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- Not very "introductory"
- place to start to learn pop gen
- Simply superb...
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Population Genetics: A Concise Guide
John H. Gillespie
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Principles of Population Genetics, Fourth Edition
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Genetics of Populations (Biological Science (Jones and Bartlett))
ASIN: 0801880092 |
Book Description
This concise introduction offers students and researchers an overview of the discipline that connects genetics and evolution. Addressing the theories behind population genetics and relevant empirical evidence, John Gillespie discusses genetic drift, natural selection, nonrandom mating, quantitative genetics, and the evolutionary advantage of sex. First published to wide acclaim in 1998, this brilliant primer has been updated to include new sections on molecular evolution, genetic drift, genetic load, the stationary distribution, and two-locus dynamics. This book is indispensable for students working in a laboratory setting or studying free-ranging populations.
Customer Reviews:
Not very "introductory".......2007-07-15
I bought this book because I thought it would be a straightforward introduction to population genetics. The first two reviews were written by people who already seem to understand population genetics fairly well; for someone who was genuinely just starting out, however, I cannot say I found it particularly digestible.
Terms are used in this text without any definitions until much later on. Topics are also divided in such a way that they are introduced in one chapter in an advanced form, and then a basic form revealed later! A friend with ADHD attempted to explain a Monte Carlo simulation to me once, and reading this book kind of reminded of me of that.
Also, the book is littered with complex formulae that students are intended to decypher for themselves, with random notes in the back of the book that may or may not assist with this - often, no verbal/written attempt is made to explain what they are for. Students require clear descriptions of what a formula does, and how it can be applied, and in what sort of circumstances long, long before they give a damn about the proofs.
This was written by somebody very fond of navel gazing and showing off their 9th grade algebra and less about providing any instruction about population genetics. This needs to be a lot clearer and more concise in the future. More descriptions of when/where to use formulae, and what they are for. Use examples from actual organisms to make it interesting, and maybe somebody will actually read it.
place to start to learn pop gen.......2004-07-14
This is a wonderfully clear and concise introduction to population genetics. The emphasis is on fundamental insights gleaned from relatively simple models. If you want to learn something about this approach to studying evolution, start here.
Simply superb..........1998-09-19
Many authors make population genetics a boring, and often a formidable discipline in Biology. Therefore, many students avoid taking population genetics, inspite of its central importance in understanding many biological processes. John Gillespie has intertwined theory with superb experimental data. He has made population genetics accessable by all biologists, and even enjoyable, which is an incredible achievement. Besides, his writing style is rare among science writers. His style is comparable to the other great stylist among geneticists, Professor James F. Crow.
Book Description
The advances made possible by the development of molecular techniques have in recent years revolutionized quantitative genetics and its relevance for population genetics.
Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory takes a modern approach to population genetics, incorporating modern molecular biology, species-level evolutionary biology, and a thorough acknowledgment of quantitative genetics as the theoretical basis for population genetics.
- Logically organized into three main sections on population structure and history, genotype-phenotype interactions, and selection/adaptation
- Extensive use of real examples to illustrate concepts
- Written in a clear and accessible manner and devoid of complex mathematical equations
- Includes the author's introduction to background material as well as a conclusion for a handy overview of the field and its modern applications
- Each chapter ends with a set of review questions and answers
- Offers helpful general references and Internet links
Customer Reviews:
New textbook in population genetics offers unique perspectives .......2007-02-19
This latest textbook in population genetics flies above and beyond any other textbook I've read in the field because of its clarity and depth of coverage.
Templeton offers new and unique insights in several key topics in population genetics, and he gives plenty of caveats throughout where important population genetics concepts have been misunderstood. For example, his coverage of inbreeding cofficients is exceptional, and he rightly points out how different inbreeding coefficients are wrongly used in the literature. His approach throughout is multi-dimentional, encompassing the interaction between different evolutionary forces and always stressing the prime importance of population history. A very thorough discussion on the use of linkage disequilibrium in medical genetics is also included.
