last year the authorities haven constructed a fence around the part of Bukit Kiara that has been designated to become a park. Ugly, expensive and useless. After protests of many people, the construction has been stopped, a discussion is now going on about the removal of this fence. Personally I am not optimistic if that will happen. Here is the fence face

And unfortunately there is also pollution. Where not in Malaysia…:-( The (illegal) rubber tappers leave behind, plastics, empty cans, etc. So there is a rubbish face too

All the pictures were taken during a 1.5 hour walk, a few days ago. You can follow the walk with a slideshow of the pictures on EveryTrail .

Here is one more face, personally I think it is a negative one. I had noticed in the center of the tar loop big sheets of plastic, and I was wondering what it might be, so during my walk I went down the slope and discovered a BMX playground! Must have been constructed recently and I understand that TRAKS is not involved.So here is the BMX face. At least the covering sheets should be given a camouflage colour!

Hairy Crab

Posted on November 7, 2012 by janstu

Tonight we had Hairy Crab at the Dragon-i restaurant in 1-Utama!

For a long time already Aric wanted to taste this Shanghai/Hongkong specialty and when we noticed that the Dragon-i restaurant had a Shanghai Hairy Crab promotion, we decided to have a big splurge. Because even as a promotion those critters are expensive.

Here they are, flown in directly from China. You can see why they are called hairy. Their size is quite small, each crab is on average ~180 grams

The menu started with dumplings, filled with crab meat. A Shanghai delicacy, the dumpling has some soup(!) inside, you must eat them very carefully, otherwise the (hot!) soup will spill on your clothes and /or burn your mouth..:-)

Next was a soup of chicken with fish maw. In general I don’t like this fish bladder (too fishy taste), but this was very nice, no fish taste at all.

Then it was time for the main dish. Four crabs were presented on our table with the accompanying tools. Would we like to dissect them ourselves, asked the waitress, or should she do it for us. We are both experienced crab eaters, but this time we thought it better to let her do it. And that was a good decision.

It’s a pity that I was too shy to take a picture while she, with surgical precision, dismembered the crabs, unshielded them, removed unedible parts, and finally arranged the rest in the form of a crab again. Amazing and already worth the money…:-)

The signature feature of these crabs is the roe inside. That’s why you will see them on the menu only in certain times of the year. Sinfully delicious.

The next two dishes were fried rice with, yes, crab meat and broccoli in a sauce of, sure, crab as well.

We could not finish the rice, so we asked to put what was left over, in a doggie bag. In Europe I would not dare to do it, but here in Asia is it very common,even in posh restaurants. The final dish was a desert with dumplings filled with sesame in a ginger soup.

For sure not a very healthy dinner, but extremely enjoyable!

Paintballing Apophis!

Posted on October 31, 2012 by janstu

Before I started blogging, I wrote emails to a group of friends, interested in science. Several of these emails I have, after editing, entered as posts for my blog.
The first email (and now the first post on this blog) was about Apophis, an asteroid, that will pass Earth in 2029 at a close distance, and might (with a chance of 1 to 250.000) collide with Earth 7 years later, in 2036

This is an artist impression of Apophis, diameter ~ 270 m with an estimated mass of 27 megatonnes.

A collision with the earth would be a catastrophe. The impact would be the equivalent of 900 megaton TNT, ~ 60.000 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

When Apophis was discovered in 2004, there was a brief period of concern that this asteroid might hit Earth in 2029. It will not, and even in 2036 the chance is almost neglegible

But there are thousands of asteroids with orbits that may bring them close to Earth, so called NEA‘s, and NASA has an observation program to monitor them.

What to do when an asteroid is discovered which is on a crash course with Earth? We will have to deflect it! How? Many solutions have been proposed. Send a rocket to the asteroid and detonate a nuclear bomb, or let the rocket crash itself against the asteroid. Or use a strong laser beam to deflect the course.When you do this while the asteroid is still far away, a tiny change in course could be sufficient.

For a couple of years already a yearly competition “Move an Asteroid” is organised by the Space Generation Advisory Council , for students and young (space) professionals.

This year the competition was won by a MIT graduate student, Sung Wook Paek.

His winning proposal:

Launch a rocket, with a cargo of 5000 kg of pellets, filled with white paint. When near the asteroid, fire two salvos of pellets, timed in such a way, that the (spinning) asteroid will be completely covered with a very thin layer of white paint.

Here are two screenshots of a YouTube clip, published by MIT. In the left picture two pellet clouds are approaching the asteroid. In the right picture one cloud has painted one half of the asteroid white already.

The colliding pellets will change the course of the asteroid a little bit. That is not new, but the white paint is. The photons from the sun will reflect against this bright white surface, and this results in (additional) radiation pressure. Also a tiny effect, so this kind of action should be taken, many years before the asteroid comes close to the earth.

