The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyAllen Lane, 2002 - 224 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man walked the soil of Africa. Every person alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real life Adam? To find out, Spencer Wells embarked on a unique voyage of discovery, travelling the world and deciphering the genetic codes of people from the Sahara Desert to Siberia. He reveals how our DNA enables us to work out where our ancestors lived, (and who they may have fought, loved and learned from); to re-trace their footsteps from Africa to the far corners of the earth ; to understand how we evolved into such a huge variety of sizes, shapes and races - and, ultimately, to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. |
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Page 50
... nucleotide bases . The information is encoded in the sequence of bases that make up DNA , rather like the amino acids that make up a protein . Unlike proteins , however , DNA has only four building - blocks , called nucleotide bases ...
... nucleotide bases . The information is encoded in the sequence of bases that make up DNA , rather like the amino acids that make up a protein . Unlike proteins , however , DNA has only four building - blocks , called nucleotide bases ...
Page 51
A Genetic Odyssey Spencer Wells. - blocks , called nucleotide bases : adenine ( A ) , cytosine ( C ) , guanine ( G ) ... nucleotides . In the same way that Morse code can convey a huge amount of information with only dots and dashes , so ...
A Genetic Odyssey Spencer Wells. - blocks , called nucleotide bases : adenine ( A ) , cytosine ( C ) , guanine ( G ) ... nucleotides . In the same way that Morse code can convey a huge amount of information with only dots and dashes , so ...
Page 52
... nucleotide chains held together by a mutual attraction between their constituent nucleotide bases . In the world of DNA , adenine always pairs with thymine , and cytosine always pairs with guanine , owing to the nature of their ...
... nucleotide chains held together by a mutual attraction between their constituent nucleotide bases . In the world of DNA , adenine always pairs with thymine , and cytosine always pairs with guanine , owing to the nature of their ...
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Aborigines actually Adam Africa agriculture analysis ancient animals anthropologists apes appear Asian Australia Cavalli-Sforza cent central Asia China chromosomes clan climate coastal colleagues common ancestor continent culture Darwin defined descendants developed earliest early human east Asia Eurasian Europe Europeans evolution evolutionary expansion extinct favour frequency genes genetic data genetic diversity genetic variation geneticists genome Hindu Kush hominid Homo erectus human diversity human genetic human migration human populations hunter-gatherers hunting ice age impala India Indo-European Indo-European languages infer ingredients journey known languages leap lifestyle linguistic living marker Mediterranean Middle East Middle Eastern migration million mitochondrial DNA modern humans molecules mtDNA mutations Native Americans Neanderthals Neolithic non-African northern nucleotide Nyae origin past perhaps polymorphisms recent region route sample Siberia simply soup recipes south-east Asia southern species spoken spread steppe suggests thousands trace unique Upper Palaeolithic western Y-chromosome lineages