Does this book have any weak points? It's hard to point out any, such was my overall highly positive impression from reading the book.
Templeton's scholarship is vast and deep, as is his publication record. The unique perspectives offered by this book certainly puts it among the best science books I own.
A New Text Reflecting the Latest Developments.......2006-09-29
Population genetics is concerned with the origin, amount, and distribution of genetic variation present in populations of organisms and the fate of this variation through space and time. As such it is dealing with the mechanisms by which evolution occurs within populations and species, the ultimate basis for all evolutionary change.
It is not a new science, but like the rest of biology has seen significant change occurring as problems of species extinction and environmental degradation became important to students of conservation biology, and as the analytical methods developed for population genetics have been found to be useful in many areas of genomics.
This book provides a basic foundation in population genetics for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. While the book is not primarily mathematical in its approach, the student should have at least a beginning understanding of calculus.
Dr. Templeton is the Charles Rebstock Professor of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis with joint appointments in Genetics and Biomedical Engineering.
Book Description
Essential Mathematical Biology is a self-contained introduction to the fast-growing field of mathematical biology. Written for students with a mathematical background, it sets the subject in its historical context and then guides the reader towards questions of current research interest, providing a comprehensive overview of the field and a solid foundation for interdisciplinary research in the biological sciences.
A broad range of topics is covered including: Population dynamics, Infectious diseases, Population genetics and evolution, Dispersal, Molecular and cellular biology, Pattern formation, and Cancer modelling.
This book will appeal to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students studying mathematical biology. A background in calculus and differential equations is assumed, although the main results required are collected in the appendices. A dedicated website at
www.springer.co.uk/britton/ accompanies the book and provides further exercises, more detailed solutions to exercises in the book, and links to other useful sites.
Amazon.com
Jared Diamond says, "It would be a slight exaggeration to say that L.L. Cavalli-Sforza studies everything about everybody, because actually he is 'only' interested in what genes, languages, archaeology, and culture can teach us about the history and migrations of everybody for the last several hundred thousand years." Cavalli-Sforza has been the leading architect of a revolution (even a paradigm shift) in human genetics since the 1960s. Because of his work, geneticists no longer think that the human species is divided into color-coded races. Cavalli-Sforza's studies of the transmission of family names in Italy, of the relationship between human genes and languages, of migration and marriage, are the benchmarks of our biological self-understanding.
Genes, Peoples, and Languages is less personal than Cavalli-Sforza's preceding book, The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution. And it is far more compact than the magisterial The History and Geography of Human Genes (available abridged for those who prefer not to buy books by the pound). Instead, it is a an excellent overview of Cavalli-Sforza's many-faceted approach to human history and our present condition. It is that rarest of achievements, holistic without any trace of mushy-mindedness. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Book Description
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza was among the first to ask whether the genes of modern populations contain a historical record of the human species. Cavalli-Sforza and others have answered this question--anticipated by Darwin--with a decisive yes. Genes, Peoples, and Languages comprises five lectures that serve as a summation of the author's work over several decades, the goal of which has been nothing less than tracking the past hundred thousand years of human evolution.
Cavalli-Sforza raises questions that have serious political, social, and scientific import: When and where did we evolve? How have human societies spread across the continents? How have cultural innovations affected the growth and spread of populations? What is the connection between genes and languages? Always provocative and often astonishing, Cavalli-Sforza explains why there is no genetic basis for racial classification.
Customer Reviews:
Genes, People and Languages.......2007-07-31
The connection between the categories in the title becomes more apparent after reading this excellent book.
Genes, Peoples, and Languages.......2007-06-02
Excellent reference explaining the current developments and thinking on the evolution of Homo Sapiens.
