What a marvellous little book! I was taken by surprise so many times during my reading, whenever I thought I knew what the author is about at the beginning of many of his stories. In a way, this is like a crime fiction book written by a clever writer that catches you off guard and it reveals the killer only at the last page. The writing style is deceivingly simple; Spencer gets over the scientific details of genetics in a few paragraphs where he tells you in plain English everything you need to know to understand this book. The book then flows smoothly and he managed to make it so easy for you to follow the main ideas and try to decipher what is probably the greatest puzzle of all: the origins of human race. You will have a few surprises.
You might have seen the National Geographic documentary "The Journey of Man". Its author is none other than same Spence Wells. He is only 37 years old, and very, very bright. I have to emphasize again the writing style: very simple, yet it explains clearly complex concepts. He talks science, yet he is humorous and light. He uses sometimes numbers and probabilities, but the book is in general built around stories of five people chosen to represent the main haplogroups (families or a clans of people that share the same genetic properties transmitted over many generations) in the history of mankind. Spencer Wells is currently a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and the director of Genographic Project. It is a great and fascinating role he is playing. The goal of this project is to collect about 100,000 genetic samples from people around the world that live in still pristine conditions: that is they live in the same area their families lived for a long time. This information is stored in a database and by applying sophisticated algorithms; we should be able to determine how we have evolved in time, how we migrated and how we came to become the people of today. I was a little bit sceptical about this entire concept, but the book convinced me. You will have to read it to understand what really means. It is a powerful idea.
The book is based on five stories told people with very different backgrounds. Each story will astound you. You will also have a better understanding of what genetic archaeology is. If you are familiar with DNA, it will make even more sense to you. The DNA is seen more and more like a cryptic library that holds many secrets about our evolution. Segments of code will reveal relationships never thought possible. This book does not go that much in detail, but it does tell you the story in a nicely narrated style that takes you step by step through the various haplogroups patterns, like a detective, and come up with unexpected conclusions.
In the end you will see why scientists believe that the Adam and Eve, the original parents of all the people that populated this planet today, lived around 60,000 years ago in Africa. If you take the time to think about it, you realise how amazing this is. In 2,000 generations we evolved from an ape like humanoid to the generation of the Internet. The book will take you through the Ice Age, the disappearance of Neanderthal, the conquest of Asia, the mystery of Australian Aborigines, invasion of Americas and many other adventures. Back to Africa, you will get to know how genetically diverse this continent is. Did you know that two of the oldest haplogroups (tribes) still live in Africa today and probably they speak the oldest language, perhaps the first languages? These people speak the so-called click languages that are more sophisticated in the variety of sounds than our modern languages.
The book has also information about how to purchase a Genographic Project Public Participation Kit. For $99.95 you can get that kit, collect your DNA sample and send it to the project office. The results are kept confidentially in the project database and you will have secure access to your DNA profile. You can find more details at [...]
I recommend this book to anyone curious about genetics, genealogy, history, evolution and genetic archaeology.
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Top reviews from other countries
- Anna K.Reviewed in Canada on November 9, 2013
A personal journey through human's genetic history.
- Ms. C. B. MclaglenReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2014
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- JOANWWReviewed in Canada on July 26, 2013
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- Dr. K. SardaReviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2009
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