Relics of Eden: The Powerful Evidence of Evolution in Human DNA | 
| Author: Daniel J. Fairbanks
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 23529
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 281
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 1591025648
Dewey Decimal Number: 572.838
EAN: 9781591025641
ASIN: 1591025648
Publication Date: December 13, 2007
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Book Description
Since the publication in 1859 of Darwin's Origin of Species, debate over the theory of evolution has been continuous and often impassioned. In recent years, opponents of "Darwin's dangerous idea" have mounted history's most sophisticated and generously funded attack, claiming that evolution is "a theory in crisis." Ironically, these claims are being made at a time when the explosion of information from genome projects has revealed the most compelling and overwhelming evidence of evolution ever discovered. Much of the latest evidence of human evolution comes not from our genes, but from so-called "junk DNA," leftover relics of our evolutionary history that make up the vast majority of our DNA.Relics of Eden explores this powerful DNA-based evidence of human evolution. The "relics" are the millions of functionally useless but scientifically informative remnants of our evolutionary ancestry trapped in the DNA of every person on the planet. For example, the analysis of the chimpanzee and Rhesus monkey genomes shows indisputable evidence of the human evolutionary relationship with other primates. Over 95 percent of our genome is identical with that of chimpanzees and we also have a good deal in common with other animal species. Author Daniel J. Fairbanks also discusses what DNA analysis reveals about where humans originated. The diversity of DNA sequences repeatedly confirms the archeological evidence that humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa (the "Eden" of the title) and from there migrated through the Middle East and Asia to Europe, Australia, and the Americas. In conclusion, Fairbanks confronts the supposed dichotomy between evolution and religion, arguing that both science and religion are complementary ways to seek truth. He appeals to the vast majority of Americans who hold religious convictions not to be fooled by the pseudoscience of Creationists and Intelligent Design advocates and to abandon the false dichotomy between religion and real science. This concise, very readable presentation of recent genetic research is completely accessible to the nonspecialist and makes for enlightening and fascinating reading.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
A superb book that makes a good but not great case for evolution. May 19, 2008
I just bought relics of Eden yesterday and was surprised at how quickly I was able to go through the book and how its interesting its been. So far I've gotten up to page 50 and appreciate how the author has taken a fairly complex topic,molecular markers for evolution, and presented it so well to an educated lay audience.
The books is good but I don't think its great. What the author does is that he likens our DNA to a messy storage attic which may have some useful items but tends to filled with "junk". Both the "junk" and useful stuff are very similar for closer species than they are for less related species. The difference between the "stuff" in the attic increases as species diverge.
Relics of Eden is wonderful in the sense that the author documents changes and similarities between species as proof of evolution. However I feel that if I didn't understand how mutation rates could be used as genetic "clocks" for determining when species split off from one another(A theme that he mentions implicitly but doesn't really go into any detail about, well at least where I am in the book) then I think it would be more difficult to grasp the crux of his argument.
The book is good but I think you really need some background in evolution to fully appreciate what the author is saying and the consequences of his proof and arguments.
I also couldn't imagine handing this book to a creationist and tell him to read it with an open mind. The book is written with the implicit assumption that reader already accepts evolution as the truth. There is nothing wrong with that but most people who buy this book are probably staunch evolutionists to begin with and the author is in effect preaching to the choir.
However if you attempted to bring up some of the points in this book to a creationist I really don't think they would get you anywhere.
I think evolutionists and creationists will always disagree but I do think that's it better to have that discourse citing good rather than bad material.
As a pastor once said during a congregation. He's tired of having people watch the Discovery Channel and telling him what some CGI enhanced documentary said about evolution. Although I disagree with Pastor Mike on quite a few things regarding creationism and genetics I will agree that its alot better for someone to read Relics of Eden than attempt to argue with a creationist based on what they see on the "Discovery Channel". Even now the thought makes my stomach turn.
 Fun, Impressive, A little Strident May 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book. As a 34 year reader of Scientific American Magazine I feel like writing SA and asking them where they have been as this knowledge has "evolved". As a physician and biologist I found it to be an easy read. I think anyone with a basic knowledge of biology could read this book and in fact, should read this book. It is quite a marvelous read to discover how the sequencing of DNA of humans, apes, monkeys, mitochondria, and other critters is contributing to a vastly improved understanding of our relatedness.
He is however quite concerned that we accept evolution as a done deal. I do understand the massive amount of data piled up saying that evolution is "real". But, there was a saying carved into the cement of a building where I went to college that said "He who dares to teach must never cease to learn". There have been many dogmas in my short life that have bitten the dust. I remember in college how Velikovsky's ideas were laughed at by professors (an asteroid hit the planet, ha,ha ha), now just standard. I remember in my residency training being chastised for not knowing that at least 70% of heart attacks were realated to fixed narrowing of arteries, now a dead idea, replaced by inflammed plaque of any size. The maverick's today think cholesterol may not be all that important, they may be right. As I read Scientific American this morning a new theory of the universe was briefly expressed by a sufer dude with a PhD in physics, 240 dimensions out there! Wow, some think he is right, the details are in flux.
Could we in science develop some humility? He does a fair job, but comments like "While recognizing that evolution is indisputable..." on pg 157 don't go very far suggesting we have learned much yet about humility. There was a day when people believed all chemistry had been discovered.
