Is a loved one missing some body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Is everyone at your dinner table of the same species? Humans and chimpanzees differ in only 400 genes; is that why a chimp fetus resembles a human being? And should that worry us? There's a new genetic cure for drug addiction--is it worse than the disease?
Here is an exciting and informative guide to the past, present and future of farming. Superb color photographs give the reader a unique "eyewitness" view of farm animals, crops, machines, harvesting and every other aspect of farming. See all kinds of farm animals, both new breeds and old, a steam threshing machine, a sheep being shorn, a reaper-binder in action, and horses at work. Learn how a cornstack is built, how genetic engineering affects farm animals, when the first plows were made, and what organic farmers do. Discover who grew potatoes first, the inventions of the Egyptians, where corn is stored, what different animals eat, what a dock lifter looks like, and much, much more.
In this concise and well-written work, Wells provides an accessible introduction to genetic anthropology, the study of human history using genetic evidence.
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.
