A new type of tourism based on DNA

Earlier I posted the story about Paul Salopek's journey for National Geographic tracing one of the main paths of human migration across the globe.  But, close on his heels appears to be a new form of tourism which is arising based on tracing human history in various locations across the globe.  All of this traveling is based in one way or another on the new information provided by the recent discoveries from the human genome research. 
The New York Times just published a story in their travel section about the influx of tourists traveling to Leicester to visit the grave of Richard III.  Royal Remains Draw the Curious to Leicester 
You have probably seen the many news features in the last month about the way that these bones were confirmed to be Richard III by comparing the DNA from the bones with a living descendent of Richard III ‘s sister who is currently alive and well and living in Canada. 

DNA confirms bones are Richard III (BBC)

Confirming that remains are Richard III (NPR)

Another recent travel story featured Eddie Izzard traveling all over the globe.   This was a two-part television story presented by BBC.  Celebrity travel stories are not new – Michael Palin has been globetrotting and presenting interesting television specials for over a decade.  His most recent series was based on his travels in Brazil.

But, Eddie Izzard is one of the first people to follow a travel itinerary based on the markers in his DNA. For the BBC programs he makes two related journeys.   One tracing the migration patterns indicated from his maternal DNA marks and the other based on the DNA marker from his Y chromosome which traces his paternal line.  Meet the Izzards 

We are taking some journeys this week ourselves.  They aren't based on any new genetic data but they are focused on learning more about related species and their inherited characteristics.  Our grade 4 classes are traveling the short distance to Regents Park on a series of water bird surveys.   I will post some photos from our field trips and the results of our surveys later early next week.