I urge you to read the following books that have influenced me over the years on the subjects of genetics, evolution, and humans.
The Language of the Genes: Solving the Mysteries of Our Genetic Past, Present and Future by Steve Jones (HarperCollins, 1991) is a classic, written well before the Human Genome Project was begun and so twenty-five years later is out of date. However, the stories within and Jones’ peerless storytelling make it well worth reading to this day.
Genome: A Biography in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley (Fourth Estate, 1999) is also a classic, and also published before the human genome was unveiled.
Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code by Matthew Cobb (Profile, 2015) is the most definitive version of the story of the genetic code that I have read.
And of course, always return to the source:
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex by Charles Darwin, MA, FRS (John Murray, 1871)
Estimate of the total number of humans born in the last 50,000 years
Carl Haub, “How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?” Population Reference Bureau, prb.org/Publications/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx
“There is no one alive more youer than you!” from Happy Birthday to You! by Dr. Seuss (HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2005)
International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, Lander, Eric S., et al., “Initial Sequencing and Analysis of the Human Genome,” Nature 409 (2001), 860–921
Chapter 1: Horny and mobile
On the origin of life in hydrothermal vents
Many have written on the origin of life, including myself (Creation, Viking, 2013), but none better than Nick Lane, notably in The Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is? (Profile, 2015)
The Hobbit
Brown, P., et al., “A New Small-Bodied Hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia,” Nature 431 (2004), 1055–61
Sutikna, Thomas, et al., “Revised Stratigraphy and Chronology for Homo floresiensis at Liang Bua in Indonesia,” Nature 532 (2016), 366–69
van den Bergh, Gerrit D., et al., “Homo floresiensis-like Fossils from the Early Middle Pleistocene of Flores,” Nature 534 (2016), 245–48
On cryptozoology
Jobling, Mark A., “The Truth Is Out There,” Investigative Genetics 4: 24 (2013)
On the Ebu Gogo
Wong, Kate, “The Littlest Human,” Scientific American 16 (2006), 48–57
The first Neanderthal DNA
Krings, Matthias, et al., “Neandertal DNA Sequences and the Origin of Modern Humans,” Cell 90: 1 (1997), 19–30
Forty-seven Chinese teeth
Liu, Wu, et al., “The Earliest Unequivocally Modern Humans in Southern China,” Nature 526 (2015), 696–69
The stories of the Neanderthals
Howell, F. Clark, “The Evolutionary Significance of Variation and Varieties of ‘Neanderthal’ Man,” The Quarterly Review of Biology 32: 4 (1957), 330–47
Rendu, William, et al., “Evidence Supporting an Intentional Neandertal Burial at La Chapelle-aux-Saints,” Science 318: 5855 (2007), 1453
More Neanderthal genomes
Green, Richard E., et al., “Analysis of One Million Base Pairs of Neanderthal DNA,” Nature 444: 7117 (2006), 330–36
Noonan, James P., et al., “Sequencing and Analysis of Neanderthal Genomic DNA,” Science 314: 5802 (2006), 1113–18
Green R. E., Krause J., Briggs A. W., et al., “A Draft Sequence of the Neandertal Genome,” Science 328: 5979 (2010), 710–22
Prüfer, Kay, et al., “The Complete Genome Sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains,” Nature 505 (2014), 43–49
On speech, FoxP2, people, and songbirds
Arensburg, B., et al., “A Middle Palaeolithic Human Hyoid Bone,” Nature 338 (1989), 758–60
Murugan, Malavika, et al., “Diminished FoxP2 Levels Affect Dopaminergic Modulation of Corticostriatal Signaling Important to Song Variability,” Neuron 80: 6 (2013), 1464–76
Krause, J., Lalueza-Fox, C., Orlando, L., et al., “The Derived FOXP2 Variant of Modern Humans Was Shared with Neandertals,” Current Biology 17: 21 (2007), 1908–12
Hurst, J. A., et al., “An Extended Family with a Dominantly Inherited Speech Disorder,” Developmental Medicine Child Neurology 32: 4 (1990), 352–25
Kuhlwilm, M., et al., “Ancient Gene Flow from Early Modern Humans into Eastern Neanderthals,” Nature 530 (2016), 429–33
