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Book Review of Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project

Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project
cmtdrt avatar reviewed on + 46 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


Deep Ancestry is the story of us. Or the story of how scientists are figuring out the story of us.

Meant to be an introduction to the National Geographic's Genographic Project, Deep Ancestry provides a summary of the complicated genetic discoveries being made by researchers every day.

Author Spencer Wells uses real life people's stories to introduce concepts like haplogroups and population genetics in order to break up the technobabble that cannot really be avoided without entirely dumbing down the ideas he's trying to convey.

A good chunk of the end of the book is a detailed appendix with entries describing each haplogroup (Y chromosome and mtDNA), including all the various markers that point the way to the groups earliest common ancestor. This section seems best suited to those who have purchased a DNA testing kit and want to research their test results.