Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes
Svante Paabo, 2014
Basic Books
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780465020836
Summary
What can we learn from the genomes of our closest evolutionary relatives?
Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Paabo’s mission to answer this question, and recounts his ultimately successful efforts to genetically define what makes us different from our Neanderthal cousins. 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 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.
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. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Paabo 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. 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.
A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth— April 20, 1955
• Where—Stockholm, Sweden
• Education—Ph.D., Uppsala University
• Awards—numerous scientific prizes (below)
• Currently—lives in Leipzig, Germany
Svante Paabo is a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics. He was born in 1955 in Stockholm to Sune Bergström, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane in 1982, and his mother, Estonian chemist Karin Paabo.
He earned his PhD from Uppsala University in 1986. Since 1997, he has been director of the
Department of Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig,
Germany.
Career
In August 2002, Paabo's department published findings about the "language gene", FOXP2, which is lacking or damaged in some individuals with language disabilities.
Paabo is considered one of the founders of paleogenetics, a discipline that uses the methods of genetics to study early humans and other ancient populations. In 2006, he announced a plan to reconstruct the entire genome of Neanderthals. In 2007, Paabo was named one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year.
In 2009, at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), it was announced that the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology had completed the first draft version of the Neanderthal genome. Over 3 billion base pairs were sequenced in collaboration with the 454 Life Sciences Corporation. This project, led by Paabo, will shed new light on the recent evolutionary history of modern humans.
In March 2010, Paabo and his coworkers published a report about the DNA analysis of a finger bone found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia; the results suggest that the bone belonged to an extinct member of the genus Homo that had not yet been recognized, the Denisova hominin.
In May 2010, Paabo and his colleagues published a draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome in the journal Science. He and his team also concluded that there was probably interbreeding between Neanderthals and Eurasian (but not African) humans. There is growing support in the scientific community for this theory of admixture between archaic and anatomically-modern humans.
Awards and recognitions
1992 - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft*
2000 - Elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
2009 - Kistler Prize of the Foundation For the Future for his work on ancient DNA
2010 - Theodor Bücher Medal of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies
2013 -Gruber Prize in Genetics for ground breaking research in evolutionary genetics.
* The highest honour awarded in German research. (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/20/2014.)
Book Reviews
If there is one name associated with ancient DNA, it is Svante Paabo.... Paabo pioneered and has largely led the field for the past three decades. His book, Neanderthal Man, is perfectly timed, beautifully written and required reading—it is a window onto the genesis of a whole new way of thinking.
Nature
In Neanderthal Man, Svante Paabo offers readers a front-row seat to the still-unfolding understanding of this enigmatic human ancestor by recounting his own years of work.... Paabo quite candidly relays the doubts and challenges that accompanied more than a decade of discovery—a labor that elevated Neanderthals from troglodyte brutes inhabiting a dead-end branch of the human family tree to a complex species that interbred with other hominins, including Homo sapiens. Never one to shy away from provocative statements or even-more-provocative research, Paabo gives what appears to be an honest and open account of his pioneering studies of Neanderthal genetics.
Scientist
(Starred review.) Paabo passionately chronicles his personal story...of the Neanderthal project...and the scientific implications of this exciting research.... In accessible prose, Paabo presents the science so that laypersons will understand the nature and import of his work. But it’s his discussion of the scientific process that steals the show.... He discusses what it took to build a case tight enough to convince even the most skeptical of colleagues and he goes on to demonstrate that scientific knowledge is cumulative and ever-evolving.
Publishers Weekly
Paabo (director, dept. of genetics, Max Planck Inst. for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig) presents a scientific memoir of his—and his colleagues'—work in paleogenetics as they seek to learn more about those humans who populated the Northern Hemispheres before we did.... Some readers may be forgiven if they skip ahead to the final two chapters, where the drama of Denisovan discoveries is palpable.[T]his is a go-to volume on the subject for serious readers. —Margaret Heilbrun
Library Journal
The tale Paabo tells is largely one of technological improvement enabling the elimination of contamination and speeding up the sequencing process. Secondarily, it’s about creating scientific foundations and multinational scientific cooperation to pursue the promises of research into ancient DNA, including that of nonhuman species as well as hominins.
Booklist
[A] revealing glimpse into the inner workings of scientific research.... Since Neanderthals are our closest evolutionary relatives, the author’s work in decoding Neanderthal DNA gives scientists a way to understand how we differ genetically from them and offers the opportunity to learn what genetic changes have made humans unique on this planet.
Kirkus Reviews
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