Are we all so quick to believe our minds so readily. Anyone out there care to explain the cosmology principle of inflation as anything but an incredible leap of faith? I read one of Ken Wilber's books recently, and when he got to the part about how eyes, ear, wings, sonar systems, etc., developed in animals he at least admitted that it is pretty hard to figure these things out rationally. He at least seemed to comprehend that we had to take these things on faith as having evolved, but that we have no idea how it happpened. Hey, I'm okay with that. I wish scientists were as honest. The need to be competent and famous seem to over ride the reality of science, i.e. there is a lot we do not know. I realize intelligent design has its drawbacks, but sometimes it all looks pretty intelligently designed to me.
Dawkins no doubt had a deep "shadow", I wonder if he ever discovered it? How many scientists know what their shadow is? Probably almost none, see, there really still is a lot left to learn about.
This is an excellent book. Read it and wonder if the tree of life in Genesis might have anything to do with the tree of life in genetics? It's a fascinating question.
There's No Controversy April 6, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I've been expecting a book on this subject and Fairbanks does a superb job.
Tracking fossil evidence in DNA means following the histories of mutations in non-coding DNA segments. There are several different kinds of mutations - some of them more unique than a birthmark. When mutations occur in active coding genes (>2% of the genome), an impaired embryo usually results and neither the new life-form nor the new mutation survives. The mutations that occur in most non-coding segments of DNA have no effect on the embryo, so the life-form is normal, and any mutations accumulate harmlessly in that life-form and its descendants. The earlier on the "tree of life" the mutation occurs, the more species will carry it. Our DNA is full of these gene-prints left by our ancestors.
Here's the simple version of how it works: Orangutans, gorillas, chimps, and humans all had a common ancestor. Then orangutans forked off, leaving gorillas, chimps and humans. Then gorillas forked off, leaving chimps and humans. If a mutation is not in gorillas, chimps, or humans but is in orangutans; you know the mutation happened after orangutans forked off from the common ancestor to all four. If a given mutation is in gorillas but not in the chimps, you can expect it won't be in humans, either.
With a boost from the human genome project, hundreds of species' genomes have been published in the last few years. Studying DNA sequences in species thought to be closely related shows exactly when one species branched off in relation to the other. Since you can use this method for all living things, including living species that haven't changed in 400 million years, molecular biologists are having a field day. A few species have been relocated but by and large, the tree of life painstakingly put together from fossil and geological evidence by paleontologists has been confirmed.
If you just want one good example of how to use DNA "fossil" evidence, read chapter one. Fairbanks explains with words and pictures how the 24 chromosomes of the chimp became 23 chromosomes in the human. Briefly, chimp chromosome two and three fused. The very specific chromosomal and molecular details as to what happened are there for you. Importantly, data like that is only the tip of the iceberg. With such incontrovertible documentation throughout the tree of life as recorded in DNA, I have to ask myself how any reasonable person who honestly studies this subject could doubt evolution.
In 1998, the National Academy of Sciences issued this statement, written before common usage of genome comparison: "It is no longer possible to sustain scientifically the view that living things did not evolve from earlier forms or that the human species was not produced by the same evolutionary mechanisms that apply to the rest of the living world." Now large scale experiments based on DNA analysis have spectacularly confirmed what we already knew.
Fairbanks doesn't overwhelm the reader with details of molecular biology, but those without a bit of an appropriate background might have their hands full. Even so, technical parts can be skipped without missing the point. Anyone thinking there's a controversy about evolution should read this book. As Theodosius Dobzhansky said, "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."
DB
Evidence of Evolution via Genetics March 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
'Relics of Eden' presents a very nice summary of how current investigations in molecular biology are providing evidence for evolution. With the advent of the modern synthesis, the incorporation of genetics with Darwinian evolution, the theory of evolution is gaining additional support. Much of this new evidence comes from what Daniel Fairbanks refers to as the relics of Eden, the pseudogenes or that part of our DNA not currently being used for coding purposes. A short history describing the development of the modern synthesis is included as an appendix. Today, genetics is the major player in evolution and this book explains how this work is proceeding.
The book focuses on human evolution and the similarities and differences in our genes compared to those of chimpanzees. Not only the similarity in genes between closely, or even distantly, related species, but their differences show how modern species developed and how they are related. Although we have more than 98 percent of our DNA in common with chimpanzees, the differences are also important in showing the link and in making us who we are.
This book is a good companion book to Donald Prothero's `Evolution', which describes biological diversity in terms of the fossil record. `Relics of Eden' is well written, easy for the lay person to read and is recommended for the beginner interested in learning how we got here. A well-chosen glossary at the back of the book provides a quick reference to the definition of common terms used in the book, something I would like to see in other scientific books aimed at the lay person.
RELICS OF EDEN offers much food for thought. March 3, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
RELICS OF EDEN: THE POWERFUL EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION IN HUMAN DNA adds to the debates and literature on evolutionary processes and deserves a place in any college-level science collection, offering DNA-based evidence supporting human evolution. From the latest DNA analysis and research linked to archaeological evidence to religious fallacies, RELICS OF EDEN offers much food for thought.
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