© 2025 Hawaiʻi Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Just 10% of HPR listeners donate to fund HPR’s work. Help us to raise this number to 15%, 20% or even higher — ask a friend to join you in keeping HPR strong. Take action now.

DNA and Human Origins

DNA is not just an instruction book for the present and something to pass on to future generations -- it is also a record of our genetic past. No longer do researchers look for clues to human history merely in fossil bones and stone tools, they also seek "genetic fossils" in the DNA of living peoples. NPR's David Baron talks to University of Maryland researcher Sarah Tishkoff, who, by studying DNA and mitochondrial DNA, has revealed some of the most detailed clues yet to humankind's origins.

Copyright 2003 NPR

More from Hawai‘i Public Radio