1.
Record response to call for new astronauts
NEW YORK, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Geneticists say DNA evidence suggests 20 percent of the population of the Iberian Peninsula has Sephardic Jewish ancestry.
Another 11 percent have Moorish ancestors, the New York Times said Friday. The findings suggest there were mass conversions to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries after Christian armies defeated Muslim control of Spain, the newspaper said.
The study, led by Mark A. Jobling of the University of Leicester in Britain and Francesc Calafell of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, was published online in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
"Despite alternative possible sources for lineages [to which] we ascribe a Sephardic Jewish origin, these proportions attest to a high level of religious conversion, whether voluntary or enforced, driven by historical episodes of social and religious intolerance that ultimately led to the integration of descendants," Jobling said in a release.
The findings were based on genetic analysis of 1140 males from the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands.
|
|
|
| Additional Science News Stories | |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of the U.S. computer giant Apple, had faults in his personal life but was a business visionary, associates told the FBI.
|
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
Macaulay Culkin is in "perfectly good health," his publicist said after the former child star was photographed looking gaunt and disheveled in New York.
|
GREENBELT, Md., Feb. 9 (UPI) --
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the first color image from orbit of the three-petal lander of NASA's 2004 Rover Spirit mission, scientists say.
|
BREDA, Netherlands, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
A Dutch collector has said he's willing to sell his collection of rare liquors -- which he calls the world's largest -- for $8 million.
|
| Stories | Photos | People | Comments |
View Caption
