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Showing posts from July, 2008

Deep Ancestry: Inside The Genographic Project

by Spencer Wells Having read the Seven Daughters of Eve, I was ready to see how Spencer Wells addressed the spread of the Y chromosome across the continents. It was not surprising to see that the mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome followed similar paths out of Africa. I really liked the way Spencer told the stories of our contemporaries through the research of the chromosome, and which path their particular ancestors took. While this was a great book, it was one which required thought and was not a "quick read." One reason I am glad to have read this book it that I have been following the work of Spencer Wells in National Georaphic magazine. I did not like the way he advertised for the Genographic project, but that was part of the reason for his writing this book. I will be sharing this book with other biology teachers soon. If the cost of being a part of the project was not so prohibitive, I would even encourage my students to participate.