HUMAN PEOPLES

Masterful and ambitious If you want to understand the power of population genetics in revealing the complex and diverse story of humanity read this book Tom Higham The international bestseller and new Bible of population genetics the science transforming our understanding of the past We are living through a revolution in knowledge Over the past twenty years genetics has shed light on the history of humanity in unprecedented ways It enables us to study an individual s genome compare it with populations worldwide and understand its place in human history Here Lluís Quintana Murci one of the scientists at the forefront of this research reveals how population genetics is transforming our understanding of who we are Thanks to numerous discoveries we now know how Homo sapiens spread around the world from their exit from Africa approximately 60 000 years ago to the recent settlement of the remote lands of Polynesia within the last millennia Population genetics has also shown that humans mixed with now extinct species including Neanderthals enabling them to adapt to new environments and survive diseases These cutting edge genetic findings will shape our future too offering the key to medicine tailored to individuals But the greatest revelation of populati