Volume 53, Number 14 · September 21, 2006
Talking Genes
By H. Allen Orr
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
by Nicholas Wade
Penguin, 312 pp., $24.95
Within the world of popular science the subject of human evolution never goes out of fashion. While formerly one could complain that the number of new books on this topic bore little relation to the volume of new discoveries—a stray skull unearthed in Tanzania might unleash four books—this is no longer true. The growing literature on human origins reflects a real and substantial increase in our understanding of the biological history of human beings. Much of this improved understanding derives from new genetic data that allow us to date important evolutionary events and, in some cases, to trace the actual geographic routes traveled by early peoples over the earth.
Review, 3654 words
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