On smelling, skin, and red hair
Mainland, Joel D., et al., “The Missense of Smell: Functional Variability in the Human Odorant Receptor Repertoire,” Nature Neuroscience 17 (2014), 114
Lalueza-Fox, C., et al., “A Melanocortin 1 Receptor Allele Suggests Varying Pigmentation Among Neanderthals,” Science 318: 5855 (2007), 1453–55
Hoover, Kara C., et al., “Global Survey of Variation in a Human Olfactory Receptor Gene Reveals Signatures of Non-Neutral Evolution,” Chemical Senses 40 (2015), 481–88
On the impact of admixture with Neanderthals
Juric, Ivan, Aeschbacher, Simon, and Coop, Graham, “The Strength of Selection Against Neanderthal Introgression,” bioRxiv (October 30, 2015)
Harris, Kelley, and Nielsen, Rasmus, “The Genetic Cost of Neanderthal Introgression,” bioRxiv (March 29, 2016)
Enter Denisova
Krause, J., Fu, Q., Good, J. M., et al., “The Complete Mitochondrial DNA Genome of an Unknown Hominin from Southern Siberia,” Nature 464 (2010), 894–97
Sawyer, Susanna, et al., “Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Sequences from Two Denisovan Individuals,” PNAS 112 (2015), 15696–700
Reich, D., Richard, E. G., et al., “Genetic History of an Archaic Hominin Group from Denisova Cave in Siberia,” Nature 468 (2010), 1053–60
Reich, David, et al., “Denisova Admixture and the First Modern Human Dispersals into Southeast Asia and Oceania,” American Journal of Human Genetics 89 (2011), 516–28
Huerta-Sanchez, Emilia, et al., “Altitude Adaptation in Tibetans Caused by Introgression of Denisovan-Like DNA,” Nature 512 (2014), 194–97
Curnoe, D., et al., “A Hominin Femur with Archaic Affinities from the Late Pleistocene of Southwest China,” PLOS One 10: 12 (2015)
Birney, Ewan, and Pritchard, Jonathan K., “Archaic Humans: Four Makes a Party,” Nature 505 (2014), 32–34
Chapter 2: The first European union
Hardy, Karen, et al., “The Importance of Dietary Carbohydrate in Human Evolution,” The Quarterly Review of Biology 90: 3 (2015), 251
Itan, Y., et al., “The Origins of Lactase Persistence in Europe,” PLOS Computational Biology 5: 8 (2009)
Shennan, Stephen, et al., “Regional Population Collapse Followed Initial Agriculture Booms in Mid-Holocene Europe,” Nature Communications 4 (2013)
Lazaridis, Iosif, et al., “Ancient Human Genomes Suggest Three Ancestral Populations for Present-Day Europeans,” Nature 513 (2014), 409–13
Seguin-Orlando, Andaine, et al., “Genomic Structure in Europeans Dating Back at Least 36,200 Years,” Science 346: 6213 (2014)
Fu, Qiaomei, et al., “Genome Sequence of a 45,000-Year-Old Modern Human from Western Siberia,” Nature 514 (2014), 445–50
Helgason, et al., “Sequences from First Settlers Reveal Rapid Evolution in Icelandic mtDNA Pool,” PLOS Genetics 5: 1 (2009)
Benedictow, O. J., The Black Death 1346–1353: The Complete History (Boydell Press, 2004)
Procopius, Secret History: History of the Wars, II. xxii–xxxiii (translated by Richard Atwater. Chicago: P. Covici, 1927; New York: Covici Friede, 1927; reprinted Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1961)
Adhikari, K., et al., “A Genome-Wide Association Scan in Admixed Latin Americans Identifies Loci Influencing Facial and Scalp Hair Features,” Nature Communications 7 (2016)
Leslie, Stephen, et al., “The Fine-Scale Genetic Structure of the British Population,” Nature 519 (2004), 309
Chapter 3: these american lands
The Saga of Erik the Red, Sephton, J. (trans.), Icelandic Saga Database, Sveinbjorn Thordarson (ed.), sagadb.org/eiriks_saga_rauda.en
Rasmussen, Morten, “The Ancestry and Affiliations of Kennewick Man,” Nature 523 (2015), 455–58
Zimmer, Carl, “New DNA Results Show Kennewick Man Was Native American,” The New York Times (June 18, 2015)
Mulligan, Connie J., and Em?ke J. E. Szathmáry, “The Peopling of the Americas and the Origin of the Beringian Occupation Model,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 162: 3 (2017), 403–408
Amorim, Carlos Eduardo G., et al., “Genetic Signature of Natural Selection in First Americans,” PNAS 114: 9 (2017), 2195–99
Fumagalli, Matteo, et al., “Greenlandic Inuit Show Genetic Signatures of Diet and Climate Adaptation,” Science 349: 6254 (2015), 1343–47
