Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo – review

Svante Pääbo's pioneering exploration of ancient DNA may be about to reveal what makes us humanSvante Pääbo is the man who is rewriting the story of human evolution. From 1856, when the first Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in Germany, to the dawn of the 21st century, the map of our origins had to be pieced together entirely from fossils. All this changed with the coming of rapid DNA sequencing and the Human Genome Project.Pääbo realised that if intact DNA could be recovered from Neanderthals (who became extinct about 30,000 years ago) and other early human ancestors, comparing the DNA of the genome with modern humans and great apes would dramatically increase the number of deductions that could be made concerning human evolution. Chimps can't speak, make fire or make weapons; Neanderthals had certainly mastered the first two of these (and probably the third) but they very likely lacked the genes and traits that account for our dominant role on the planet.It was loudly trumpeted at the time of the announcement of the completion of the first human genome survey that we had "decoded the Book of Life". But decoding was the job that hadn't been done: the raw hieroglyphics had been discovered but not yet interpreted. This was a Rosetta Stone before the key had been found. It wasn't complete gibberish of course. In the 40 or so years since the genetic code for protein manufacture had been cracked, much had been already learned about many of the 24,000 or so human genes. B...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Neanderthals Genetics Biology Culture Archaeology Reviews Books Anthropology Egyptology Human Genome Project Science Source Type: news