This couple’s baby could hit the genetics jackpot (Picture: Getty)

New research has found that people whose parents are genetically diverse are likely to be taller and smarter than those whose parents have a similar genetic makeup.

Scientists from Edinburgh University examined the DNA of 350,000 people from different parts of the world and found that people with parents from diverse genetic backgrounds tend to be taller and have sharper thinking skills.

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Children whose parents were comparatively different genetically were also more likely to go to university and have a bigger lung capacity, though scientists didn’t find any link to health issues such as a person’s chances of developing heart disease and diabetes.

Scientists looked at the DNA of 350,000 people (Picture: Getty)

Everyone has around 24,000 genes, which come in pairs and act as a blueprint for characteristics like eye colour, intelligence and height. Half of your genes come from your mother and half from your father.



In the study, scientists looked at whether people had any pairs of genes which were exactly the same, meaning both their mother and father had passed on the same one. If so, they could be distantly related.

Researchers thought close family ties – or inbreeding as it is sometimes known – could raise a person’s risk of getting diseases like diabetes but they didn’t find this to be the case.

They published their conclusions in Nature, a scientific publication.

The stats Nearly one in 10 couples are now ethnically mixed, according to ONS research. The 2011 data said there are 2.3 million people living as part of a mixed couple in the UK, up by more than a third in a decade. 833,000 children – around seven per cent of those under 16 or still at school in England and Wales – are being brought up by an ethnically-mixed couple.

People whose genes are similar could be distantly related without knowing it (Picture: Getty)