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How we’re building the world’s largest family tree | Yaniv Erlich

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, subtitles, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more. Computational geneticist Yaniv Erlich helped build the world’s largest family tree — comprising 13 million people and going back more than 500 years. He shares fascinating patterns that emerged from the work — about our love lives, our health,…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, subtitles, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more.

Computational geneticist Yaniv Erlich helped build the world’s largest family tree — comprising 13 million people and going back more than 500 years. He shares fascinating patterns that emerged from the work — about our love lives, our health, even decades-old criminal cases — and shows how crowdsourced genealogy databases can shed light not only on the past but also on the future.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request here:

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42 Comments

42 Comments

  1. dheeraj s

    October 18, 2019 at 3:58 pm

    5:02 kerala

    • MrCK

      October 18, 2019 at 4:11 pm

      ????

  2. Cause4 Alarm

    October 18, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    And yet it still won’t cure cancer just more data mining on you and your family to be sold to the highest bidder most likely your local government! This is a farce being implemented by the New World Order they have no intention helping anybody but themselves and having control of DNA!
    But let this used car salesman sell you!

    • chas ames

      October 18, 2019 at 5:42 pm

      Not sure what is more of a Russiabot giveaway; your rant or your username.

  3. Rice MenaRQ

    October 18, 2019 at 4:44 pm

    imagine making family trees in West Virginia. branches looping in all directions

    • Apfelsaft

      October 19, 2019 at 1:03 am

      It’s the middle east which is riddled with incest and cousin marriage. 63% of middle easterners are inbred and suffer from consequenzes; mostly the brain. You can see it on the faces too.

    • Rebecca Mæd

      October 21, 2019 at 2:38 pm

      Rice MenaRQ I have done my family tree and I am from West Virginia. My parents are not related. Go figure!! ????

    • Josh Riles

      October 21, 2019 at 10:31 pm

      @Rebecca Mæd llol nice

  4. Jay M

    October 18, 2019 at 5:17 pm

    They did a joke of 6 degrees of kevin bacon lol

  5. 55Logon

    October 18, 2019 at 5:25 pm

    Wrong, women migration to man, becaus man get money and home.

  6. chas ames

    October 18, 2019 at 5:41 pm

    Excellent use of TED. Love when I hear new things I couldn’t hear anywhere else.

  7. Create happiness with Olga

    October 18, 2019 at 6:01 pm

    Another confirmation that DNA does not dictate life ????

  8. Ricky Soret

    October 18, 2019 at 6:24 pm

    What about all the aboriginals that were around on the northern a southern continents of the Americas

  9. maisey1852

    October 18, 2019 at 6:43 pm

    wow thats so cool authorities caught the perpertraitors of cold case crimes via dna – amazing – so clever

  10. Thukad

    October 18, 2019 at 6:47 pm

    Last part was a twist.

  11. Guapo24k

    October 18, 2019 at 6:52 pm

    Gtfo with this BS ted talk…this is basically what China is doing to “predict” criminals based on Genes…theres is no privacy in todays age anymore ????

    • Guapo24k

      October 18, 2019 at 11:00 pm

      Drew Saluk whats wrong with having dna like that is then it becomes a new way to manipulate and be selective with society for example now your dna tells alot about yourself and lets say your employer wants a specific kind of employee then that would be used to evaluate you…lets say your driving and get into an accident that completely wasnt your fault yet your dna shows that alcholism or drug abuse was common in your genitic line then it would be used against you in court…etc theres so many fucked up situations where dna can determine your place in society and giving corporations and governments access to that information gives them power…remember knowlede is power and we already see what they do with meta data and big data and not to mention all the advertising based on human instincts…eventually everything will just be feed to us in a robotic autonomous society under this assumption

    • Guapo24k

      October 18, 2019 at 11:03 pm

      Drew Saluk yes while dna is available everywhere its legality is not since its a new problem faced by emerging societies…how to limit the access to information companies and the government can gather on you for whatever purposes and who they might sell that information off too….ie. Facebook