Cosmic paintball, what a nice idea!

Birdbrains?

Posted on October 21, 2012 by janstu

In two earlier posts I have written about my favourite walking ground, Bukit Kiara. About the ugly and useless fence that has been erected by DBKL/JLN this year. About the protests, organised by the Friends of Bukit Kiara and other groups, resulting in a stop-work order by the Ministry. Probably too late as much damage has been done already.

My album The Great Wall of Kiara gives a detailed report.

Here is a Google Earth map from this report. The existing (tar) roads in white, the fence in red, and in blue the recently constructed or widened roads.

The red lines are a bit wiggly, because they are the result of my attempts to follow the fence as closely as possible.

Not always easy, but fun.

Compare this with an (official?) map where I have marked the same parts of the fence in red, and the missing/unfinished parts in orange. The red and yellow lines basically enclose the future Bukit Kiara Park.

The shaded area is the bone of contention, claimed by Berjaya for development.

Note the two red arrows.

The left arrow points to a gap in the fence, not more than 30 meter wide. Why? Here is a possible explanation.

The image below shows an enlarged region of the map above, with my GPS-tracks next to it. The thin straight lines mark the location of the proposed fence. As you see, by mistake or planned, those lines intersect at the other side of the tar road!

Imaginary conversation by the construction workers and their supervisor:

“Boss, we have been building the fence along the lines on the map, but now we have a problem. We have to build the fence across the road, twice even, and that will block the tar road. What to do now, sir?”
“Hmm, I will have to discuss that with my superiors! Leave it for the time being.“

One day, on my usual Kiara walk, I came across a group of VIP’s at this exact spot, in apparently serious conversation. Could they be discussing this problem? LOL

The second arrow points to a part of the fence which I had not yet explored. Would they really have built the fence this way, first going south, then turning almost 180 degrees and going north again? Enclosing a part of Kiara, at the end less than one meter wide? Hard to believe.

Last week I went to explore this part. Difficult going, steep stretches, even swampy as it crosses a small stream. As I expected the last part is still unfinished, they worked on it when the stop-work order came. In the picture you see where the fence ends. Also you can see the road divider of the Sprint highway at the top of the picture

I could not believe my eyes, when I saw that, YES, they were planning to follow the lines on the map! The poles are already there. I was laughing out loud, all alone in the jungle!

Here is where the two parts of the fences are supposed to meet.To guide the eye, I have connected the poles with red lines.

When they would have continued the job, would they have been able to fix the actual fencing to the poles, near the end? I have serious doubts.

Where I was standing to take the picture, there is still some space between the two sides. But near the end, there is none.

Birdbrains at work?

Or could Polonius (Hamlet, Act 2) be right:

“Though this be madness, there is method in it”

Closure!

Posted on October 20, 2012 by janstu

On 8-7-2012 I visited with my friend Rani a “new” waterfall in the Ulu Langat region. This waterfall is located in a gorge with steep walls and can only be reached by swimming!

The waterfall is around the corner. When we had arrived there and took some rest, I was hit by a piece of rock,falling down from the steep cliff.

The wound was bleeding heavily, luckily I remained conscious. Of course we went back immediately, first a swim(!) and then a two hour walk to the village where in a clinic I got a total of 15 stitches.

Click here for a detailed report. Later in the hospital it was found after a C-T scan that I had a hairline fracture in my skull. It would heal itself, but I should keep quiet for a while. And I did, although I wanted absolutely to go back to this waterfall. For closure/redemption…:-)

But first, after my recovery, I went to Terengganu with Paul and Rahim for a camping trip to waterfalls. All went well, here is the report. And in September I visited, again with Rani, two “new” waterfalls in the Bentong region. This time another mishap occurred, I was stung by a bee, and I have become allergic to bee stings! I wrote about this incident in an earlier blog post.

Still I wanted to go back to the waterfall where I was hit! So I asked Rani if he would join me and he said, yes. I would have understood if he had declined the invitation, after all on our last two trips he had to think about an emergency procedure to get me out of the jungle, just in case…

To be honest, I did not sleep well, the night before the trip. I was not worried about another rock hitting me, but I am quite afraid now of bees and wasps!

But this time all went well. We visited the waterfall and the spot where I was hit.

Here I am standing at the location where I was hit. Symbolically I have a piece of rock in my hand, similar to the one that struck me.

Of course I looked up quite a few times, just to make sure, that nothing was coming down..:-)

You will also notice that I have been swimming with all my clothes on. That is one precaution I will take always, from now on, to reduce the risk of an encounter with a wasp.

During this visit actually I saw none.

I felt very relieved after this trip. And many thanks to Rani for his trust in me!

Here is the detailed report

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