Professor Turi King is no ordinary scientist. From uncovering royal remains to revealing life-changing family secrets on national TV, she’s on a mission to make science accessible – and her latest chapter brings that mission to Bath, where she’s inspiring the next generation in her role as Director of the University of Bath’s Milner Centre for Evolution, says Ali Vowles.
On a warm sunny day, I’m sitting on a bench catching up with a woman who I think has one of the most fascinating jobs in Bath.
Professor Turi King is a Canadian scientist, presenter, speaker and author who has a passion for sharing the secrets of science with the public. She is in our homes and on our TVs on the BBC’s DNA Family Secrets, quietly revealing the real history behind our family trees. In 2012 she was asked to lead the DNA verification of THAT dig – discovering the remains of Richard III in a car park in Leicester. And just over a year ago she took up the post as Director of the University of Bath’s Milner Centre for Evolution.
“The University was looking for a new director and when I was offered the job I was very open with them. I said, “I’m not your usual academic. I do science but a lot of what I do is engaging with the public and other academics to make science simple – and I don’t want to stop doing that.” She got the job!
As a teenager Turi came to the UK on holiday, and on a whim applied to Cambridge University to read Archeology and Anthropology. Early on she became interested in the use of genetics and did a PhD on the link between hereditary surnames and the Y chromosome. She traced the history of over 40 surnames, including Attenborough, and yes, Sir David did take part! It was at a time when things like Ancestry.com
didn’t exist. The positive results of her studies caused quite a stir. It got her hooked on genetics and she hasn’t looked back.
It was an email sent to her in June 2011 that led to one of her most thrilling and famous discoveries. It came from Richard Buckley, the co-director of the University of Leicester’s archaeological services. “He said “I understand you have this unusual background in archeology and genetics. We’re looking for somebody who can lead on the excavation but also on the genetic identification. But I can’t tell you who it is.” It got my heart racing. I wrote back straight away and asked him, “Are you looking for Richard III?” He said “Yes but you can’t tell anyone, and anyway we’ll never find him.”
“We didn’t know it at the time, but we immediately found him on the first day, just six hours into the dig!”
I asked Turi could they actually have missed him. “Oh yes! We almost left him. It was a large area. But as soon as we established we were digging in the church, we went back to uncover more of his skeleton and we saw the scoliosis in his spine and his distinctive uneven shoulders. It was Richard and DNA proved it. I still pinch myself that it happened!”
There are more genetic revelations in the BBC’s DNA Family Secrets, which Turi co-presents with Stacey Dooley. This uses the latest DNA technology to solve family mysteries around ancestry. Here Turi uses her skills to help build a truthful family tree for members of the public who take part in the show. Over three series unknown siblings have been revealed, sisters are shown to really be mothers, along with many more hidden stories. “It’s incredibly moving. I end up crying. They end up crying. What you see are only the edited parts of a long conversation.”
Although there are researchers, Turi is the detective that pulls it all together. I’ve always felt she is so gentle and softly spoken when she reveals the secrets of the participants’ past. “Ah yes – people are always talking about how slowly I speak when I tell them the results! Can you imagine what it’s like to receive news like that? You have to tell them in little chunks, because you can see they are trying to take it all in. It’s life-changing for people to find out who their parents are or that they have a half sibling they never knew about.”
And behind the scenes Turi will often carry on helping the families whose stories weren’t resolved, long after the programme has gone out.
“It’s such a privilege. I’ve recently been following up a foundling case. I’ve found both her parents. The mum has sadly died but tomorrow I’ve got to call up the dad with big news. I suspect he has no idea he has a daughter. It’s a massive responsibility. With DNA kits now easily available to the public, it’s so much easier to trace what can be life-changing information.”
So how is this Canadian and popular adopted daughter of Leicester settling down to her new life in the Bath area? She laughs at my question, as she admits it’s a little bit chaotic. She is still living a double life between the two places. One daughter is finishing A Levels and the purchase of the family’s new house in Bath is ongoing. Going to the Jane Austen festival is on her “to do” list, she is already addicted to Bath buns and her daughters love that they’ll soon be living near the home of Bridgerton!
Turi, though, is loving her new job at the University. Her mission is to put the Milner Centre for Evolution on the map. She is already working on a new BBC Ideas strand about the evolution of the menopause, creating a new partnership with the science-based Royal Institution and finding as many ways as possible to talk about science simply. Currently she is writing up some new research she helped carry out on ‘hearing sensitivity’ with some interesting results. (Warning: the female of the species may not be surprised!)
“We’ve looked at all populations, across the board and around the world, and it turns out women have better hearing than men. We don’t know why, but that’s the next stage of research. And the study also shows that all of us hear better with our right ear. ”
Who knew? And who knows what Turi and the team will discover next?
Whatever it is – I know it will be fascinating.
Ali Vowles is a freelance journalist, presenter and facilitator.
Instagram: ali_vowles; linkedin.com/in/ali-vowles-96359311
bath.ac.uk/research-centres/milner-centre-for-evolution/