Perot Museum To Make World Record Attempt for Ancestry Testing
Ready. Set. Spit!
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science will attempt to set a world record this weekend, and you’re invited. The museum has teamed up with genetic testing company 23andMe and is attempting to set the record Saturday, May 12, for the most ancestry tests conducted at one time and place.
Kellie Rasberry and J-Si Chavez from the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning Show will be on hand at the museum’s Outdoor Plaza, 2201 N. Field St, to learn what their very own 23andMe results revealed and will pump up the crowd before 100 pre-selected participants (including our assistant editor Bianca Montes) begin spitting at approximately 10:20 a.m.
DNA kits will not be available for purchase on site.
A genetics expert will be present to discuss and answer questions about what it means to be human, explore how our specific traits and quirky characteristics (like curling your tongue) make us unique, and more.
It’s all in conjunction with the unveiling of the Perot Museum’s first completely transformed exhibit hall since its 2012 opening more than five years ago. The newly reimagined Being Human Hall, which officially opens to the public May 11, will feature twice as many highly interactive displays, innovative, cutting-edge content, and dozens of experiences all offered in English and Spanish.
Guests will be transported through seven components of the human journey as they explore the traits and abilities that are essential and unique to being human – from early origins and DNA; to the complexities and similarities of the brain, face, and voice; to the miracle of movement.
Not to be missed is one of the world’s only displays of a human brain with the spinal cord and nerve endings still attached and a virtual-reality experience that puts visitors in the middle of the South African cave where internationally acclaimed paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger recently identified a new species of primitive human, Homo Naledi.
