In which I go full science nerd. Never go full science nerd.
Footnotes
- Cole, B. (2016, March 25). There’s an Intact Ancient Virus Lying Dormant in Human DNA. Retrieved from https://www.sciencealert.com/there-s-an-intact-ancient-virus-lying-dormant-in-human-dna
- Human Evolution Evidence. (2018, September 14). Retrieved from http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence
- It’s Okay to be Smart. (2017, May 9). Are We All Related? Retrieved from https://youtu.be/mnYSMhR3jCI
- Moorjani, P. (2017, April 6). DNA dating: How molecular clocks are refining human evolution’s timeline. Retrieved from http://theconversation.com/dna-dating-how-molecular-clocks-are-refining-human-evolutions-timeline-65606
- Stephen S. Hall. (2012, October 1). Hidden Treasures in Junk DNA. Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hidden-treasures-in-junk-dna/
- This House Is A Circus – Arctic Monkeys [WITH LYRICS]. (2012, September 13). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/deMRzCbHowM
- Thompson, H. (2012, December 28). An Evolutionary Whodunit: How Did Humans Develop Lactose Tolerance? Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/12/27/168144785/an-evolutionary-whodunit-how-did-humans-develop-lactose-tolerance
The molecular clocks article I link to above explains how DNA can be used to determine when certain genetic changes occurred in history. Maybe it’s perfectly clear in the episode, but I just want to state that we can extrapolate time related information from DNA of beings from Earth. This is because there’s generally a lot more information and samples to work with. In Shaw’s case she has only the one Engineer that she tested, an alien creature humanity has never encountered before. Even if they have similar DNA to humans, making sense of what it all means without testing many more Engineers is not a matter of more sophisticated technology but a wider database. “Analyzing DNA from present-day and ancient genomes provides a complementary approach for dating evolutionary events. Because certain genetic changes occur at a steady rate per generation, they provide an estimate of the time elapsed. These changes accrue like the ticks on a stopwatch, providing a “molecular clock.” By comparing DNA sequences, geneticists can not only reconstruct relationships between different populations or species but also infer evolutionary history over deep timescales.”
Travian Designs 