Worth a read..........2005-05-25
It seems that Sforza makes the presumption that most readers of this book will have read his earlier works. Perhaps he is justified in deciding thusly. The book, however, comes off as being a overture to the politically-correct in the first half of it and a piece of patchwork for his previous works in the second half. Granted, there have been great advances in the fields of genetics and mollecular archaeology since last he wrote a book marketed toward the layman and patchwork might be necessary.
Sforza, as an elder-statesman in the field of genetics, is entitled to a bit more slack than others. This book, however, does not read as well as his previous works or even as well as the various books by newer authors who have disputed him on such topics as the mannerof the introduction of agriculture to Europe or the nature of race.
Taken as a whole, Genes, Peoples and Languages strikes me as being half sermon and half footnote to a brilliant career. The footnote section is certainly worth reading, but only for those who have read at least one or two of his previous works.
A great introduction to the history of mankind........2005-03-06
This is an excellent and easy to read book about the fascinating analysis of the heritage of mankind. The author has developed an extensive multidisciplinary approach that includes: a) archeology, b) history, c) genetics, d) linguistics, and e) mathematics.
Although the author never stresses mathematics as a key discipline to analyze mankind heritage, his work relied on Principal Component Analysis, Multidimensional Scaling, Cluster Analysis, Logistic Regression, and Hypothesis Testing. Thus, the readers familiar with these statistical methods will enjoy reading this book as a fascinating social science application of such methods.
You certainly don't have to be a mathematician or a scientist to enjoy this book. The author has clearly written it as an introduction to this field aimed at the layperson.
You will learn many fascinating concepts. One of those, is that the history of genes, cultures, and languages converge. In essence, they all influence each other back and forth. It is somehow hard to tell what is the main driver of overall changes in population. You run into many Nature or Nurture arguments. Continuing along the same line, he refers to other scientific works explaining the difference in IQ between individuals. Well, it is 1/3 due to heredity (nature); 1/3 due to cultural transmission (nurture); and 1/3 due to differences in personal experience (random). That is a pretty far cry from the 80% to 90% due to heredity that many people believe in. Also, natural evolution will or has already stopped according to the author. This is because medicine in industrialized societies has reduced the natural mortality rate down to almost zero among the pre-reproductive age set. In other words, medicine has eliminated the natural selection process as the survival rate mechanism of our specie. Some of us may have had concepts that humans eventually will evolve and look like aliens with extremely big heads (for superior intelligence and processing powers) and very skimpy bodies (since physical force is useless in an information age). Well, that's not going to happen.
Throughout the book there are many very interesting graphs and maps that beautifully illustrate and clarify the concepts he introduces. The migration map on page 94, clearly outlines all the major original migrations out of Africa starting 100,000 years ago. On page 71, a world map showing the actual genetic distance between locations is fascinating too. On page 164, you can observe the best diagram of the Indo-European languages you will ever see. English is a Germanic language, as we all know. However, English predates German by several centuries!
You can see how throughout his life, he must have been a fantastic university professor. About 6 months ago, I started reselling my books at Amazon Marketplace to cut my cost of reading. However, I am not reselling this one. I am keeping it as a reference. I anticipate there will be so many occasions when I will be glad I have kept it. The book has opened for me a new window of knowledge quest where so many of the social and quantitative sciences have converged into one to crack the mystery of the history of mankind. I hope this book will do for you, what it did for me.
Inspiration for more reading on the subject.......2004-10-12
There is almost no scientific paper on etnology and antropology that doesn't refer to Cavalli-Sforza's work, which spans several decades and accounts for dozens of publications on the most prestigious scientific journals. The capacity of Cavalli-Sforza of translating into popular science the work that he has accumulated in years of world-class research is admirable.
