Neanderthal Man

Praise for Neanderthal Man

“Neanderthal Man opens with this episode [when Pääbo and his team first sequenced Neanderthal DNA], and it's a nice touch by Pääbo, bringing us straight to the moment when his long, painstaking effort to tease ancient DNA out of hominin fossils yielded its first dramatic results”

—David Quammen,
Harper's

“Pääbo provides a riveting, personal account of the development of paleogenetics and the technical revolution that made the field possible.... Whether unacquainted with Pääbo's work or regular followers of his publications, readers will find that Neanderthal Man provides a nonpareil account of the development of the field of ancient DNA.”

—Science

“Pääbo's opinions on competitors, scientific publishing, establishing collaborations in former Soviet bloc countries, and much more are sprinkled throughout. Smaller sections dealing with Pääbo's private life show the complex interplay between the social and professional aspects of this brilliant, complex individual.... Highly recommended.”

—Choice

“Thanks to Pääbo's work, we know that Europeans and Asians inherited some DNA from Neanderthals before the latter finally died out about 30,000 years ago. What purpose was served by the genes we retain from our long lost cousins is still being investigated, but it seems certain that at least one important function was strengthening our immune system from certain diseases. Fascinating, to be sure. But this is just a start for Pääbo, who hopes that one day we'll have a much better understanding of precisely which genes and their expression set us apart from the rest of our evolutionary relatives.... Pääbo's book is well worth adding to your Summer reading list.”

—John Farrell,
Forbes.com

“In Neanderthal Man Pääbo offers a fascinating account of the three decades of research that led from a secret hobby to a scientific milestone.... Neanderthal Man is a revealing history of a new scientific field.”

—Carl Zimmer,
New York Times Book Review

“The world's foremost expert on recovering ancient DNA tells the inside story of what it took to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome.”

—The Christian Century,
Essential Books on Evolution and Human Origins

“If Pääbo weren't such a good storyteller, the book might have bogged down with descriptions of things like the different techniques of polymerase chain reaction, and all it takes to build a clean lab. But he's a clever enough writer to keep the reader's attention with a fast-paced story and wonderful details.”

—23andMe blog

“This is a fascinating story of how modern science and especially computer technology is opening vistas onto our prehistoric history.”

—The Explorers Journal

“Pääbo has provided us with a fabulous account of three decade of research into ancient DNA, culminating in 2010 with the publication of the Neanderthal genome.... Pääbo's book has to be compared to The Double Helix (1968), James Watson's brilliant but controversial account of how the structure of DNA was discovered. When taken together they provide an insight into how bio-molecular science has both changed and remained much the same during the last half-century. Both are strong personal accounts of scientific discovery, exposing how science is driven as much by passion, ambition, and competition as by rational thought and the sharing of knowledge. In both books the reader is gripped by life stories of far greater interest than those in may novels before being plunged into passages of near-unintelligible science (despite much simplification) that are nevertheless strangely enthralling.”

—Steven Mithen,
New York Review of Books

“[An] engaging book.... Neanderthal Man is devoted–and devoted is definitely the word–to the years-long ancient DNA project to sequence the Neanderthal genome. Pääbo and his far-flung team did that to an accuracy that exceeds most of the contemporary genomes being sequenced today.... Before I read Neanderthal Man, I thought I knew something about contamination of ancient DNA. In fact, though, I had no clue. No matter how well informed you are about genetics, Svante Pääbo will teach you things.”

—Tabitha Powledge,
PLOS Blogs / On Science Blogs

“Pääbo's tale describes a process approaching the Platonic Idea of contemporary science: a lot of very smart people collaboratively working their butts off, persisting through mistakes and failures and numbingly repetitive but essential tasks and political machinations and technological inadequacies because they believe the Truth is Out There. And finally finding it. Others have not yet weighed in, and this being top-level and therefore monumentally competitive science, contrarians may well emerge. But if the Neanderthal genome project was anything like what Pääbo describes, we are damn lucky.”

—Tabitha Powledge,
Genetic Literacy Project

“Pääbo provides a fascinating look at how his personal life intersected with the founding of a scientific field that has revolutionized evolution.”

—Science News

“[A]n excellent glimpse into how modern science proceeds as a global, social activity.... Pääbo has to navigate through collaborators and competitors (including people who spend time in both categories), guardians of the bones he wants to grind into dust, touchy issues of nationalism, and more In the process, he helps found a new research institute and builds a team dedicated to studying ancient DNA. If anyone doubts that science is a social activity, the doubt won't survive reading this book.... Pääbo paints a picture of how a major scientific advance rose out of a mix of politics, persuasion, careful management, and struggles with technology and technique. For that alone, it's valuable.”

