Lactose Intolerance

Head on over to Carl Zimmer's Loom to read up on the latest research investigating the origins of lactase persistence, the (relatively rare on a global scale) alternative to lactose intolerance, which is actually the norm perhaps for most of human history and most of the world outside of Northern/Central Europe and its colonies, and a few isolated regions of Africa.

The central question is whether herding peoples of these different regions developed lactase persistence when milk became a reliable source of nutrition, or whether pre-existing lactase persistence (for whatever reason it might have become common in a small, isolated population) led people who had this mutation to become herders.

I'll tease you with the data being collected and then you'll have to read the rest of the story at the Loom. Scientists are testing human remains thousands of years in age from different parts of Europe, some dating as far back as 8,000 years. This is roughly within the range of dates given for the time that evidence exists of herding behavior in Europe. So make your own hypothesis here - would you expect to find the gene for lactase persistence in these specimens or not? Now go find the answer.