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| Personal background |
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| Well, I wanted to be an astronaut.... but I'm not so good at taking orders and I get motion sickness, so that was out. Instead, I became a molecular anthropologist. What is that, you say? In my case, it is a person who uses molecular genetic techniques to address anthropological questions (like where the people living in the Americas came from, and how many migrations there were, and when those migrations occurred). My specialty is ancient DNA (think Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs and cloning). I extract ancient DNA from archaeological skeletal material and compare the genetic markers to those from living populations. Currently I'm working on projects on the peopling of the Americas, reconstructing kinship systems in prehistoric societies, and exploring the evolution of tuberculosis. In addition to seeking extra-terrestrial intelligence, my hobbies include reading science fiction and mysteries, playing the piano, and quilting (yes, quilting). |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I'm not sure if intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, but I think we should keep searching until we exhaust our abilities to search. What would it say about our species if we knew the possibility existed, yet we chose not to look? That would be very depressing.
I run SETI@home for many reasons, the first being the joy I get from participating in such a large and peachy-keen endeavor. I also think this is a great test-case for voluntary participation in important massively distributed projects. Finally, it's a great screen-saver (my colleagues think I'm doing very advanced analyses on my genetic data when they see it). |
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