• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Friendship Genetics

Friendship Genetics

July 21, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/140721_sciup_friend.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Phillippe Put Flickr 7223675784_4a08b12708_o
(Phillippe Put/Flickr)

Where friends and family meet. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Your friends may be more closely related to you than to strangers, according to a new study. Nicholas Christakis of Yale University and James Fowler of UC San Diego analyzed the social networks and genetic relationships of over 2000 people. Fowler says on average, friends were as closely related as fourth cousins.

JAMES FOWLER (University of California, San Diego):

It’s like they share a great-great-great-grandparent in common.

HIRSHON:

The researchers found that a similar sense of smell may be one of the genetically influenced mechanisms that brings friends together in the first place. But their shared genes could also give friends a survival advantage.

FOWLER:

We’ve found that the genes that tend to be similar between friends are those that are evolving the fastest. In other words, it’s some tentative evidence that our social networks may be turbo-charging evolution.

HIRSHON:

The researchers hope to look at shared genes within much larger social networks in the future. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Children & Families, Genetics & Evolution, Social & Behavioral Sciences
Previous Post:Mouth-to-Heart Infections
Next Post:Time of Day Medicine

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Mayan Honeybee hives
House sparrow wearing top hat rides aboard a red fireworks rocket

Copyright © 2023 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos