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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 572.838 EAN: 9781591025641 ISBN: 1591025648 Label: Prometheus Books Manufacturer: Prometheus Books Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 281 Publication Date: December 13, 2007 Publisher: Prometheus Books Studio: Prometheus Books Related Items:
Editorial Review: Book Description: Since the publication in 1859 of Darwin's Origin of Species, debate over the theory of evolution has been continuous and often impassioned. In recent years, opponents of "Darwin's dangerous idea" have mounted history's most sophisticated and generously funded attack, claiming that evolution is "a theory in crisis." Ironically, these claims are being made at a time when the explosion of information from genome projects has revealed the most compelling and overwhelming evidence of evolution ever discovered. Much of the latest evidence of human evolution comes not from our genes, but from so-called "junk DNA," leftover relics of our evolutionary history that make up the vast majority of our DNA. Relics of Eden explores this powerful DNA-based evidence of human evolution. The "relics" are the millions of functionally useless but scientifically informative remnants of our evolutionary ancestry trapped in the DNA of every person on the planet. For example, the analysis of the chimpanzee and Rhesus monkey genomes shows indisputable evidence of the human evolutionary relationship with other primates. Over 95 percent of our genome is identical with that of chimpanzees and we also have a good deal in common with other animal species. Author Daniel J. Fairbanks also discusses what DNA analysis reveals about where humans originated. The diversity of DNA sequences repeatedly confirms the archeological evidence that humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa (the "Eden" of the title) and from there migrated through the Middle East and Asia to Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In conclusion, Fairbanks confronts the supposed dichotomy between evolution and religion, arguing that both science and religion are complementary ways to seek truth. He appeals to the vast majority of Americans who hold religious convictions not to be fooled by the pseudoscience of Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates and to abandon the false dichotomy between religion and real science. This concise, very readable presentation of recent genetic research is completely accessible to the nonspecialist and makes for enlightening and fascinating reading. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Reclaiming the reluctantThe focus of resistance to Charles Darwin's "dangerous idea" was, and remains, the place of the human species. Even in Darwin's time, most educated people could perceive how natural selection solved many of the issues of life Nature posed. Humans, however, were excluded from the process in the minds of some. The thought of humanity emerging from the African continent millions of years ago stuck in the craw of those who wanted our species to be something special. That reluctance to accept the ... Read More Rating: - Simple, consice, amazinI took a class from the author and came across this book a few years after and was immediately taken to it. I could not put the book down. He explained all the ideas very simply yet was also able to really nail the ideas as well. I would recommend this book to anybody looking for a book about evidence of evolution in our DNA. Great read. Rating: - A superb book that makes a good but not great case for evolution.I just bought relics of Eden yesterday and was surprised at how quickly I was able to go through the book and how its interesting its been. So far I've gotten up to page 50 and appreciate how the author has taken a fairly complex topic,molecular markers for evolution, and presented it so well to an educated lay audience. The books is good but I don't think its great. What the author does is that he likens our DNA to a messy storage attic which may have some useful items but tends to ... Read More Rating:  - Fun, Impressive, A little StridentThis is an excellent book. As a 34 year reader of Scientific American Magazine I feel like writing SA and asking them where they have been as this knowledge has "evolved". As a physician and biologist I found it to be an easy read. I think anyone with a basic knowledge of biology could read this book and in fact, should read this book. It is quite a marvelous read to discover how the sequencing of DNA of humans, apes, monkeys, mitochondria, and other critters is contributing to a vastly improved understanding ... Read More Rating: - There's No ControversyI've been expecting a book on this subject and Fairbanks does a superb job. Tracking fossil evidence in DNA means following the histories of mutations in non-coding DNA segments. There are several different kinds of mutations - some of them more unique than a birthmark. When mutations occur in active coding genes (>2% of the genome), an impaired embryo usually results and neither the new life-form nor the new mutation survives. The mutations that occur in most non-coding segments of DNA have ... Read More 
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