Name: Science & Cocktails in X31: Ancient DNA as a window into human history and biology
Start: 2026-02-19T19:00:00+01:00
Location: Den Grå Hal

Science & Cocktails in X31: Ancient DNA as a window into human history and biology

Science & Cocktails is proud to announce an episode with David Emil Reich, Professor at Harvard University and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, award-winning superstar scientist of Ancient DNA who has uncovered the roots of modern humans, their history and language, and author of the book "Who We Are and How We Got Here". He will tell us how to look at our human past and how that can help us improve human health for the future. All this after W-B-W plays electronic and acoustic sounds.

Tickets
Seated tickets are paid.
Standing tickets are free and valid until 8pm. This means that you should enter before 8pm and can stay the entire event.
After 8pm we let people in on a first come, first served basis.
What is the event about?
How is it that we can obtain whole genome DNA data of similar quality to what you get from sending your spit to a direct-to-consumer ancestry testing companies, from people who lived thousands of year ago? How did we discover that humans interbred with Neanderthals? How did we discover the Denisovans, an entirely new archaic human group revealed by ancient DNA? How did ancient DNA solve the more than 200-year-old mystery of Indo-European language origins? How did ancient DNA disprove the widespread assumption that natural selection has been quiescent over the last tens of thousands of years?
In this talk, David Reich will discuss the revolution wrought by the creation, 15 years ago, of a new tool for studying the human past: ancient DNA sequencing. The invention of the microscope around 400 years ago made possible the discovery of the world of previously invisible microorganisms. In the same way, when we obtain DNA from past cultures today, we find surprise after surprise, often in tension with what we thought we knew, based on archaeology, linguistics, and history. Reich will explore how these new discoveries help us better appreciate our shared, and complicated, genetic past, and how they might be used to improve human health today.
More info here:
https://www.scienceandcocktails.org/en/events/copenhagen/ancient-dna-as-a-window-into-human-history-and-biology
Event held in English and with the generous support of the Novo Nordisk Foundation