Scientists have recently described DNA ancestry services as the equivalent of “genetic astrology”, as they believe DNA tests cannot provide accurate information about ancestry. Professors David Balding and Mark Thomas of University College London explain that some of the relationships that DNA services companies claim to have found tend to be “so general as to be personally meaningless” or that “they are just speculation from thin evidence”.
But some companies are fighting back, claiming that they are able to provide meaningful information about a person’s ancestry through their DNA. “With advanced testing you can provide a general ancestry indication i.e. Northern European, Western Africa or Middle Eastern and in some cases even more specific” said David Nicholson, director of the DNA Worldwide group.
