When taken together they provide an insight into how bio-molecular science has both changed and remained much the same during the last half-century. 'Pääbo has provided us with a fabulous account of three decade of research into ancient DNA, culminating in 2010 with the publication of the Neanderthal genome Pääbo's book has to be compared to The Double Helix, James Watson's brilliant but controversial account of how the structure of DNA was discovered. ' Neanderthal Man opens with this episode, and it's a nice touch by Pääbo, bringing us straight to the moment when his long, painstaking effort to tease ancient DNA out of hominin fossils yielded its first dramatic results.'

A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are.

His findings have not only redrawn our family tree, but recast the fundamentals of human history – the biological beginnings of fully modern Homo sapiens, the direct ancestors of all people alive today. We learn that Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct.ĭrawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pääbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species' interactions. Beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes describes the events, intrigues, failures, and triumphs of these scientifically rich years through the lens of the pioneer and inventor of the field of ancient DNA. What can we learn from the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes tells the story of geneticist Svante Pääbo's mission to answer this question, and recounts his ultimately successful efforts to genetically define what makes us different from our Neanderthal cousins.

Svante pääbo neanderthal man