His procedure was to take a minute sample of the material he wanted to test and join it to a plasmid (a carrier molecule prepared from a bacterial virus) and introduce the plasmid carrying the foreign DNA into live bacteria where it would be replicated along with the bacteria’s DNA into hundreds or even thousands of copies of the foreign DNA. He had the opportunity to test if he might be able to do this by experimenting on a piece of beef liver obtained from a local meat market.

He expected that would shed light on who the ancient Egyptians were and how they are related to present-day humans. In 1981 the twenty-six year old Pääbo, while a medical student at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, became intrigued in the possibility of obtaining DNA from Egyptian mummies. When the author was thirteen, his mother took him to Egypt where he picked up a life-long interest in Egyptian mummies. His book is a very interesting read about a truly gifted man. He also includes some purely autobiographical detains about his life.

His book is not only a scientific treatise on his work in developing the genome of Neanderthal Man, it is also an interesting autobiographical account of his experiences in his career in anthropology and with the many scientists he worked with. I could not grasp in detail how he did his work, but he explained it well enough that I understood it and felt comfortable with it. Svante Pääbo does a good job explaining difficult concepts to the average reader. I’m not versed in microbiology or in anthropology, so I wondered if I would get anything out of reading this book.

But detecting these molecules in fossilized bones really piqued my interest, so I read the book. I am amazed that anybody can detect its presence in living tissue, but if scientists say so, I’m sure they can. DNA is composed of microscopic minute chemical molecules embedded in soft, high-moisture tissue. Other than curiosity, I never followed these two discoveries until 2014, when I read Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes announcing the discovery of the Neanderthal genome in 2010. I was amazed when the double helix structure of DNA was discovered in 1953 and astounded when the human genome was mapped in 2003.

I have always been interested in animals and anthropology.

Paabo book