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Adam's Curse: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Destiny
by: Bryan Sykes

List Price: $15.95

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Used Price: $4.75
Third Party New Price: $9.08

Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 576
EAN: 9780393326802
ISBN: 0393326802
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: 2005-05
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
Sales Rank: 132003

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
BY THE NATIONALLY best-selling author of "The Seven Daughters of Eve, Adam's Curse investigates the ultimate evolutionary crisis a man-free future. How is it possible that the Y chromosome, which separated the sexes and allowed humans to rise to the apex of the animal kingdom, also threatens to destroy sexual reproduction altogether? Bryan Sykes confronts recent advances in evolutionary theory to find the answers to the questions that inexorably follow: Is there a genetic cause for men's greed, aggression, and promiscuity? Could a male homosexual gene possibly exist? A must read for anyone interested in popular science, family genealogy, and today's infertility crisis, "Adam's Cruse provokes a shocking debate on the nature of sexual reproduction.

Amazon.com Review:
Bryan Sykes follows up The Seven Daughters of Eve with the equally challenging and well-written Adam's Curse. This time, instead of following humanity's heritage back to the first women, Sykes looks forward to a possible future without men. The seeds of the book's topics were sown when Sykes met a pre-eminent pharmaceutical company chairman who shared his surname. Using the Y chromosome, which is passed nearly unchanged from father to son, the author found that he shared a distant ancestor with the other Sykes. Along the way, he discovered that the Y chromosome was worth examining more closely. The first third of Adam's Curse is devoted to a clear and comprehensive lesson about genetics, the second narrates several fascinating stories of tracing ancestry via the Y chromosome, and the last chapters explore the history of male humanity and its future. Some readers will eagerly skim until they reach Chapter 21, where Sykes gets to the heart of the matter--why and how the Y chromosome has created a world where men overwhelmingly own the wealth and power, commit the crimes, and fight the wars. He uses the structural puniness of the Y chromosome to demonstrate that men are as unnecessary biologically as they are dominant socially. Sykes' provocative and quite personal book is likely to be unpopular among science readers who prefer their biology divorced from sociology, but his points taken in context will be difficult to refute. --Therese Littleton

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- After Eve's excitement, Adam is a little dull
I read Bryan Sykes' Seven Daughters of Eve several times and found it very interesting every time. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Adam's Curse. The comparisons to how fish and other creatures reproduce are dull and I find it easy to put down the book in the middle of a chapture.

Rating:

- Sykes
I have just begun reading this book, it deals with the male side of the family. Finding out that the Y chromosome is only in males is a suprise to me & probably to others. Sykes is great in telling the average person all about DNA chr& what it does & how it plays a role in humans...

Rating:

- A Fasinating Read
This was a fascinating book, really fascinating. And the audio book was even better (because it kills two birds with one stone: hearing a fabulous tale and getting from A to B without total boredom or road rage.) I recommend this book which concentrates on the male Y chromosome and it's companion, The Seven Daughters of Eve by the same author which traces mDNA or mitachondrial DNA that is passed only down through women.

Rating:

- So true!
After reading this book, I have a whole new view of the male of our species. So many things about males became clear. The aggression, the laziness, the superior attitude which is so misplaced. Ladies! A must read!

Rating:

- Disappointing
OK, I loved Sykes' book "The Seven Daughters of Eve." So I wanted to read this one as well. Very disappointing. For one thing, I couldn't care less about the mating and reproductive habits of insects. For another, while I understand his wish to clarify things scientifically, I thought some of his opinions about women and homosexuality were pretty outlandish. There were a few interesting things in the book. The parts about Ghengis Khan would be one example.

But my biggest issue with the book is that Sykes seems to have gotten way too full of himself and way too focused on "being a writer." Please! Do I really care what the weather was like or what the library looked like when he got idea XYZ? What made the other book so engaging was that he was just telling about the excitement ... Read More

Books : Adam's Curse: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Destiny