—Ars Technica

“I came for the cavemen, but I stayed for the geeky nail-biter of a story about doing historic science in a climate of fierce international competition and rapid technological innovation.... Truth be told, DNA sequencing is pretty wonky stuff, but perhaps it's Pääbo's own passionate investment in the undertaking that makes his story so exciting to read about; Neanderthal Man does for paleogenetics something like what Steven Spielberg did for the legislative process in Lincoln.... [T]his book is a vibrant testimonial to what might be the greatest creation of modern humans: the scientific method.”

—Laura Miller,
Salon

“[F]rom Egyptian mummy DNA to sequencing the Neanderthal genome, the book is fascinating.”

—Shelf Awareness for Readers

“Neanderthal Man [is] more than just the story of discovering and sequencing ancient DNA. Pääbo shares stories of laboratory experiments and the uncertainties of doing science; he shows us the day to day, nitty-gritty of science. The real strength of Neanderthal Man, in some ways, is its gesture toward sociology of science as it describes a new field of genetic research.”

—New York Journal of Books

“In Neanderthal Man Svante Pääbo offers readers a front-row seat to the still-unfolding understanding of this enigmatic human ancestor by recounting his own years of work.... Pääbo quite candidly relays the doubts and challenges that accompanied more than a decade of discovery – a labor that elevated Neanderthals from troglodyte brutes inhabiting a dead-end branch of the human family tree to a complex species that interbred with other hominins, including Homo sapiens. Never one to shy away from provocative statements or even-more-provocative research, Pääbo gives what appears to be an honest and open account of his pioneering studies of Neanderthal genetics.”

—The Scientist

“If there is one name associated with ancient DNA, it is Svante Pääbo.... Pääbo pioneered and has largely led the field for the past three decades. His book, Neanderthal Man, is perfectly timed, beautifully written and required reading – it is a window onto the genesis of a whole new way of thinking.... Pääbo recounts his life story with a Fennoscandian frankness that some readers might find disconcerting. Along the way, he tells us a great deal about science and scientists.”

—Nature

“We're hoping for great things from geneticist Svante Pääbo, who in 2009 led the team that sequenced the first Neanderthal genome using DNA from 40,000-year-old bone. This is his story, which should prove to be a lens not only on pioneering scientific discovery but also on what makes us human.”

—New Scientist,
2014 books preview

“The tale Pääbo tells is largely one of technological improvement enabling the elimination of contamination and speeding up the sequencing process. Secondarily, it's about creating scientific foundations and multinational scientific cooperation to pursue the promises of research into ancient DNA, including that of nonhuman species as well as hominins.”

—Booklist

“Scientific understanding of earlier humans is fast evolving. For the nonce, this is a go-to volume on the subject for serious readers.”

—Library Journal

“[A] revealing glimpse into the inner workings of scientific research.... Since Neanderthals are our closest evolutionary relatives, the author's work in decoding Neanderthal DNA gives scientists a way to understand how we differ genetically from them and offers the opportunity to learn what genetic changes have made humans unique on this planet.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“Pääbo passionately chronicles his personal story, from graduate school through the culmination of the Neanderthal project 30 years later, and the scientific implications of this exciting research.... In accessible prose, Pääbo presents the science so that laypersons will understand the nature and import of his work. But it's his discussion of the scientific process that steals the show.... He discusses what it took to build a case tight enough to convince even the most skeptical of colleagues and he goes on to demonstrate that scientific knowledge is cumulative and ever-evolving, explaining why he freely released the entire genome.”

—Publishers Weekly,
starred review

“Any book that gives a backstage view of a professional life risks reading like an amplified work diary. But what Svante Pääbo achieves by plunging the reader into the minutiae – and what he could have achieved in no other way – is to remove the aura of straightforwardness that clings to scientific facts like the one which he has so assiduously made his own.”

—Gregory Radick,
Times Literary Supplement (UK)

“[A] real page-turner.... As a lesson in how to 'do' science and the need for scientists to be given space to dream, think and make mistakes, [Neanderthal Man] is peerless. Pääbo's highly personal account is a chatty, funny, autobiographical book, but it is always authoritative. It pulls off the trick of appealing to everyone and disappointing no one. Part memoir, part popular science book, Neanderthal Man is a cracking read.”

