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| View Larger Image | Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project
by Spencer Wells
| | List Price: | $12.95 | | Price: | $10.36 | | You Save: | $2.59 (20%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 26650 | | Studio: | National Geographic | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 256 | | Publication Date: | November 20, 2007 | | Publisher: | National Geographic |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 24 reviews)
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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.
June 17, 2008 | |
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.
May 21, 2008 | |
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.
April 26, 2008 | |
Good things sometimes come in small packages 
Deep Ancestry is the story of us. Or the story of how scientists are figuring out the story of us.
Meant to be an introduction to the National Geographic's Genographic Project, Deep Ancestry provides a summary of the complicated genetic discoveries being made by researchers every day.
Author Spencer Wells uses real life people's stories to introduce concepts like haplogroups and population genetics in order to break up the technobabble that cannot really be avoided without entirely dumbing down the ideas he's trying to convey.
A good chunk of the end of the book is a detailed appendix with entries describing each haplogroup (Y chromosome and mtDNA), including all the various markers that point the way to the groups earliest common ancestor. This section seems best suited to those who have purchased a DNA testing kit and want to research their test results.
April 24, 2008 | |
An Interesting Foray into the Genetic Code
This is the second book I have read by Spencer Wells, and I have found this one to be equally interesting. In this book you will learn about haplogroups, which identify people with similar genetic markers and how those markers are identified in the genetic code. There are two types: the mitochondrial (mtDNA) and the Y chromosome groups. Various maps in the book show where the many haplogroups had there probable origins. The evidence presented in the genetic code (Y chromosome), indicates that we had a common ancestor dating back about 60,000 years ago and this ancestor looked pretty much like modern humans today.
What I found interesting was the sudden change of events about 50,000 years ago. All of a sudden we see the development of sophisticated art forms, the migration out of Africa, the development of speech and complex technology and a leap in brain function. One must wonder what was going on.
I highly recommend this book, and if you want more information, you can go to the[...] Web site which discusses the genographic project in detail. It is a pretty cool site.
April 15, 2008 | |
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