Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Statistics...my best friend and worst enemy

So I'm going to ramble and rant a bit today, about why I wish I hadn't used my college statistics course to try to pick up the cute [but nameless] guy two rows in front of me with my friend Lindsey......   

Okay, if you must know we stalked him from the class sign-in sheet (how many bio nerds does it take to meet a man???), after over a month of contemplating who he was (I went to a very small school, so not knowing someone was practically a sin!!!) and then Lindsey excused herself one day and said she was getting a snack and she comes back and after class she confessed that she had run to the library to "Facebook stalk" him and that he had a girlfriend - oh damn!!!  

Even more reason I shouldn't have spent nearly a month on that mission and missed vital knowledge to help me in my search!!!!

ANYWAYS...........

I got an email today from a woman off the DSR and she and her son had recently done a DNA test with a possible biological father and it was negative.  She couldn't remember the donor number she had used so she contacted me to see if we could be a match and if I still had my DNA analysis from my last paternity test - low and behold I did!!  After scanning both analyses nothing was slapping me in the face saying this has got to be it, but again half-siblings is such a grey area in terms of probability I really didn't know what to think.

So I came home from work today and spent the better part of my evening (at least 3 hours) TRYING as hard as I could to figure out how in the world they calculate a kinship index!!!  I looked up frequencies of the different markers for each allele and multiplied and divided numbers galore and nothing....nadda...zilch.

Yes, the things we do to save a few pennies - or $85, whichever your pick!

And of course for me to admit defeat is quite a tragedy, and I'm still itching to figure out what miracle formula they use to figure out relatedness.  Paternity is pretty easy to tell.  I mean, you have to have inherited one allele from your father, so if neither of your alleles at a particular marker match either of his it's a no-go.  Plain and simple.  

So now.....this woman is going to have her DNA added to her son's profile and with her DNA hopefully we can make some progress on whether or not there's even a remote chance we're related.  Too bad she told me he's got strawberry blonde hair - not that it's any evidence, but it sure would have made me more confident had he had brown hair and green eyes.  

Oh well....I've come to realize through all of this that it's simply another notch in the belt of donor conception. 



I promise I'll have a more customary (not random) post later this week, and probably some pictures of my new rattie Nala as well - since I'm sure all of you simply can't wait to see my new lil bundle of fur!!

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