The Journey of Man: A Genetic OdysseyPenguin Adult, 2003 M05 29 - 224 pages Around 60,000 years ago, a man, identical to us in all important respects, walked the soil of Africa. Every man alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real-life Adam? And why do we come in such a huge variety of sizes, shapes, types and races if we all share a single prehistoric ancestor?
In this fascinating book, Spencer Wells shows how the truth about our ancestors is hidden in our genetic code, and reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible not just to discover where our ancestors lived (and who they may have fought, loved, learned from and influence) but to create a family tree for the whole of humanity. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 32
... frequency owing to random sampling errors - the ' drift ' mentioned above . What was exciting in his results was that drift seemed to change gene frequencies at a predictable rate . The difficulty with studying selection was that the ...
... frequency differences . Cavalli - Sforza and Edwards looked at blood group frequencies from fifteen populations living around the world . The result of this analysis , laboriously calculated by an early Olivetti computer , was that ...
... frequency was one ( that individual ) divided by the total number of men in the population - a very low frequency in all but the smallest groups . Over time , they become more common primarily due to the effect of genetic drift – the ...