DNA from Pompeii Victims Reveals Surprising Relationships Amidst the Chaos
gizmodo.com
gizmodo.com
I wonder also how they discard the possibility of a later contamination.
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236457118_Thermal_d...
Ancient DNA has certain characteristic damage that changes the sequence slightly, and you can use that to filter out any DNA that doesn't have that signature. Plus, you can maintain DNA profiles of all people involved in handling to ensure it's not modern contamination from the field workers or lab techs.
Thanks for clarifying.
3 people downvoted me for the honest question.
This seems to be a common thought pattern on this site and it might actually be interesting to see if there has ever been a case of some person solving hard problems outside of their field with a simple Google search.
Edit: Seems like this accounts only reason for existence is to throw doubt on everything after looking at their previous posts
So, I think these are questions worth asking.
Is because water is trapped inside the pizza materials.
DNA and water are very different substances. One is very fragile, the other is practically indestructible
If the temperature changes, water just will change temporarily its state to became ice or vapor, and if that gas is contained, it will return to liquid as soon as the temperature allows it, as many times as needed. When the pizza is out of the oven, the water returns.
DNA can't do this out of a live cell.
DNA chains unzip and split away at 96ºC and then you need a live cell to recreate the molecule again. Lets assume that somebody ordered a pizza in the same year that Pompeii fell, as we know that half of DNA will vanish each 500 years (more or less), today more than 90% of all DNA in the pizza would be lost just by natural degradation. Now put this pizza in the oven at 200ºC and basically most if not all of this survivor DNA will be reduced to ashes.
But they are here talking about not just finding DNA, but also about knowing if was a man or a woman, That's even more impressive. Those tiny fragments of DNA survivor should belong also to identifiable parts of the X and Y chromosomes.
In this terms, finding "Y" means man, but not finding it does not mean woman. It means either woman or a man where all the short Y chromosome was included in the 99,99% of the DNA lost just by chance in the taken sample. This means that some of the identified girls could be really boys.
Port cities tend to have highly diverse populations.
Because Vesuvio had been rumbling for days, most people with the means to do so had probably already left the city.
My uncle having left us, I spent such time as was left on my studies (it was on their account indeed that I had stopped behind), till it was time for my bath. After which I went to supper, and then fell into a short and uneasy sleep. There had been noticed for many days before a trembling of the earth, which did not alarm us much, as this is quite an ordinary occurrence in Campania; but it was so particularly violent that night that it not only shook but actually overturned, as it would seem, everything about us. My mother rushed into my chamber, where she found me rising, in order to awaken her. We sat down in the open court of the house, which occupied a small space between the buildings and the sea. As I was at that time but eighteen years of age, I know not whether I should call my behaviour, in this dangerous juncture, courage or folly; but I took up Livy, and amused myself with turning over that author, and even making extracts from him, as if I had been perfectly at my leisure. Just then, a friend of my uncle's, who had lately come to him from Spain, joined us, and observing me sitting by my mother with a book in my hand, reproved her for her calmness, and me at the same time for my careless security: nevertheless I went on with my author. Though it was now morning, the light was still exceedingly faint and doubtful; the buildings all around us tottered, and though we stood upon open ground, yet as the place was narrow and confined, there was no remaining without imminent danger: we therefore resolved to quit the town. A panic-stricken crowd followed us, and (as to a mind distracted with terror every suggestion seems more prudent than its own) pressed on us in dense array to drive us forward as we came out. Being at a convenient distance from the houses, we stood still, in the midst of a most dangerous and dreadful scene. The chariots, which we had ordered to be drawn out, were so agitated backwards and forwards, though upon the most level ground, that we could not keep them steady, even by supporting them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by the convulsive motion of the earth; it is certain at least the shore was considerably enlarged, and several sea animals were left upon it. On the other side, a black and dreadful cloud, broken with rapid, zigzag flashes, revealed behind it variously shaped masses of flame: these last were like sheet-lightning, but much larger. Upon this our Spanish friend, whom I mentioned above, addressing himself to my mother and me with great energy and urgency: "If your brother," he said, "if your uncle be safe, he certainly wishes you may be so too; but if he perished, it was his desire, no doubt, that you might both survive him: why therefore do you delay your escape a moment?" We could never think of our own safety, we said, while we were uncertain of his.
[0] https://gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#link2H_4_...Well it the hypothesis is that it lasted ~18 hours and that most people managed to leave during the early stages. After all if we base it only the number of bodies found Pompeii was pretty much abandoned by the end..
But why was he even there with a fleet? How did a fleet have time to sail there to witness the eruption?
Clearly there was cause for concern, even if written sources don't mention it.
And of course the final detail is the number of bodies found, much lower than the number of expected inhabitants.
Many houses were being remodeled from previous tremors, the owners probably long gone and left the laborers to their fate.