    • Drew Saluk

      October 18, 2019 at 11:13 pm

      Guapo24k
      In short, I disagree

    • Guapo24k

      October 18, 2019 at 11:21 pm

      Drew Saluk well this is a free country brother your entitled to your opinion ❤️

    • Drew Saluk

      October 18, 2019 at 11:37 pm

      Guapo24k
      U 2 glad we could keep this civil

  12. Wayne Landry

    October 18, 2019 at 7:26 pm

    Why would you want to spit in the tube and give all your genetic information to any company that can use it against you for hereditary reasons free pre-existing reasons people are so freaking stupid! Why do you think all these companies are collecting this information you think that they are just doing it to help you find your long lost ancestor? One day they are going to say oh Mr. we have a history of you having two beers a day or you are living a risky lifestyle and we’re not going to ensure you because your genetic background. Now you may say I’m nuts but you freaking nuts are letting them have your Geno type your blood type everything in these companies are not protected by law. These people are testing for genetic problems all Pre-existing kidney disease you name it and you’re on their list you’re freaking stupid stupid is as stupid does.

  13. stylac

    October 18, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    This is creepy because it is the one area of digital privacy that we have absolutely no control over if just one family member shared theirbdata.

  14. Anna B

    October 18, 2019 at 8:47 pm

    Love seeing my obsession of genealogy being more widely recognized! Everyone should know about their family history!

  15. Kathy Fausett

    October 19, 2019 at 12:23 am

    Unless your biomedical research includes findings of epigenetic variability, it will be useless.

    • shanemaybe

      October 19, 2019 at 7:56 pm

      Depending what is being researched, right?

  16. poiisondn

    October 19, 2019 at 2:18 am

    I don’t think Alabama could have a “tree” could it?

    • Black Dot

      October 19, 2019 at 1:54 pm

      A hoola hoop

    • Josh Riles

      October 21, 2019 at 10:32 pm

      Lots of roots

  17. Maria Bulsara

    October 19, 2019 at 4:40 am

    He is a Jew ,of course he is obsessed with genealogy and DNA.

  18. NihlusGreen

    October 19, 2019 at 10:36 am

    And then they sell their users DNA data to big pharmaceutical companies for millions and there is nothing you can do about it.

  19. Kris Aaron

    October 19, 2019 at 7:59 pm

    Thanks to DNA and genealogy data bases I was able to trace one line of my ancestors back to the late 1500s!! I also learned that I’m mostly Irish and Russian, which means I come from a long line of writers, poets and drunks — now, THAT’S worth celebrating with a double shot of Writers Tears (or Bushmills, if I’m at a bar).

    • joshua rossi

      October 22, 2019 at 8:20 am

      Liar

    • Kris Aaron

      October 22, 2019 at 9:36 pm

      @joshua rossi What?? Because I prefer Writers Tears to Bushmills? Such heresy you speak!

  20. LW Riker

    October 20, 2019 at 4:25 am

    Amazing!
    This can impact many different studies, criminal connections and medical needs.

  21. Yi Cao

    October 20, 2019 at 1:39 pm

    Wow!

  22. Kurt E. Clothier

    October 21, 2019 at 6:12 pm

    @ 2:30, where are the dead black branches from the millions of unborn babies that have been murdered?

    • Josh Riles

      October 21, 2019 at 10:34 pm

      Facepalm, i was liking you too. How about this where’s all the dead babies of people that just prayed for them to get better instead of taking them to a doctor

    • Kurt E. Clothier

      October 22, 2019 at 4:26 pm

      @Josh Riles …. ? that has nothing to do with what I’ve said. If you’re trying to form some weak link between people’s beliefs in order to criticize me, you’re doing a bad job.

      Not all religious ppl reject medicine, in fact, only a tiny fraction of them do (although I imagine you’re talking about Christians in particular, of which, like I said, only a tiny subset reject all forms of medicine in favor of prayer alone).

      That said, being pro-life and believing that abortion is murder is not exclusive to any religion or theists at all. I know plenty of atheists who feel the same way, and plenty of Christians who disagree.

      So, facepalm yourself I guess.

  23. Kurt E. Clothier

    October 21, 2019 at 6:24 pm

    … except, it’s been shown and proven that all of those “test your DNA” companies out right lie to people on the regular. It’s not a legitimate test, and the results people get are meaningless. The ONLY good that we can do from cataloging DNA is to prevent disease & illness, but of course, it will be used to make wealthy people more money, profiling, and segregation of others that are “different.”

  24. ITouchTheSky

    October 22, 2019 at 8:33 pm

    Technology and internet helps me a lot.

  25. Michael Criswell

    October 22, 2019 at 11:42 pm

    What was the website he is using?

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