Steve Olson is an American writer who specializes in science, mathematics, and public policy. He is the author of several nonfiction trade books: ''Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins'', which was nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

in 2002; ''Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition'' in 2004; ''Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God'' in 2010; ''Eruption: The Untold Story of Mt. St. Helens'' in 2016. He also has written for many magazines, including the ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', the '' Smithsonian'', ''Science'', ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

'', ''Wired'', the ''

Yale Alumni Magazine The ''Yale Alumni Magazine'' is an alumni magazine about Yale University. It was founded in 1891. Hal Boyle praised the magazine in a 1957 column. Yale University took over operations of the ''Yale Alumni Magazine'' in 2015. As of July 2015 ...

'', the ''Washingtonian'', ''Slate'', and ''Paste''. His articles have been reprinted in ''Best American Science and Nature Writing'' 2003 and 2007.

Research on ancestry

''Mapping Human History'' contained a conjecture about human

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from ...

that was disputed when the book was published. The book claimed that the

most recent common ancestor A most recent common ancestor (MRCA), also known as a last common ancestor (LCA), is the most recent individual from which all organisms of a set are inferred to have descended. The most recent common ancestor of a higher taxon is generally assu ...

of everyone living on the earth today must have lived just 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, a number that

geneticists A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic processes ...

thought much too small. However, a more formal version of the conjecture was proven by the author, working with coauthors Douglas Rohde and Joseph Chang, in a September 30, 2004, article in

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. They modeled the human population as a set of randomly mating subpopulations that are connected by occasional migrants. If the size of the population is ''n'', then the time to the most recent common ancestor is a small multiple of the base-2 logarithm of ''n'', even if the levels of migration among the populations are very low. Using a model of the world's landmasses and populations with moderate levels of migration, the authors calculated that the most recent common ancestor could have lived as recently as AD 55. These results lead to some highly counterintuitive conclusions. In the generations before that of the most recent common ancestor, more and more people are common ancestors of everyone living on Earth today. At a time 2,000 to 3,000 years before the appearance of the most recent common ancestor, everyone in the world is either an ancestor of everyone living today or an ancestor of no one living today. Thus, everyone living today has exactly the same set of ancestors who lived 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, even though those ancestors are represented in very different proportions on a person's

family tree A family tree, also called a genealogy or a pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. More detailed family trees, used in medicine and social work, are known as genograms. Representations of ...

. In an article published in the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

on the day the movie

The Da Vinci Code ''The Da Vinci Code'' is a 2003 mystery thriller novel by Dan Brown. It is “the best-selling American novel of all time.” Brown's second novel to include the character Robert Langdon—the first was his 2000 novel '' Angels & Demons''� ...

was released, Olson pointed to several other consequences of the analysis in the

paper.Olson, Steve
Descended from Jesus? Do the math.
''Los Angeles Times.''May 19, 2006. B.13.

Personal information

Olson is married to Lynn Olson, a long-time education journalist who is currently a senior program officer with the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Gates Foundation is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be List of wealthiest charitable foundations, the third largest char ...

. They have two children, Sarah and Eric.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olson, Steve American science writers Living people Year of birth missing (living people)