Han, Eunjung, et al., “Clustering of 770,000 Genomes Reveals Post-Colonial Population Structure of North America, Nature Communications 8: 14238 (2017)
Bryc, Katarzyna, et al., “The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans Across the United States,” American Journal of Human Genetics 96: 1 (2015), 37–53
Harmon, Amy, “Indian Tribe Wins Fight to Limit Research of Its DNA,” The New York Times (April 21, 2010)
“After Havasupai Litigation, Native Americans Wary of Genetic Research,” American Journal of Medical Genetics 152: 7 (2010), ix
Chapter 4: When we were kings
Charlemagne
Rohde, Douglas L. T., Olson, Steve, and Chang, Joseph T., “Modelling the Recent Common Ancestry of All Living Humans,” Nature 431 (2004), 562–66
Chang, Joseph, “Recent Common Ancestors of All Present-Day Individuals,” Advances in Applied Probability 31 (1999), 1002–26
Ralph, Peter, and Coop, Graham, “The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry Across Europe,” PLOS Biology 11: 5 (2013)
“Revealed: The Indian Ancestry of William,” Times (June 14, 2013)
Lucotte, Gérard, et al., “Haplogroup of the Y Chromosome of Napoléon the First,” Journal of Molecular Biology Research 1: 1 (2011)
Richard III
Seguin-Orlando, Andaine, et al., “Identification of the Remains of King Richard III,” Nature Communications 5 (2014)
Edwards, Russell, Naming Jack the Ripper: New Crime Scene Evidence, A Stunning Forensic Breakthrough, The Killer Revealed (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2014)
The collapse of the Hapsburgs
Alvarez, Gonzalo, Ceballos, Francisco C., and Quinteiro, Celsa, “The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty,” PLOS ONE 4: 4 (2009)
Álvarez, Gonzalo, Ceballos, Francisco C., and Berra, Tim M., “Darwin Was Right: Inbreeding Depression on Male Fertility in the Darwin Family,” Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 114 (2015), 474–83
Fareed, Mohd, and Afzal, Mohammad, “Estimating the Inbreeding Depression on Cognitive Behavior: A Population Based Study of Child Cohort,” PLOS ONE 9: 10 (2014)
McQuillan, Ruth, et al., “Evidence of Inbreeding Depression on Human Height,” PLOS GENETICS 8: 7 (2012)
Mendizabal, Isabel, et al., “Reconstructing the Population History of European Romani from Genome-Wide Data,” Current Biology 22: 24 (2012), 2342–49
Kalaydjieva, Luba, et al., “Genetic Studies of the Roma (Gypsies): A Review,” BMC Medical Genetics 2 (2001), 5
Waller, John C., et al., “Prevalence of Congenital Anomaly Syndromes in a Spanish Gypsy Population,” Journal of Medical Genetics 29: 7 (1992), 483
Gazal, Steven, et al., “High Level of Inbreeding in Final Phase of 1000 Genomes Project,” Scientific Reports 5 (2015)
Chapter 5: The end of race
Uglow, Jenny, The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730–1810 (Faber and Faber, 2003)
Galton on cakes
Galton, Francis, “Cutting a Round Cake on Scientific Principles” Nature 75 (1906), 173
Galton, Francis, “On the Anthropometric Laboratory at the Late International Health Exhibition,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute 14 (1884), 12
Galton, Francis, Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences (Macmillan, 1869)
Hirschfeld, Ludwik, and Hirschfeld, Hanka, “Serological Differences Between the Blood of Different Races: The Result of Researches on the Macedonian Front,” The Lancet 194: 5016 (1919), 673–718
Schneider, W. H., “The History of Research on Blood Group Genetics: Initial Discovery and Diffusion,” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 18 (1996), 282
On Rosalind Franklin’s grandfather
Piper, Anne, “Light on a Dark Lady,” Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 23 (1998), 151–54, cwp.library.ucla.edu/articles/franklin/piper.html
Richard Lewontin’s classic study on the biology of race
Lewontin, R. C., “The Apportionment of Human Diversity,” Evolutionary Biology 6 (1972), 381–98
This paper has been subject to much scrutiny over the years, much worth reading, as it is not a simple subject. Richard Dawkins and Yan Wong discuss it in The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005), and Anthony Edwards critiqued it in 2003 in a paper entitled “Human Genetic Diversity: Lewontin’s Fallacy” (BioEssays 25: 8, 798–801).
