iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

A short rebuttal to Akbari et al.'s analysis of our 2024 Nature paper:

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

We detect polygenic selection on height-associated loci, especially in the last 2,000-3,000 years in Northern Europe, which explains allele frequency differences between European populations. With Valentin Hivert, Peter Visscher, @LoicYengo www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

t.co

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.27.702172v1

020

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Why are Dutch people so tall? This has been a long-standing debate in genetics, with earlier studies questioned due to unaccounted for confounding. Great to be involved in a new study (link below) using within-family GWAS; we confirm that height has been under positive selection.

133

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

We detect its arrival in Britain by ~2.8 kry BP and Iberia by ~2.5 kyr BP. This work supports a Central European origin of the Celtic languages, spreading through successive expansions of the Urnfield, Hallstatt, and La Tène cultures. Check out the paper for more! n/n

021

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Using new ancient genomes from the Bronze and Iron Age, we traced the expansion of ancestry linked to the Urnfield culture (esp the Knovíz group) beginning 4-3.2 kyr BP. This spread across W Europe between 3.2-2.8 kyr BP into the Hallstatt culture in France, Germany, and Austria.

131

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Celtic languages are now limited to NW Europe, but they were once far more widespread. How did they spread? I'm excited to have contributed to this new ancient DNA study led by @hmcccoll exploring exactly that. 🧬 1/n www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

Tracing the Spread of Celtic Languages using Ancient Genomics

Celtic languages, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and Breton, are today restricted to the Northern European Atlantic seaboard. However, between three and two thousand years before present (BP)...

152

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

And a free link: archive.ph/sepI4 Well researched and accessible science writing is so important, it's crucial that publications like this continue to be funded.

archive.ph

000

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Our research was recently covered in the MIT Technology Review! My quote: “I think the whole lesson of this work is... we are living with immune systems that we have inherited from our past. And we’ve plunged it into a completely new, modern environment which is often sanitary.” shorturl.at/DtvQS

technologyreview.com

Adventures in the genetic time machine

Ancient DNA is telling us more and more about humans and environments long past. Could it also help rescue the future?

100

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

This made me laugh when I listened a few weeks ago! Great interview, really enjoyed it

010

Will Barrie @williambarrie.bsky.social · 22/01/2025

Hi Bluesky! I've just made the leap from Twitter (a little late I know) and I'm looking to find the aDNA/genetics/prehistory group here. I'll be posting about my work and what I find interesting. Drop me a message! Cheers, Will

070