It started with a monkey poop…
10 years ago, fuelled by a monkey-obsessed childhood, I traveled to the Amazon, and on my first day following wild monkeys, they peed on me. As I moved away, my mentor told me to stay put — excitedly explaining that it meant they would poop soon, and that the poop was GOLD. I learned that day that it was valuable because it contained DNA, the instructions for all life on Earth. The poop had the monkey’s DNA (which includes the entire evolutionary history of the species), the DNA of the parasites it had in its gut, and the insects and plants it ate that day. All of this without ever harming the monkey! There was no looking back for me. While I still love monkeys, being a “DNA detective” became my passion, how could something so tiny hold so many secrets? In my talk, I’ll show you why DNA studies hold extraordinary potential to uncover the interconnected story of life on Earth, and how my journey as a DNA researcher started with a monkey poop.
Kontakt
Samantha López Clinton
Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History
Department of Zoology, Stockholm University
E-mail: [email protected]