On earwax, hair thickness, and tooth shoveling
Sato, T., et al., “Allele Frequencies of the ABCC11 Gene for Earwax Phenotypes Among Ancient Populations of Hokkaido, Japan,” Journal of Human Genetics 54: 7 (2009), 409–13
Nakano, Motoi, et al., “A Strong Association of Axillary Osmidrosis with the Wet Earwax Type Determined by Genotyping of the ABCC11 Gene,” BMC Genetics 10: 42 (2009)
Kamberov, Y. G., et al., “Modeling Recent Human Evolution in Mice by Expression of a Selected EDAR Variant,” Cell 152 (2013), 691–702
Noah Rosenberg’s important study of race and DNA
Rosenberg, N. A., et al., “Genetic Structure of Human Populations,” Science 298: 5602 (2002), 2381–85
Raff, Jennifer, “Nicholas Wade and Race: Building a Scientific Façade” Violent Metaphors (blog) (May 21, 2014), violentmetaphors.com/2014/05/21/nicholas-wade-and-race-building-a-scientific-facade
Reuter, Shelley, “The Genuine Jewish Type: Racial Ideology and Anti-Immigrationism in Early Medical Writing about Tay-Sachs Disease,” The Canadian Journal of Sociology 31: 3 (2006), 291–323
Hughey, Matthew W., and Goss, Devon R., “A Level Playing Field? Media Constructions of Athletics, Genetics, and Race,” ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 661: 1 (2015), 182–211
Vancini, R. L., et al., “Genetic Aspects of Athletic Performance: The African Runners Phenomenon,” Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine 5: (2014), 123–27
Chapter 6: The most wondrous map EVER PRODUCED BY HUMANKIND
ENCODE Project Consortium, Birney, E., et al., “Identification and Analysis of Functional Elements in 1% of the Human Genome by the ENCODE Pilot Project,” Nature 447: 7146 (2007), 799–816
On the origins of hemophilia A, and its description in the Talmud
Rosner, Fred, and Pierce, Glenn F., “Correspondence: Hemophilia A,” New England Journal of Medicine 330: 1617 (1994)
Waller, John C., “The Birth of the Twin Study—A Commentary on Francis Galton’s ‘The History of Twins,’” International Journal of Epidemiology 41: 4 (2012), 913–17
Martinez-Frias, M. L., and Bermejo, E., “Prevalence of Congenital Anomaly Syndromes in a Spanish Gypsy population,” Journal of Medical Genetics 29 (1992), 483–86
Vanscoy, L. L., et al., “Heritability of Lung Disease Severity in Cystic Fibrosis,” American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine 175 (2007), 1036
Manolio, Teri A., et al., “Finding the Missing Heritability of Complex Diseases,” Nature 461: 7265 (2009), 747
The birth of GWAS
Klein, R. J., et al., “Complement Factor H Polymorphism in Age-Related Macular Degeneration,” Science 308: 5720 (2005), 385–89
The Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium, “Genome-Wide Association Study of 14,000 Cases of Seven Common Diseases and 3,000 Shared Controls,” Nature 447 (2007), 661–78
Sturm, R. A., and Larsson, M., “Genetics of Human Iris Color and Patterns,” Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research 5 (2009), 544
Physics joke: the Alpher-Bethe-Gamow paper
Alpher, R. A., Bethe, H., and Gamow, G., “The Origin of Chemical Elements,” Physical Review 73: 7 (April 1, 1948), 803–4
Tongue rolling
Matlock, P., “Identical Twins Discordant in Tongue-Rolling,” Journal of Heredity 43 (1952), 24
Sturtevant, A. H., “A New Inherited Character in Man,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 26 (1940), 100–2
Latham, Jonathan, “The Failure of the Genome,” Guardian (April 17, 2011)
James, Oliver, “Sorry, but You Can’t Blame Your Children’s Genes,” Guardian (March 30, 2016)
Chapter 7: Fate
State of Tennessee v. Davis Bradley Waldroup, Jr. (2011) Criminal Court for Polk County No. 08-101
Brooks-Crozier, Jennifer, “The Nature and Nurture of Violence: Early Intervention Services for the Families of MAOA-LOW Children as a Means to Reduce Violent Crime and the Costs of Violent Crime,” Connecticut Law Review 44: 2 (2011)
