Adam's Curse: A Future without Men

This is not a dry recitation of the facts, by any means. It contains his personal story of unraveling some of these puzzles himself, told in an a lively and amusing manner, sure to hold the reader's interest. There are history lessons, such as the one about the lamentable foul-ups of the microscopists trying to count the chromosomes. And Sykes tale of observing his own Y chromosome, carrying out the manipulations with his own hands, is described in some detail. There are stories about his coworkers, including the giant William Hamilton, who probably is second only to Darwin in developing the theory of evolution. But mostly it is the story of the application of modern genetics to the varied populations of the world, the story of their migrations and conquests, and the struggle of the Y chromosome to survive.

Sykes' distinct approach is to apply some relatively simple molecular probes to Y chromosomes obtained from many individuals in a variety of populations on a fairly big scale, rather than the other important task, carried on by a myriad of scientists, of trying to understand all the biological minutiae of a single prototypical human.

His finding the Y chromosome inherited today by about 500,000 descendants of the founder of the MacDonald, MacDougalls and the MacAlisters Clans is quite fun to read, and the similar tale of his discovering the Sykes clan reveals something about how curiosity driven science can be so deeply satisfying. The stories of the Vikings, the Polynesians, the Great Khan, and conquest by the Spaniards in South America are all covered here and the new insights revealed by their Y chromosomes gives a tantalizing glimpse of those still to come from other parts of the world. I can't wait.

Probably most unusual for a book of this sort, is that Sykes, a distinguished scientist, lays on some pretty far out, half-baked, probably wrong, but testable ideas about such things as the origin of homosexuality, the war between the sexes from the perspective of the Y and mitochondrial chromosomes, and even the possible future course of the evolution of the Y to its ultimate demise. This is a refreshing contrast to the plodding certainties of the refereed publications of the academics, hedged about with all the required caveats and cautions. In spite of his sometimes over-anthropomorphized chromosomes, this is an entertaining read, rewarding to readers yearning to understand the human beast.


Genetic Thriller   August 1, 2005
Nadera (Seattle, WA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

My training is in molecular biology and I am truly impressed with the ease with which Sykes mixes hard science with a lot of fun facts. He does an excellent job of gauging the amount of background he needs to give the layman to understand the story of sex and the y chormosome. He avoids jargon and does not take any knowledge for granted in his explanations of genetics and evolutionary biology.
There is such a wealth of interesting, fascinating information. This is a great book to read if for no other reason than you will have loads of conversation topics to choose from. If you have a strong genetics background, a lot of the explanations will be review, but as an anthology of neat little bits of info, this book is great.

Teasers...
There is a species of bog worm that has super teenie tiny males that live INSIDE the female.
Do different families have tendancies to have more boys or girls?
And of course, what is the deal with the y chromosome?


I cannot recommend this book enough!


Stories from Inside Our Bodies   July 21, 2005
John Matlock (Winnemucca, NV)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Written by a prominent geneticist, Adam's Curse has two main themes:

One is a fascinating story of using the Y chromosome to trace ancestry - The people of Iceland commonly believe themselves to be directly descended from the Vikings. True, but only from the men, the Icelandic women came from Scotland and Ireland. And there is a an equally fascinating story of tracing homosexuality, boy/girl ratios, etc. through history.

The second message is about the Y chromosome - what in the human species determines gender. For a long time (centuries perhaps?) the Y chromosome has been decaying. It has lost many of its genes, and become much less healthy. If this continues, it will go away. And if it goes away, there will be no men. And of course, with no men, there are no women either. Delightful book.


A Fasinating Read   October 25, 2007
B. L. DaBoll (La Crescenta, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This was a fascinating book, really fascinating. And the audio book was even better (because it kills two birds with one stone: hearing a fabulous tale and getting from A to B without total boredom or road rage.) I recommend this book which concentrates on the male Y chromosome and it's companion, The Seven Daughters of Eve by the same author which traces mDNA or mitachondrial DNA that is passed only down through women.


Outstanding   March 8, 2009
Sudip Chahal (Gold River, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Another outstanding book by Bryan Sykes. Written in the same conversational, easy to read style as his more famous 'Seven Daughters of Eve' but without the extraneous chapters that he had in that book.

Excellent read overall.