Anthropology

Go back even a quarter of a century and few people would have heard of DNA, except perhaps in a forensic case. Now genetics plays a part of our everyday culture and our interest in genetics is booming, particularly in the form of direct-to-consumer genetic testing for health, family history and ancestry testing. Professor Turi King, the UK’s preeminent scientist in DNA and genetics takes us on a journey through the key cases, legal and otherwise, which explain modern genetics and how it now informs policing, personal histories, migration, politics and health. From eugenics, to mistaken dinosaur DNA, the OJ Simpson trial to Angelina Jolie’s BRACA1 gene, we are led through the science to discover how genetics has impacted and shaped our society, and how our growing knowledge of the building blocks of life can inform our understanding of our past and how it will affect our future.