—Gregory Radick,
Times Literary Supplement (UK)

“Much of Pääbo's book is devoted to the details of the difficulties [of extracting DNA from ancient bones], and how they were overcome by an awesome combination of technology, ingenuity and persistence. It's a story of how modern high-concept science is done, shot through with the crackle of problem-solving and the hum of project tension, with occasional riffs of annoyance about major scientific journals and people who want dinosaur DNA.”

—The Independent (UK)

“This is the fascinating account of Svante Pääbo's efforts to sequence Neanderthal nuclear DNA.... [H]is personal story, from graduate to world-renowned scientist, make this a very enjoyable book.... The study of Neanderthals has kept palaeontologists occupied for more than a century, but Pääbo convinces us that decoding their DNA will provide insights into how different we are from them and what makes us so unique.”

—BBC Focus (UK)

“Evolutionary biologists are, general, pretty interesting people to talk to, but rarely would you describe their lives as thrilling. The notion of combining an autobiography with a popular science book may therefore not seem especially compelling. However, in this case both the author and the science are quite extraordinary, and inextricably linked.”

—The Evening Standard (UK)

“Svante Pääbo is the man who is rewriting the story of human evolution.... Now firmly established as the master of Neanderthal DNA, Pääbo continues to unravel the genome's deeper secrets.... We are edging closer and closer to an answer to that elusive question – what is it that made us human? Svante Pääbo will be forever celebrated as one of the pioneers.”

—Peter Forbes,
The Guardian (UK)

“Svante Pääbo, a major architect in the study of paleo-DNA, has written a personal, insightful and sometimes very frank book about his relentless quest to understand the human family tree. The first scholar to extract genetic material from Neanderthals, Pääbo writes candidly about the seemingly insurmountable trials and tribulations he had to overcome to give us intriguing new insights into human origins.”

—Donald Johanson,
Founding Director of the Institute of Human Origins,
Arizona State University, and author of Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind

“Problem by problem, solution by solution, Pääbo's gripping account of the discovery of our relationship with Neanderthals brilliantly conveys the thrill and reality of today's big science and the excitement of a major breakthrough.”

—Richard Wrangham,
Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard University,
and author of Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human

“Svante Pääbo's Neanderthal Man is the incredible personal story of one man's quest for our human origins using the latest genome sequence tools. Pääbo takes us through his exciting journey to first extract DNA from ancient bones then sequence it to give us the first real glance at our human ancestors, and showing ultimately that early humans and Neanderthals interbred to produce modern humans. This is science at its best and reinforces that contained in each of our genomes is the history of humanity.”

—J. Craig Venter,
Chairman and President, J. Craig Venter Institute

“It is a rare thing to read about an important development in science by its principal innovator, written in the spirit and style in which the research unfolded. Neanderthal Man is a dispatch from the front, and if you want to learn how real science is really done, I suggest you read it.”

—Edward O. Wilson,
University Research Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University

Copyright © 2014 by Svante Pääbo

Published by Basic Books,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

First paperback edition published in 2015 by Basic Books.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107-1307.

Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com.

Designed by Jack Lenzo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pääbo, Svante.

  Neanderthal man : in search of lost genomes / Svante Paabo.

       pages cm

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 978-0-465-08068-7 (e-book)  1.  Neanderthals. 2.  Human population genetics. 3.  Genome analysis.  I. Title.

  GN285.P33 2014

  569.9’86--dc23

                                                            2013041877

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Linda, Rune, and Freja

Contents

_______________

Advance praise for Neanderthal Man

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1   Neanderthal ex Machina

Chapter 2   Mummies and Molecules

Chapter 3   Amplifying the Past

Chapter 4   Dinosaurs in the Lab

Chapter 5   Human Frustrations

Chapter 6   A Croatian Connection

Chapter 7   A New Home

Chapter 8   Multiregional Controversies

Chapter 9   Nuclear Tests

Chapter 10   Going Nuclear

Chapter 11   Starting the Genome Project

Chapter 12   Hard Bones

Chapter 13   The Devil in the Details

Chapter 14   Mapping the Genome

Chapter 15 From Bones to Genome

Chapter 16 Gene Flow?

Chapter 17 First Insights

Chapter 18   Gene Flow!

Chapter 19 The Replacement Crowd

Chapter 20 Human Essence?

Chapter 21  Publishing the Genome

Chapter 22  A Very Unusual Finger

Chapter 23 A Neanderthal Relative

Postscript

About the Author

Index

Preface

_____________

The idea to write this book was first suggested to me by John Brockman. Without his initiative and encouragement, I would never have taken the time to write a manuscript much longer than the short scientific articles I am used to authoring. Once I got started, however, I enjoyed the process. Thank you for making this happen!