« Si j'ai intitulé ce livre La Malédiction d'Adam, c'est parce que, loin d'être vigoureux et robuste, le chromo-some Y, le seul qui différencie les hommes des femmes, l'ultime symbole génétique du sexe masculin, se décompose à un rythme si alarmant que, pour les êtres humains tout au moins, l'expérience de modification génétique sera bientôt terminée. Comme beaucoup d'espèces qui ont perdu leurs mâles, nous sommes bel et bien menacés d'extinction. » Brian Sykes

La Malédiction d'Adam : Un futur sans hommes

Very little excites human curiosity quite so much as contemplating human origins. More than any other branch of science, evolution-and human evolution in particular-is fraught with controversy. Working from what is essentially the same data, schools of opinion have come to diametrically opposed conclusions.
Are we adapted Neanderthals, or a new species altogether which wiped them out? Did the first Americans enter the continent 30,000 or 12,000 years ago? Did the Polynesians sail against wind and current to an unknown fate, or were they just blown across from South America while out fishing? Why do we speak different languages? Is it because language traces our biological history, or are the two things completely unrelated? Evolution, because it deals with a past that can never conclusively be known, was once ideal material for perpetual debate. Enter genetics with a completely new source of objective data. Surely these old questions would soon be settled one way or another. Or would they?
Bryan Sykes brings together a world-class set contributors to debate these questions. The result is eight lively essays, each of which offers a different opinion about what the links between genes, language, and the archaeological record can tell us about human evolution-and indeed, whether they can tell us anything at all. This stimulating and challenging book poses more questions than it offers eschews jargon, and pursues controversy. Guaranteed to fascinate anyone who has how the fossil record, the incredible diversity of human language, and our genetic inheritance might combine to give a glimpse of human origins.

The Human Inheritance. Genes, Language, And Evolution

Bryan Sykes  né le 9 septembre 1947 et mort le 10 décembre 2020, est un professeur de génétique humaine britannique de l'université d'Oxford. Il a édité le premier rapport de recherche sur l'ADN des restes archéologiques (journal Nature en 1989), et a pris part à l'étude du cas de Ötzi, l'homme du glacier autrichien, aussi bien que dans celles de personnes prétendant être membres de la famille russe royale des Romanov. Il est connu pour ses livres de vulgarisation en sciences.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryan_Sykes

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