The book features a re-adapted collection of lessons he held in Paris. It is perfectbly suitable for anyone from the layman to the scientist. In order to make the tractation more fluid, notes with more specific details are found in an appendix. The book summarizes the most important steps in the development of Cavalli-Sforza's scientific quest and projects into areas of interest for which he is less famous, namely glottology.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in etnology, antropology, glottology and genetics. It is not too long and can be considered the first inspiration to continue reading on the subject. At times Prof. Cavalli-Sforza's personal comments on the social and political aspects of research on science are expressed, and maybe sometimes they result out of place. Another limit of the book is that, being so short, some topics are just mentioned, and not enough information is given. This may be upsetting, but then again, it is another reason for reading more on the subject.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in tracking the history of humanity through the differentiation of the genoma, learning about the different families of languages spoken on our planet and searching for accounts of practical achievements of population genetics.
Book Description
Anthropological genetics is a field that has been in existence since the 1960s and has been growing within medical schools and academic departments, such as anthropology and human biology, ever since. With the recent developments in DNA and computer technologies, the field of anthropological genetics has been redefined. This volume deals with the molecular revolution and how DNA markers can provide insight into the processes of evolution, the mapping of genes for complex phenotypes and the reconstruction of the human diaspora. In addition to this, there are explanations of the technological developments and how they affect the fields of forensic anthropology and population studies, alongside the methods of field investigations and their contribution to anthropological genetics. This book brings together leading figures from the field to provide an up-to-date introduction to anthropological genetics, aimed at advanced undergraduates to professionals, in genetics, biology, medicine and anthropology.
Customer Reviews:
Reflects Today's State of the Art.......2007-02-02
This text is basically an anthropology textbook on human evolution that integrates the latest biological and cultural research. It comes from the merger of genetic analysis and cultural anthropology. The authors see a co-evolution of genes with culture that helps to define the organism and the environment in which they live in which both are acting as cause and effect.
This book was written at the suggestion of the American Association of Anthropological Genetics (AAAG) with the intent of being used as a textbook at the advanced undergraduage and graduate level. It is broken into four major parts:
Theory: Covering Evolution and Genetic Variations and Isolates
Methods: Field Research, historical demography, molecular markers
General Applications: Forensic DNA, Emerging technology, Linkage analysis
The Human Diaspora: Africa, Europe, Oceania, Americas.
Dr. Crawford originally was to be the editor of the book. Due to contributors failing to meet promised deadlines, he has written a substantial part of the book.
Book Description
Every form of behavior is shaped by trial and error. Such stepwise adaptation can occur through individual learning or through natural selection, the basis of evolution. Since the work of Maynard Smith and others, it has been realized how game theory can model this process. Evolutionary game theory replaces the static solutions of classical game theory by a dynamical approach centered not on the concept of rational players but on the population dynamics of behavioral programs. In this book the authors investigate the nonlinear dynamics of the self-regulation of social and economic behavior, and of the closely related interactions among species in ecological communities. Replicator equations describe how successful strategies spread and thereby create new conditions that can alter the basis of their success, i.e., to enable us to understand the strategic and genetic foundations of the endless chronicle of invasions and extinctions that punctuate evolution. In short, evolutionary game theory describes when to escalate a conflict, how to elicit cooperation, why to expect a balance of the sexes, and how to understand natural selection in mathematical terms.
Customer Reviews:
The Best There Is On Evolutionary Dynamics.......2000-07-14
When I was writing the chapter on evolutionary dynamics for my book Game Theory Evolving (Princeton, 2000), I looked at all the books available and found nothing. Then Hofbauer and Sigmund's new book (a totally revised version of their earlier Theory of Evolution and Dynamical Systems) came out, and I knew I had a masterpiece in hand.
The book does not assume the reader knows basic differential equation theory--it presents all the theory necessary. Indeed, it is a wonderful way to learn differential equation theory, since one immediately is faced with meaningful problems to solve. It does assume the reader is familiar with multivariate calculus. The book should be accessible to biologists and game theorists with a minimum understanding of each other's disciplines.
There are four parts. First, HS deal with Lotka-Volterra equations of the type prevalent in predator-prey models, which they extend to ecological models and several populations. Like the rest of the book, there are lots of problems and the presentation is elegant and succinct.
