Where Humans Came From

*Andrew Sullivan:

Roughly 2,000 generations ago, the entirety of humanity was reduced to as few as 2,000 or so individuals living in Africa. From that small group of survivors, who were living just 60,000 years ago, every human on earth is descended. 60,000 years is a blip on a glacial timescale. As we migrated around the globe, we left little genetic footprints along the way that can be found in all of us - but all roads lead back to Africa just 60,000 years ago.

See this article from Vanity Fair by the Director of the project, called the Genographic Project, for more information. In fact, you can submit an anonymous sample via cheek swab (and $100) and get your own ancestor's migratory route out of Africa - yes, it's all non-profit and for scientific research.