Lenders, J. W. M., et al., “Specific Genetic Deficiencies of the A and B Isoenzymes of Monoamine Oxidase Are Characterized by Distinct Neurochemical and Clinical Phenotypes,” Journal of Clinical Investigation 97: 4 (1996), 1010–19
Frazzetto, G., et al., “Early Trauma and Increased Risk for Physical Aggression During Adulthood: The Moderating Role of MAOA Genotype,” PLOS ONE 2: 5 (2007)
Gibbons, Ann, “Tracking the Evolutionary History of a ‘Warrior’ Gene,” Science 304: 5672 (2004), 818
Caspi, A., et al., “Role of Genotype in the Cycle of Violence in Maltreated Children,” Science 297: 5582 (2002), 851–54
Lea, Rod, and Chambers, Geoffrey, “Monoamine Oxidase, Addiction, and the ‘Warrior’ Gene Hypothesis,” New Zealand Medical Journal 120: 1250 (2007)
McDermott, Rose, et al., “Monoamine Oxidase A gene (MAOA) Predicts Behavioral Aggression Following Provocation,” PNAS 106: 7 (2009), 2118–23
Beaver, Kevin M., et al., “Monoamine Oxidase A Genotype Is Associated with Gang Membership and Weapon Use,” Comprehensive Psychiatry 51: 2 (2010), 130–34
“‘Ruthlessness Gene’ Discovered by Michael Hopkin,” Nature (April 4, 2008)
Hunter, Philip, “The Psycho Gene,” EMBO Reports 11: 9 (2010), 667–69
Tiihonen, J., et al., “Genetic Background of Extreme Violent Behavior,” Journal of Molecular Psychiatry 20: 6 (2015), 786–92
Hogenboom, Melissa, “Two Genes Linked with Violent Crime,” BBC Online (October 28, 2014)
On Adam Lanza
Kolata, Gina, “Seeking Answers in Genome of Gunman,” The New York Times (December 24, 2012)
Etchells, Peter J., et al., “Prospective Investigation of Video Game Use in Children and Subsequent Conduct Disorder and Depression Using Data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children,” PLOS ONE 11: 1 (2016)
Myers, P. Z., “Fishing for Meaning in a Dictionary of Genes,” Pharyngula (December 27, 2012)
The Hongerwinter
Banning, C., “Food Shortage and Public Health, First Half of 1945,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 245: The Netherlands During German Occupation (May 1946), 93–110
Stein, A. D., and Lumey, L. H., “The Relationship Between Maternal and Offspring Birth Weights After Maternal Prenatal Famine Exposure: The Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study,” American Journal of Human Biology 72: 4 (2000), 641–54
Kaati, G., et al., “Cardiovascular and Diabetes Mortality Determined by Nutrition During Parents’ and Grandparents’ Slow Growth Period,” European Journal of Human Genetics 10: 11 (2002), 682–88
Pembrey, Marcus, et al., “Human Transgenerational Responses to Early-Life Experience: Potential Impact on Development, Health and Biomedical Research,” Journal of Medical Genetics 51: 9 (2014), 563–72
Chopra, Deepak, and Tanzi, Rudolph, “You Can Transform Your Own Biology,” chopra.com/ccl/you-can-transform-your-own-biology
Chapter 8: A short introduction to the future of humankind
Fu, W., O’Connor, T. D., et al., “Analysis of 6,515 Exomes Reveals the Recent Origin of Most Human Protein-Coding Variants,” Nature 493 (2013), 216–20
Pandit, Jaideep J., et al., “A Hypothesis to Explain the High Prevalence of Pseudo-Cholinesterase Deficiency in Specific Population Groups,” European Journal of Anaesthesiology 28 (2011), 550
Reich, D., et al., “Reconstructing Indian Population History,” Nature 461 (2009), 489–94
Moorjani, Priya, et al., “Genetic Evidence for Recent Population Mixture in India,” The American Journal of Human Genetics 93: 3 (2013), 422–38
Bolund, Elisabeth, et al., “Effects of the Demographic Transition on the Genetic Variances and Covariances of Human Life-History Traits,” Evolution 69 (2015), 747–55
Rolshausen, Gregor, et al., “Contemporary Evolution of Reproductive Isolation and Phenotypic Divergence in Sympatry Along a Migratory Divide,” Current Biology 19: 24 (2009), 2097–101