The second part deals with game theory dynamics and replicator equations, including sections on evolutionary games and asymmetric games. This too is extremely nicely presented, and the links to the Lotka-Volterra models are made clear.
Part three is on dynamical systems especially of relevance to biochemistry--catalytic hypercycles--as well as higher dimensional phase space dynamics of ecological models.
Part four deal with population genetic models using a differential equation approach. This section is also excellent, though for serious readers it should be complemented by Karlin and Taylor's Second Course in Stochastic Processes (which is much more mathematically demanding).
The physical production of the book is also first rate--a pleasure to read and use.
Book Description
Population genetics occupies a central role in a number of important biological and social undertakings. It is fundamental to our understanding of evolutionary processes, of plant and animal breeding programs, and of various diseases of particular importance to mankind.
This is the first of a planned two-volume work discussing the mathematical aspects of population genetics, with an emphasis on the evolutionary theory. This first volume draws heavily from the author's classic 1979 edition, which appeared originally in Springer's Biomathematics series. It has been revised and expanded to include recent topics which follow naturally from the treatment in the earlier edition, e.g., the theory of molecular population genetics.
This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers in mathematical biology and other mathematically-trained scientists looking to enter the field of population genetics.
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Ecology, Genetics and Evolution of Metapopulations
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This collection of specially commissioned articles looks at fragmented habitats, bringing together recent theoretical advances and empirical studies applying the metapopulation approach. Several chapters closely integrate ecology with genetics and evolutionary biology, and others illustrate how metapopulation concepts and models can be applied to answer questions about conservation, epidemiology, and speciation.
The extensive coverage of theory from highly regarded scientists and the many substantive applications in this one-of-a-kind work make it invaluable to graduate students and researchers in a wide range of disciplines.
* Provides a comprehensive and authoritative account of all aspects of metapopulation biology, integrating ecology, genetics, and evolution
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* Covers novel applications of the metapopulation approach to conservation
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- The Journey of Genetics
- Very interesting thesis, very readable
- The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
- Clear explication of a still uncertain theory
- We all wonder where we come from . . .
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The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
Spencer Wells
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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Spencer Wells traces human evolution back to our very first ancestor in The Journey of Man. Along the way, he sums up the explosive effect of new techniques in genetics on the field of evolutionary biology and all available evidence from the fossil record. Wells's seemingly sexist title is purposeful: he argues that the Y chromosome gives us a unique opportunity to follow our migratory heritage back to a sort of Adam, just as earlier work in mitochondrial DNA allowed the identification of Eve, mother of all Homo sapiens. While his descriptions of the advances made by such luminary scientists as Richard Lewontin and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza can be dry, Wells comes through with sparkling metaphors when it counts, as when he compares genetic drift to a bouillabaisse recipe handed down through a village's generations. Though finding our primal male is an exciting prospect, the real revolution Wells describes is racial. Or rather, nonracial, as he reiterates the scientific truth that our notions of what makes us different from each other are purely cultural, not based in biology. The case for an "out of Africa" scenario of human migration is solid in this book, though Wells makes it clear when he is hypothesizing anything controversial. Readers interested in a fairly technical, but not overwhelming, summary of the remarkable conclusions of 21st-century human evolutionary biology will find The Journey of Man a perfect primer. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Around 60,000 years ago, a man--identical to us in all important respects--lived in Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did this real-life Adam wind up father of us all? What happened to the descendants of other men who lived at the same time? And why, if modern humans share a single prehistoric ancestor, do we come in so many sizes, shapes, and races?
Showing how the secrets about our ancestors are hidden in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. We now know not only where our ancestors lived but who they fought, loved, and influenced.
Informed by this new science, The Journey of Man is replete with astonishing information. Wells tells us that we can trace our origins back to a single Adam and Eve, but that Eve came first by some 80,000 years. We hear how the male Y-chromosome has been used to trace the spread of humanity from Africa into Eurasia, why differing racial types emerged when mountain ranges split population groups, and that the San Bushmen of the Kalahari have some of the oldest genetic markers in the world. We learn, finally with absolute certainty, that Neanderthals are not our ancestors and that the entire genetic diversity of Native Americans can be accounted for by just ten individuals.
