Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes

by Svante Pääbo

Overview

A preeminent geneticist, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in medicine, hunts the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes to answer the biggest question of them all: how did our ancestors become human?

Neanderthal Man tells the riveting personal and scientific story of the quest to use ancient DNA to unlock the secrets of human evolution. 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, Svante Pääbo. We learn that Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our ancient relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of where language came from as well as why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct.

Pääbo redrew our family tree and permanently changed the way we think about who we are and how we got here. For readers of Richard Dawkins, David Reich, and Hope Jahren, Neanderthal Man is the must-read account of how he did it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465054954
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/24/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	652,176
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Svante Pääbo is the founder of the field of ancient DNA. The director of the department of genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Pääbo has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, National Geographic, and the Economist, as well as on NPR, PBS, and BBC. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022, and in 2009 Time named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. Pääbo lives in Leipzig, Germany.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Chapter 1 Neanderthal ex Machina 1

Chapter 2 Mummies and Molecules 23

Chapter 3 Amplifying the Past 37

Chapter 4 Dinosaurs in the Lab 49

Chapter 5 Human Frustrations 63

Chapter 6 A Croatian Connection 75

Chapter 7 A New Home 81

Chapter 8 Multiregional Controversies 91

Chapter 9 Nuclear Tests 99

Chapter 10 Going Nuclear 105

Chapter 11 Starting the Genome Project 117

Chapter 12 Hard Bones 129

Chapter 13 The Devil in the Details 143

Chapter 14 Mapping the Genome 153

Chapter 15 From Bones to Genome 159

Chapter 16 Gene Flow? 169

Chapter 17 First Insights 179

Chapter 18 Gene Flow! 185

Chapter 19 The Replacement Crowd 197

Chapter 20 Human Essence? 205

Chapter 21 Publishing the Genome 215

Chapter 22 A Very Unusual Finger 227

Chapter 23 A Neanderthal Relative 239

Postscript 251

Notes 255

Index 261

Editorial Reviews

"Neanderthal Man is a revealing history of a new scientific field."—Carl Zimmer, New York Times Book Review

"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."—New York Review of Books

"Pääbo provides a riveting, personal account of the development of paleogenetics and the technical revolution that made the field possible."—Science

"If there is one name associated with ancient DNA, it is Svante Pääbo.... Neanderthal Man is perfectly timed, beautifully written and required reading."—Nature

"Highly recommended."—Choice

"The world's foremost expert on recovering ancient DNA tells the inside story of what it took to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome."—The Christian Century, Essential Books on Evolution and Human Origins

"This is a fascinating story of how modern science and especially computer technology is opening vistas onto our prehistoric history."—The Explorers Journal

"Pääbo provides a fascinating look at how his personal life intersected with the founding of a scientific field that has revolutionized evolution."—Science News

"Pääbo paints a picture of how a major scientific advance rose out of a mix of politics, persuasion, careful management, and struggles with technology and technique. For that alone, it's valuable."—Ars Technica

"Scientific understanding of earlier humans is fast evolving. For the nonce, this is a go-to volume on the subject for serious readers."—Library Journal

"[T]his book is a vibrant testimonial to what might be the greatest creation of modern humans: the scientific method."—Salon

From the Publisher

In Neanderthal Man Paabo offers a fascinating account of the three decades of research that led from a secret hobby to a scientific milestone. The book follows the style of two previous memoirs by pioneering geneticists—James D. Watson's The Double Helix (1968) and J. Craig Venter's A Life Decoded (2007)…All three books are stories of scientific triumphs, but they're presented more like memoirs…For the most part, though, Neanderthal Man is a revealing history of a new scientific field.

The New York Times Book Review - Carl Zimmer

★ 11/11/2013
In 2010, Pääbo, the head of a team of more than 50 collaborators, published a landmark scientific paper that changed the way we think about human evolution. For the first time, the genome of an extinct form of human, a Neanderthal, was sequenced and offered to the world. Pääbo passionately chronicles his personal story, from graduate school through the culmination of the Neanderthal project 30 years later, and the scientific implications of this exciting research. Readers will despair with him over technical setbacks, agonize over possible methodological complications, and celebrate his final success. In accessible prose, Pääbo 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. As he explains, “Science is far from the objective and impartial search for incontrovertible truths that nonscientists might imagine.” 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, explaining why he freely released the entire genome: “I wanted everyone to be able to check every detail of what we had done. And I wanted them to do a better job if they could.” (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

01/01/2014
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: Were Neanderthals our ancestors? He relates the progress of his own career in DNA studies from his native Sweden to Germany to the University of California, Berkeley, and eventually to the recently founded Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, as he describes challenges and accomplishments in finding and identifying ancient DNA. Along the way, readers behold the complex web of cooperation and competition among scientists, the politics of submission to the top journals, and the ego in assigning species status to a discovery, as well as Paabo's lack of faith in paleontologists: they develop evolutionary theories from bone morphologies, while Paabo's ilk seek the realities of the DNA story. Yet it's clear that the retrieving, amplifying, and sequencing of ancient DNA are fraught with their own potentials for error. The technicalities of paleogenetics deepen as the chapters progress. Some readers may be forgiven if they skip ahead to the final two chapters, where the drama of Denisovan discoveries is palpable. VERDICT Scientific understanding of earlier humans is fast evolving. For the nonce, this is a go-to volume on the subject for serious readers. (P.S. In spite of the title, the DNA of Neanderthal women is crucial—as Paabo well knows!)—Margaret Heilbrun, Library Journal

Library Journal

2013-12-14
A dense account of the efforts to decode Neanderthal DNA and a revealing glimpse into the inner workings of scientific research. Pääbo (Director, Department of Genetics/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), a Swedish biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics, developed techniques for sequencing DNA from extinct creatures. After years of work, his research group succeeded in sequencing the Neanderthal genome. 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. At first, Pääbo faced enormous difficulties, and he relates how he assembled a team of researchers with the right talents, how specimens were obtained, how they coped with the serious matter of contamination, how they dealt with numerous technical problems, and how high-throughput DNA sequencing helped them to coax DNA from ancient bones. As he makes clear, science is a social endeavor in which both competition and cooperation operate, and he does not hide his anxiety about getting his findings published first. His Neanderthal genome paper, published in 2010, received wide attention from scientists and nonscientists alike, and the debate about the interactions between our ancestors and Neanderthals continues. Questions remain: Why did Neanderthals go extinct, and why is Neanderthal DNA present in small amounts in modern humans? In a chapter that feels like a late add-on, Pääbo explores the story of the bones of a different kind of extinct human found in Denisova Cave in Siberia in 2010, which raises more questions about the history of human evolution. For nonscientists, grasping the details of the technical problems facing Pääbo and his research group is no easy matter, but the larger question of the significance of his work makes the book worthwhile.

Kirkus Reviews