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Now that's not what I expected...
Jul. 24th, 2014 03:49 pmOn a recent TV show, they were talking about research being done on ancient carpets here in Japan. Basically, these are old carpets -- I think they said 900 years old? -- which are used as part of the Gion Matsuri festival in Kyoto. But no one really knew where they came from.
Well! Enter the marvels of modern science. In particular, gene sequencing. They took samples -- one hair here, one hair there -- from the carpets, and ran them through gene sequencing. One was from a particular type of long-horned deer, common to a small region in Mongolia! Another was a similar specific animal.
The conclusion was that they believed these carpets were shipped along the ancient Silk Road, ending up in Japan, from a fairly small area in Mongolia. Or at least, the furs used to make the carpets came from that region.
Identifying individual hairs as being from specific strains of animals. An application of gene sequencing that I had not thought about.
Well! Enter the marvels of modern science. In particular, gene sequencing. They took samples -- one hair here, one hair there -- from the carpets, and ran them through gene sequencing. One was from a particular type of long-horned deer, common to a small region in Mongolia! Another was a similar specific animal.
The conclusion was that they believed these carpets were shipped along the ancient Silk Road, ending up in Japan, from a fairly small area in Mongolia. Or at least, the furs used to make the carpets came from that region.
Identifying individual hairs as being from specific strains of animals. An application of gene sequencing that I had not thought about.