It is an enthralling, epic tour through the history and development of early humankind--as well as an accessible look at the analysis of human genetics that is giving us definitive answers to questions we have asked for centuries, questions now more compelling than ever.
Customer Reviews:
The Journey of Genetics.......2007-09-11
The Journey of Man, recently recommended by a friend in Dallas, is a story of state-of-the-art genetic research to trace the geographic history of homo sapiens based on, as I understand it, polymorphisms or mutations in human DNA. The idea is that by identifying these and analyzing their frequency of occurance in various areas of the world, the sequence in which they occurred can be deduced and, thus, the associated physical path by which we populated the world can be identified. The conclusion is that homo sapiens began about 50,000 years ago in north-eastern Africa, then spread to Australia, etc. The thought process nicely ties in related data from archaeology, anthropology, and other sciences to support and/or refute the genetic results. A very good book, aimed at laymen and easy to read, although not particularly well-edited and sometimes over-uses analogies to the point that you wish he'd just go ahead and say it.
Very interesting thesis, very readable.......2007-01-11
The book presents, based on genetic, archeological, climatological evidence, a possible (or probable?) route for the dispersion of men through our planet, from its birth in Africa. The evidence is clearly presented, in an organized and very understandable way. It makes a very interesting reading on a subject that is as appealing as it is controversial.
The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey.......2006-11-10
If you have ever questioned where Adam and Eve started and how planet earth was populated this is a must read. Doctor Wells located the oldest Africans he could find,took blood samples, then using his DNA knowledge, produced DNA markers. He continued this process around the world and by examining the DNA markers he could determine the path of primitive people and where they started. He produced a readable technical book that leaves the lay person with a clear understanding of where we started and where and when the first Adam and Eve left the trees and stood up on two feet.
Clear explication of a still uncertain theory.......2006-10-31
Not much more than 50,000 years ago, something happened in East Africa that set humans on the move, and by about 10,000 years ago they had occupied almost every place on Earth, though it took another 9,000 years or so to get to the really good spots like Maui.
At least, that is how geneticist Spencer Wells interprets the evidence. The very short time span requires severe revision of the archaeological evidence.
Fully modern human bones have been found in Israel that are dated to about 100,000 years ago. Although equally modern fossils don't show up in Europe for another 60,000 years or so, the assumption has been that man's move out of Africa began at least 100,000 years ago.
Using changes in the molecular structure of the Y-chromosome, Wells and other geneticists believe that something -- he calls it the First Big Bang -- happened to a human, who lived somewhere in or near Ethiopia, around 50,000-60,000 years ago. That something did not show up in our skeletons but did mark the final evolutionary step to our current level of ability.
It could have been behavioral, although Wells is inclined to think it was some form of structural change in the brain that was closely tied to the beginning of language.
The new capabilities then made it possible to survive in novel habitats, and worsening climatic conditions in East Africa made it desirable to find some.
Genetics tells us we are all very closely related -- there is hardly any variation in our genes as between "races," a doubtful concept in human taxonomy anyway.
Variation piles up over time, particularly in long stretches of DNA that are, so far as anybody has been able to determine, inactive.
When a small band of people move, they take with them only a tiny fraction of the total variation of their larger group. Therefore, the more variation today within a local group, the longer it has been intact.
There is more variation on the Y-chromosomes of the men in an African village than among all the men in the rest of the world. Therefore, humans originated in Africa.
Geneticists believe they can not only measure but time these changes, although the timing is dependent on various assumptions that are uncertain to a degree. The goal of researchers like Wells is to interpret the gene sequences to fit other, paleontological or climatological, data without torturing the evidence too much.
