BRYAN SYKES

Bryan Sykes Les Sept Filles d''Eve Génétique et histoire de nos origines Bryan Sykes, scientifique mondialement connu pour ses recherches sur l''ADN et professeur de génétique à l''Université d''Oxfo

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 of 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 conclusive at all. This stimulating and challenging book poses more questions than it offers answers, eschews jargon, and pursues controversy. Guaranteed to fascinate anyone who has ever wondered how the fossil record, the incredible diversity of human language, and our genetic inheritance might combine to give a glimpse of human origins.

Professor Bryan Sykes, the worlds leading expert on human genetics, set a goal to locate and analyse as many DNA samples as possible with links to the yeti. In doing so, he found himself entering a strange world of mystery and sensationalism, fraud and obsession and even the supernatural. Protected by the ruthless vigour of genetic analysis he was able to listen to the stories of the yeti without having to form an opinion. The only opinion that mattered was the DNA.Three hair samples from the miogi, the Bhutanese yeti are the cause of the investigation. The hairs did not surrender their secrets easily, but eventually two were identified as known species of bear. The third remained a mystery. One of the many theories to account for the yeti legend is that there were small groups of Neanderthals that had managed to survive until recent times. If so, would it be possible to detect recent interbreeding between our own species and Neanderthals in the genomes of indigenous people living in remote regions? Professor Sykes has made some surprising and significant discoveries. Discoveries that could change our understanding of human origins.

Le sexe faible n''est pas celui qu''on croit. Dans 5 000 générations, les mâles auront disparu de la surface de la terre. Eradiqués jusqu''au dernier. Victimes de leur fertilité en berne. Du moins si

¿Es posible que los hombres se enfrenten a su extinción? La fragilidad reproductiva masculina ha sido resaltada en diversos estudios recientes. Ante tales expectativas Bryan Sykes explora la validez de dichas investigaciones concentrandose en la caracteristica clave del hombre: el cromosoma Y que aparece en su ADN. Sykes guia a sus lectores por capitulos fascinantes como La sangre de los vikingos, o Cintas de la vida, para combinar con maestria la historia natural con los datos cientificos y aclarar la biologia de la reproduccion sexual, la genetica moderna y la biologia evolutiva. El autor revela que el cromosoma Y, al mismo tiempo que hace posible la existencia del hombre, tambien lleva consigo la semilla de su destruccion. Esta obra oportuna y fascinante repasa diversos temas controvertidos.

En 1997 el profesor Bryan Sykes, una de las más reconocidas autoridades mundiales en el campo de la investigación del ADN, fue llamado para analizar el 'hombre de hielo', el hombre prehistórico que apareció en Tirol (Italia), hace unos años y entonces descubrió una conexión importante entre el ADN de este hombre y el otro 'hombre de hielo' descubierto en Dorset (Inglaterra). La conexión proviene del ADM mitocondrial. Este descubrimiento le llevó a Sykes a escribir este libro, en el que plantea la tesis de que casi todos los habitantes europeos vivos tenemos un hilo materno intacto desde el pasao que nos hace descender de tan sólo siete mujeres, que son las antecesoras comunes de los 650 millone de europeos modernos y a su vez serían hijas de la popular Eva. Además, encontramos en las páginas de este libro abundante e interesante información sobre la ubicación, costumbres y antigüedad de nuestras 'madres'.

Bryan Sykes, the worlds first genetic archaeologist, takes us on a journey around the family tree of Britain and Ireland, to reveal how our tribal history still colours the country today.In 54BC Julius Caesar launched the first Roman invasion of Britain. His was the first detailed account of the Celtic tribes that inhabited the Isles. But where had they come from and how long had they been there? When the Romans eventually left five hundred years later, they were succeeded by invasions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Did these successive invasions obliterate the genetic legacy of the Celts, or have very little effect?After two decades tracing the genetic origins of peoples from all over the world, Bryan Sykes has now turned the spotlight on his own back yard. In a major research programme, the first of its kind, he set out to test the DNA of over 10,000 volunteers from across Britain and Ireland with the specific aim of answering this very question: what is our modern genetic make-up and what does it tell us of our tribal past? Are the modern people of the Isles a delicious genetic cocktail? Or did the invaders keep mostly to themselves forming separate genetic layers within the Isles? As his findings came in, Bryan Sykes discovered that the genetic evidence revealed often very different stories to the conventional accounts coming from history and archaeology. Blood of the Isles reveals the nature of our genetic make-up as never before and what this says about our attitudes to ourselves, each other, and to our past. It is a gripping story that will fascinate and surprise with its conclusions.