In Brief, July 2009

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HUMANITY'S GROUND ZERO

A massive new genetic study may have zeroed in on humanity's starting point. By analyzing genetic sequences from 121 populations in Africa, 60 non-African populations and four African-American populations, researchers traced Africans back to 14 ancestral clusters originating at 12.5 degrees east latitude and 17.5 degrees south longitude, near the border of modern-day Angola and Namibia. Besides offering a far more specific understanding of human migrations, the study, in the May 22 Science, also promotes a better understanding of health and disease in many of these populations. —Katherine Harmon

WHAT IS WATSON?

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This software program will beat people on the game show Jeopardy! At least, that is what IBM hopes will happen with a supercomputer running a powerful semantics-crunching program dubbed Watson, which will have access to a knowledge database but no Internet connection. In following up on its human-beating chess computer Deep Blue, IBM says it has been refining Watson for almost two years and hopes to stage a series of sparring matches before a final showdown in 2010. —John Matson

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