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
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... 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 ...
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 too ...
... 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 ...