Who we are and how we got Here : : Ancient DNA and the new Science of the Human Past

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Call Number: 572.86 Re, Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Biology / Reich, David
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	572.86 Re	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	572.86 Re	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Biology / Reich, David	4-week checkout	Due 05-07-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Science & Nature / Biology / Reich, David	4-week checkout	Due 05-25-2024

Introduction -- Part I: The deep history of our species -- How the genome explains who we are -- Encounters the Neanderthals -- Ancient DNA opens the floodgates -- Part II: How we got to where we are today -- Humanity's ghosts -- The making of modern Europe -- The collision that formed India -- In search of Native American ancestors -- The genomic origins of East Asians -- Rejoining Africa to the human story -- Part III: The disruptive genome -- The genomics of inequality -- The genomics of race and identity -- The future of ancient DNA.
"A groundbreaking book about how technological advances in genomics and the extraction of ancient DNA have profoundly changed our understanding of human prehistory while resolving many long-standing controversies. Massive technological innovations now allow scientists to extract and analyze ancient DNA as never before, and it has become clear--in part from David Reich's own contributions to the field--that genomics is as important a means of understanding the human past as archeology, linguistics, and the written word. Now, in The New Science of the Human Past, Reich describes with unprecedented clarity just how the human genome provides not only all the information that a fertilized human egg needs to develop but also contains within it the history of our species. He delineates how the Genomic Revolution and ancient DNA are transforming our understanding of our own lineage as modern humans; how genomics deconstructs the idea that there are no biologically meaningful differences among human populations (though without adherence to pernicious racist hierarchies); and how DNA studies reveal the deep history of human inequality--among different populations, between the sexes, and among individuals within a population"-- Provided by publisher.

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Want to Understand DNA & Human Evolution? submitted by sdunav on July 11, 2019, 5:34pm Read this if you're interested in how the Denosivans fit into your family tree - unless you're of strictly subSaharan African ancestry, in which case your ancestors didn't mix it up with either Denosivans or Neanderthals. Reich provides lots of insights into recent advances in DNA analysis, ancient migrations, human evolution, and the complexity of human lineages, which separated and then came together (pun kind of intended) myriad times through prehistory. There isn't too much difficult jargon, but the gleeful eloquence of the best nonfiction (like Michael Pollan and Robert Sapolsky) is also absent.

For another perspective on Reich's laboratory and the specifics of his research in Polynesia, check out this NYT article: Is Ancient DNA Research Revealing New Truths - Or Falling Into Old Traps?