Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.05.2013, Blaðsíða 6

Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.05.2013, Blaðsíða 6
It’s Not Just An Anti-Incest App The Book of Icelanders goes mobile by Larissa Kyzer No Lifeguard At The Gene Pool? by Anna Andersen Iceland | DNA So then let’s get this out of the way early: two random Icelanders have about as much in common as second cousins, once removed, according to Dr. Kári Stefansson, CEO and co-founder of deCODE Genetics. That might sound like a lot, but accounting for the vast possibilities for genetic recombination in each generation, it really isn’t. Breaking it down in very, very simple terms—call it ‘genetics for literature students in five minutes’— Kári says, two Icelanders share a lot of DNA, but only in tiny bits and pieces. If it seems strange that one of the world’s more promi- nent neurologists would be taking the time to parse basic genetics for a freelance journalist with a high school level understanding of DNA, then well, you can see just how far the joke has really gone. NEW BÖMP TECHNOLOGY In early 2013, deCODE Genetics and the University of Iceland’s School of Engineering and Natural Sciences challenged the nation’s university students to design a smart phone app for the 10th anniversary of the online genealogical database Íslendingabók. The database takes its name from the Book of Ice- landers, a 12th century historical text which details the Icelandic settlement. Currently, the database contains 810,000 genealogical records of the inhabitants of Ice- land, dating more than 1,200 years back. It is viewable only by Icelandic citizens and permanent residents, about 200,000 of who have sought access to the site. A collaborative venture between deCODE and soft- ware engineer Friðrik Skúlason, the Íslendingabók site developed as a corollary to deCODE’s genealogical re- search. “The reason why we have been able to lead the world in genetic research,” Kári Stefansson says, “is be- cause we understand the structure of Iceland’s population so well.” DeCODE has an advantage over “the big guys in human genetics” because the organisation has intimate understanding of Icelandic genealogy, he says. “Our his- tory is mapped in our DNA.” DeCODE has attracted no small amount of interna- tional press over the years, but it is unlikely that its stu- dent app competition would have created such fervour now were it not for one of the novelty features of the winning ÍslendingaApp: the Sifjaspellspillir or “Incest Spoiler” alarm. It alerts the user if the person he or she plans on going home with is a near relation. Using the app’s “new bömp technology,” users can tap their phones together and see how closely they are related. It will either erupt with a discouraging siren, or issue a gleeful “No relation: go for it!” message, while a Barry White-esque voice urges you on with a subtle “Oh, Yeeeaaah.” SAD ENGINEERS WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR The winning “ÍslendingaApp” was submitted by Alex- ander Annas Helgason, Arnar Freyr Aðalsteinsson and Hákon Þrastar Björnsson, three student software engi- neers at the University of Iceland who collaborate un- der the business moniker Sad Engineer Studios (SES). The Sad Engineers are, by their own account, “actually rather jolly” and they have good reason to be. In winning the ÍslendingaApp competition, they’ve not only made headlines around the world, but they’ve also received 1,000,000 ISK (just under 8,500 USD) for their app con- cept, as well as the possibility of further development op- portunities with deCODE. In addressing the “incest alarm,” and resulting jokes about dating risks in Iceland, many people involved in administering the app competition expressed a surprising amount of incredulity that it has garnered so much atten- tion from the international media. For their part, SES can laugh about it: “it is a running joke in Icelandic culture,” Hákon Þrastar says, though he and his collaborators had “no knowledge of anyone actually accidentally sleeping with a relative.” CONNECTING WITH YOUNGER GENERATIONS While this is obviously all rather amusing, the “Incest Spoiler” feature, which SES says is “purely for fun,” does perhaps belie the sincerity and creativity which they and other participants put into designing their apps, which primarily focused on finding inventive ways to connect Icelandic youth with their genealogical heritage. “I considered the competition a wonderful opportu- nity to create a fun app with a positive societal purpose,” said Hlín Leifsdóttir, a humanities student with an inter- est in entrepreneurship. She’s part of the design team Skyldleikur whose app placed second in the competition. “The fact that the app would be based on Íslendingabók really sparked my interest,” she said. “I believe that awareness of one's own historical roots can contribute to one's general historical awareness.” The Skyldleikur app is an all-ages game which uses the information archived in Íslendingabók to gener- ate personalized questions about the player’s ancestors: When did they live; where were they born? From graph- ics down to the soft colour palette, Skyldleikur’s central image—a tree whose branches blossom and fill with birds as you answer more questions correctly—was spe- cifically designed to “spark interest in genealogy among the youngest generation,” says one of her teammates, Björn Þór Jónsson, “while still appealing to the older gen- erations.” In the future, the Skyldleikur team can imagine all sorts of possible expansions for the app, such as users writing in their own advanced questions which could be integrated into family games. A NATIONAL INTEREST IN GENEALOGY “It has often been said that there is a national interest in genealogy here,” SES member Hákon Þrastar remarked. All three SES engineers readily shared their own prior experiences using the Íslendingabók website. Arnar Freyr, for instance, thought that the website had always been a fun tool to use when you make a new friend, and you find out that you are fifth cousins. It was their interest in these unexpected personal connections which inspired the bömp tapping feature in the first place—they thought it would be great to be able to quickly find out if you and a friend had any shared ancestors. Aside from the bömp feature, the ÍslendingaApp also allows users to search for any name in the database to see how they