A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived
The stories in our genes
Popular Science, Genetics, History
Non-Fiction
Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
A dazzling tour of the latest genetic discoveries that are blurring the boundaries between science and history.
Since scientists first read the human genome in 2001, it has been subject to all sorts of claims, counterclaims and myths. In fact, as Adam Rutherford explains, our genomes should be read not as instruction manuals, but as epic poems. DNA determines far less than we have been led to believe about us as individuals, but vastly more about us as a species.
In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about history, and what history tells us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be.
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Reviews
“A brilliant, authoritative, surprising, captivating introduction to human genetics… you will be spellbound.”
“A thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA… popular science writing at its best.”
“Wide-ranging, witty, full of surprises and studded with sparkling insights.”