The Y-chromosome determines male sex and therefore passes down from father to son. There is a strictly female record of descent in our cells, too, the mitochondrial DNA; but there is much less of it, so changes on the Y give much more precision in measuring mutations.
In "The Journey of Man," geneticists deduce that around 50,000 years ago, Africans started migrating, sticking to the coastal areas they already knew how to exploit. Within 10,000 years, they were in Australia.
We humans spread quickly but not equally quickly in every direction. In some areas, humans had to wait tens of thousands of years for the slow processes of climate to open up desert and mountain barriers that were too hard to cross.
Thus, Europe was settled very late, despite its closeness to Africa.
The same evidence says modern humans replaced Neanderthal humans; we did not descend from them.
The Y evidence also tends to shoot down evidence -- already equivocal -- that put humans in the New World more than about 12,000 years ago.
And it demonstrates, Wells says, some unexpected relationships. For example, northern Han Chinese are more closely related to their northern neighbors than they are to southern Han Chinese, despite the closer connection of their language dialects.
These various lines of evidence should allow us to retrace our ancestral steps, says Wells, but "many indigenous peoples are now refusing to participate in scientific studies."
He regrets this, not only professionally, but because the Third Big Bang -- the transportation revolution that is mixing up populations more than ever before -- will within a couple of generations obliterate the kind of genetic sleuthing that made "The Journey of Man" possible.
The Second Big Bang was agriculture, and that, he says, led humans to Hawaii. Hunter-gatherers had to go where the food was; Polynesian navigators could choose where to sail.
Wells' explication of what researchers like Wells think they know is first rate. I remain somewhat skeptical about the accuracy of the so-called molecular genetic clocks. Therefore, 3 stars. if the doubts about the 'clock' are resolved in the favor of Wells et al., then the rating would bump up to 4.
We all wonder where we come from . . ........2006-09-01
. . . and Spencer Wells provides many of the answers. Those of you who have seen his National Geographic special, also entitled _The Journey of Man_, will recognize the outline of this book, an exploration of what our genes (and those of people around the world) tell us about where and when our species got started, and how and when people occupied just about every part of the world. The book is able to go into far more detail, presenting clearly and convincingly our relatively recent African origins and the timing and likely routes of the migrations that brought modern humans to Australia, Europe and Asia, and, more recently, to the Americas and Polynesia. Along the way you'll learn why our genes clearly show that the Neandertals were cousins, but not ancestors, and that today's geographic "races" are far too closely related to have evolved from ancient to modern human form independently. The book is graced by pages of striking photos of people from around the globe, which add greatly to the fascinating scientific story that Wells tells. If you're at all interested in human origins, this is a must read. Robert Adler, author of _Science Firsts_ and _Medical Firsts_.
Book Description
This text explores human biological variation in its broadest sense--from the molecular to the physiological and morphological--focusing on the micro-evolutionary analysis of genetic variation among recent human populations. Authoritative yet accessible, Human Biological Variation opens with an introduction to basic genetics and the evolutionary forces that set the stage for understanding human diversity. It goes on to offer a detailed and clear discussion of molecular genetics and its uses and relationship to anthropological and evolutionary models. The text features up-to-date discussions of "classic" genetic markers (blood groups, enzymes, and proteins), along with extensive background on DNA analysis and detailed coverage of satellite DNA, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), Alu inserts, and the coalescent model. The book addresses such current issues as the meaning and significance of "race," quantitative genetics and the "nature versus nurture" debates, biocultural interactions, population structure, and cultural and historical influences on patterns of human variation. Human Biological Variation lucidly explains the use of probability and statistics in studies of human variation and adaptation, keeping the mathematics at the level of basic algebra. It also presents computer simulations in a manner that makes complex issues easily understandable. Integrating examples on topics that are of particular interest to students--including dyslexia, IQ, and homosexuality--Human Biological Variation provides the most thorough thorough view of our biological diversity and is ideal for upper-level undergraduate and graduate classes on human adaptation and variation.
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