No matter what Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test shows, there’s no genetic test to prove you’re Native American

Over the weekend, US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released the results of a genetic test suggesting she does have some Native American ancestry. Warren, who is likely to run for president in 2020, probably hopes that the results will stop President Trump and his supporters from mocking her by calling her “Pocahontas.” But even if these particular attacks stop, the test certainly doesn’t prove that she’s Native American. There is no DNA test for being Native American, because DNA and genetic ancestry are not the same as culture and identity.

Carlos Bustamante, a prominent Stanford University geneticist and MacArthur fellow, led the analysis, so it’s far more likely to be accurate than direct-to-consumer DNA tests that sometimes botch…

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New model helps define optimal temperature and pressure to forge nanoscale diamonds

To forge nanodiamonds, which have potential applications in medicine, optoelectronics and quantum computing, researchers expose organic explosive molecules to powerful detonations in a controlled environment. These explosive forces, however, make it difficult to study the nanodiamond formation process. To overcome this hurdle, researchers recently developed a procedure and a computer model that can simulate the highly variable conditions of explosions on phenomenally short time scales.