are related to that individual. While per- sonal details about people listed in the registry are only viewable by close relatives—you can’t sift through Jónsi or Vigdís Finnbogadóttir’s family tree, for instance, if your only relation to them is 12 generations back—it is possible to look through and see how close your family connections really are. Additionally, the ÍslendingaApp includes compiled statistics, popular names, a calendar of relatives’ birthdays, and reminders so that you “never forget grandma’s birthday again.” In reaching out to student designers in this app com- petition, Ingi Rafn Ólafsson, the University of Iceland’s marketing and community director, said the organisers were “tapping into the vast creativity and spirit of the generation that is currently in the Universities” and look- ing for new ideas for highlighting the wealth of informa- tion contained in the Íslendingabók database. They have certainly accomplished this, as evidenced by the vastly different approaches that the top placing teams took in their app designs, while still having similar goals in mind. "Older generations tend to be more interested in learning about their roots," says Skyldleikur's Hlín. "I think this has everything to do with how the information is presented, and that a more youth friendly approach would most certainly spark the interest of the younger generations." Perhaps fascinating the foreign press with the “In- cest Spoiler” will have its side benefits, too. Comments sections around the web may now be chock full of crass suggestions about the services that foreign tourists might render in Iceland’s gene pool, but the Sad Engineers keep their sense of humour about this: “If it actually does ex- pand tourism, that’d be fantastic.” Iceland’s gene pool sure has been under heavy scrutiny this last month. Thanks to a joke taken a little bit too literally by the international media, a whole bunch of people are probably now under the impression that Icelanders are so related that they need an app to prevent incest. Now, we are a pretty homogenous nation, as founder of deCODE Genetics Kári Stefánsson says, but we’re not THAT homogeneous. DeCODE Genetics “has discovered key risk factors for dozens of common diseases” due in part to Iceland’s small, homoge- neous gene pool. So just how homoge- neous are we? We are homogeneous in the sense that all of us are rooted in a relatively few individuals who lived many, many centuries back. This means that two random Icelanders will share more of the genome than two Americans, but they share just tiny little pieces of DNA because the genome has been broken up by recombination over many generations. There is the so-called Founder Effect in our population meaning that a few individuals who lived in the past are respon- sible for a large percentage of the population. This makes it much easier for us to find rare mu- tations that cause diseases. According to a chapter on impediments to marriage in Iceland’s Law in Respect of Marriage No. 31, “Persons related by direct descent may not intermarry, and the same shall apply to siblings.” This, however, means that Icelanders can marry their second cousins. You must have data on this; is this practice prevalent today? Was it in the past? We published a paper [“An Association Be- tween the Kinship and Fertility of Human Couples,” SCIENCE VOL 319] a few years back which showed that the more closely related par- ents were, the more children they had, which is sort of counterintuitive. Then when we looked at whether there was a relationship between how closely related the parents were and how many children their children had, it was still the case that the more closely related the parents were, the more children their children had, ex- cept when the parents were first cousins. This means, if the first cousins had children, those children were probably handicapped. So that’s an indirect answer to your question. So it’s okay for second cousins to procreate? Second cousins will have healthy children, at least that is what our data indicate. So bio- logically it is fine. Also, keep in mind that our definition of a species is a group of individuals who are closely enough related to each other to be able to have offspring. So implicit in our definition of a species is a relationship between individuals. I’m not at all promoting or recom- mending that second cousins procreate; I’m just saying that our data do not indicate that there will be biological disasters, though there may be social disasters. It is definitely frowned upon and probably should be. The law also states that, “Examination of impediments to marriage shall be per- formed by persons empowered to perform marriage ceremonies…” Do priests actually need to consult Íslendingabók to verify that they are not marrying off persons related by direct descent? I have no idea what the priests do in general. I do not know whether they consult Íslendingabók. I do not know if they like movies, I don’t know what they like to listen to, I don’t know what they like to eat. I know nothing about priests. I don’t go barhopping with priests. I know nothing. How does the incest alarm work? How closely related do you have to be to set it off? How as this determined? You know, the incest alarm on this app was just a joke. On the tenth anniversary of our Íslend- ingabók database, we launched a competition to create a mobile version of the site, which was won by computer nerds who put together an app that was visually appealing and easy to use. When they got the award, they created this tongue-in-cheek part, but they were just joking. The international press was fooled. What do any two random Icelanders have in common, genetically? If this sounds like the beginning of a bad knock-knock joke (or Jimmy Kimmel sketch), that’s probably because by now you’ve read at least some of the pun-heavy headlines pop- ping up everywhere from Bloomberg Businessweek and NBC to the BBC and The Huffington Post. A quick sampling if you haven’t: “App Aims to Keep Cousins from Kissing,” or “Icelanders Avoid Inbreeding Through Online Database.” …it will either erupt with a discouraging siren, or issue a gleeful ‘go for it!’ message, while a Barry White-esque voice urges you on with a subtle ‘Oh, Yeeeaaah.’ “ „ Photo: Alísa Kalyanova 6The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 5 — 2013

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