Review of 'A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A discussion of mostly human genetics by a British geneticist and broadcaster that looks at genetics from a broad viewpoint with emphasis on modern findings from analysis of our genome. Like many science books for non-scientific readers, there are many digressions and explanations increasing readability and leading to some disorganization.
Topics discussed include:
The seven species of genus Homo that we know about and our relationship to them. So-called cavemen were not hunched over.
The early inhabitants of continental Europe and Britain. Lactose intolerance. Blue eye color. Red hair. The absence of Danish DNA in the British genome.
Iceland. Its history and genetics.
The Plague. Its history and genetics.
American Indians. Their history and genetics. The Havasupai. Kennewick man. Alcoholism.
Genetic genealogy companies. How misleading are their advertisements and results? The web-like nature of any sufficiently long family tree, or we are all cousins. Furthermore, all sufficiently ancient people, if …
A discussion of mostly human genetics by a British geneticist and broadcaster that looks at genetics from a broad viewpoint with emphasis on modern findings from analysis of our genome. Like many science books for non-scientific readers, there are many digressions and explanations increasing readability and leading to some disorganization.
Topics discussed include:
The seven species of genus Homo that we know about and our relationship to them. So-called cavemen were not hunched over.
The early inhabitants of continental Europe and Britain. Lactose intolerance. Blue eye color. Red hair. The absence of Danish DNA in the British genome.
Iceland. Its history and genetics.
The Plague. Its history and genetics.
American Indians. Their history and genetics. The Havasupai. Kennewick man. Alcoholism.
Genetic genealogy companies. How misleading are their advertisements and results? The web-like nature of any sufficiently long family tree, or we are all cousins. Furthermore, all sufficiently ancient people, if they had offspring, are everyone’s ancestor.
The discovery of the remains of Richard III. An estimate that out of 100 people, two were not sired by their apparent father.
Jack the Ripper.
Inbreeding in the Hapsburg dynasty. The inbreeding coefficient, F. Inbreeding in the Darwin family, Pakistanis, Roma, Icelanders, Jews, Finns, Persians, Indians.
The work of Francis Galton. Eugenics.
The concept of Race and the genetic indications that it does not exist. Adaptionism or Panglossianism. Types of earwax. Linkage disequilibrium. The EDAR gene. Tay Sachs disease. That if a typical Caucasian encounters two random Negroes, the Negroes are likely to be more genetically different from each other than either is from the Caucasian. The fallacy of African American traits deriving from slavery.
The Human Genome Project. The definition of a gene and how many do we have? The exome is less than 2% of our total DNA. Transcription factors, introns, and pseudogenes. An excellent analogy using a progressively modified English sentence to show how our DNA is organized (or how it isn’t).
The evolution of the biblical Hebrew word alma into the Greek Parthenos into the English “virgin”.
The evolution of our understanding of diseases and traits that were formerly thought to be simple
Mendelian, e.g. tongue rolling and cystic fibrosis.
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and the mystery of the missing heritability. Manhattan plots.
The misuse of genetic findings in criminal law. Monoamine oxidase A. The examination of the genome of the Sandy Hook murderer. Typical newspaper articles entitled, “Science discovers the gene for...”
Epigenetics. The Hongerwinter. An excellent analogy of the performance of a musical score by an orchestra over time for epigenetics. Methylization of cytosine.
The current and future evolution of our species. Tetrachromatic vision. Sensitivity to succinylcholine in the Vaishya. Infant mortality rates.
Words of interest include: gigglemug and ackamarackus.
Other notes:
The Forer effect (Bertram Forer). People conclude that broadly true statements are accurate for themselves personally. The way that astrology or the I Ching works.
Betteridge’s Law. If a headline poses a question, the answer is likely to be no.
The color scheme of pink for boys’ bedrooms and blue for girls was common in Victorian England.
"In the early 20th century the 5000 meters race was dominated by Finns. A German writer wrote that “Running is certainly in the blood of every Finn...[They] are like animals in the forest.”" [This reminds me of those in the early 20th century in the US who claimed that the Irish had a genetic proclivity for playing baseball, and incredible as it seems today, similar comments were made about Jews and basketball in the 1930s.]
