Product Description

Travel backward through time from today's scattered billions to the handful of early humans who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago and are ancestors to us all.

In Deep Ancestry, scientist and National Geographic explorer Spencer Wells shows how tiny genetic changes add up over time into a fascinating story. Using scores of real-life examples, helpful analogies, and detailed diagrams and illustrations, he explains exactly how each and every individual's DNA contributes another piece to the jigsaw puzzle of human history. The book takes readers inside the Genographic Project—the landmark study now assembling the world's largest collection of DNA samples and employing the latest in testing technology and computer analysis to examine hundreds of thousand of genetic profiles from all over the globe—and invites us all to take part.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8896 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-20
• Released on: 2007-11-20
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this concise and well-written work, Wells (The Journey of Man) provides an accessible introduction to genetic anthropology, the study of human history using genetic evidence. Wells is the director of the Genographic Project, which collects DNA samples from a wide array of world populations to better understand human history over the last 200,000 years. Wells does a fantastic job distilling both genetics and genetic anthropology into straightforward topics, presenting sophisticated material accessibly without oversimplification. He gives the reader the basic concepts (Y chromosomes, mtDNA, haplogroups, genetic markers) and then proceeds to step through genographic research from its 19th-century origins to the present day. In so doing, he takes the reader back to the 170,000-year-old female genetic ancestor of every person alive today: the so-called African Eve. It is a remarkable journey that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds interested in exploring the science and research behind human evolution, although those with more experience in the sciences may find some of the material elementary.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
The study of human prehistory has been revolutionized by genetic evidence. Here a leading researcher in genetic anthropology surveys the specialty. He warns that its promise could go unrealized because contemporary mobility is reshuffling the human genome, obscuring the DNA details by which experts can trace the geographic ancestry of contemporary ethnic groups. To rescue genetic information, Wells heads National Geographic Society's Genographic Project, which collects and analyzes DNA from volunteers to create a database of the human genome as it was before the Industrial Revolution. He relays the personal stories and ethnic lineage of five such volunteers while explaining both the DNA markers and the logic by which he and his colleagues can reliably place and date a person's ancestry. Even at this early stage, genomic discoveries about ancient migrations are astounding, and the potential of the NGS project to continue them is apparent from the open questions Wells poses in his epilogue. An informative and exciting picture of science in the making. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"In this concise and well-written work, Wells (The Journey of Man) provides an accessible introduction to genetic anthropology, the study of human history using genetic evidence. It is a remarkable journey that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds interested in exploring the science and research behind human evolution." —Publishers Weekly

"Wells ends the book with an invitation to take part in the project... This is a rare chance to not only learn about ourselves, but to contribute in a worldwide scientific experiment." —Bookpage

Customer Reviews

Read Journey and Forget This One
Most of the info in this book is a rehash of the history of genetic biology that Wells covered in his first book. He tells you what he is doing with the new data gathering, but if you read the first book, you will quickly become bored. Wells is brilliant and like Brian Sykes, he is doing important work in unravelling our ancestral past. Unfortunately, Wells is better at telling you what he doing rather than writing about it.

The man often takes two or three pages to explain something that should only take one or two paragraphs to explain adequately. I find that overly pedantic. This is common practice for most academics.

Wells also made a passive/aggressive political comment that I found to be irksome in a book about genetic anthropology. He said "I met with President Clinton at the end of his second term when the President was still arguably the most powerful man in the world." I've got news for Spence. The President of the United States is still the most powerful man in the world and it's not arguable. The U.S. is the most powerful economy in the world and Bush's policies helped to add an enormous amount of wealth to everyone in the world. We produce twenty five percent of the world's GDP with less than five percent of the planet's population. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military in the world and he can project our country's military power anywhere on this globe. It is not arguable. I know Wells spent several years at Cambridge that is still a hotbed of English communism, but I expected a little more common sense from a true genius prodigy.

While the first book was good if a little tiresome, the second book is a real snore. Wells is much better talking on film. I recommend his DVDs and the first book, but the money saved on this one could be better spent on Sykes' Seven Daughters of Eve.

Interesting and educational
I have to admit this is a subject that already interested me but I was very impressed with the writing style and how fun it has been to read! Written almost like a fun story but with very interesting and understandable science behind it.

Wells coats his science in political correctness
While his books are interesting, one thing that becomes abundantly clear to anyone with a working knowledge of ancestral genetics is that Wells goes out of his way to preach "we are all the same" and "race is meaningless". While both statements have an element of truth to them, they don't tell the whole story. Good scientific writers don't try to push a message. Rather, they lay the facts out and allow the reader to do with it what they will. There are very real, empirical genetic differences between ethnic groups--an indisputable fact embraced by serious medical geneticists. This may make some people uncomfortable and provide ammunition for racial bigotry, but playing a shell game with facts does a disservice to science and humanity.