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

There were a lot of interesting tidbits in this book, but I found Sykes' overall argument somewhat lacking. His thesis seemed to consist of two points: 1) our obsession with wealth and power (and the destruction of the Earth that has come from that) is attributable to the Y chromosome's desire to replicate itself, and its success in doing so through sexual selection, and 2) thankfully for us, the Y chromosome is particularly prone to mutation and has no natural means of fixing those mutations, so over time, the Y chromosome will disappear, and with it, men.

If I understood his argument correctly, our Ferraris, and mansions, and attempts to conquer the globe, are essentially human males' version of peacock feathers. These things (wealth, power, etc.) are what human males use to attract (or, as he freely admits, coerce) human females. He attributes this drive to acquire more wealth, power, etc. at any cost to the Y chromosomes innate desire to replicate itself. He also discusses the rise of agriculture as the thing that allowed the Y chromosome to thrive. He argues that the hunter-gatherer lifestyle did not allow for women to have children more than once every four or five years, because they needed to pay more attention to the child and needed to contribute more to the community. Agriculture changed that, and allowed women to be, more or less, constantly pregnant. In other words, the Y chromosome could go wild.

I'm not clear why agriculture changed the way women select their partners, though. Presumably for thousands and thousands of years, women selected their partners based on certain traits (our equivalent of the peacock's feathers). Why did that selection criteria change? He does freely admit that agriculture led to the abuse of women as well, so they were not always doing much "selecting," in the common sense of the word. But still, this seems like a big shift in a fundamentally biological process. He presents a compelling argument, but I'm not fully convinced. I do think men are to blame for basically all of the problems facing the world today, but I'm not fully on board with saying it's the Y chromosome's desire to replicate itself.

His second main argument is that the Y chromosome is doomed. And he presents a strong argument that this is the case - infertility among men is on the rise, and the Y chromosome is particularly prone to mutation, which will make that trend continue, until all men are infertile. But this is not simply the end of men, this is the end of humanity. He does state that two women, with laboratory assistance, could reproduce, and fair enough - we could have a future of all women, reproducing through an amended IVF process. But if we're willing to factor in IVF and similar procedures, then infertile men could still reproduce - even if their sperm are deformed, they can fertilize an egg with medical assistance. The likelihood of foregoing the latter for a future more like the former seems vanishingly slim. I see his point - the Y chromosome is fatally flawed, and maybe we'd be better off in a world with only women anyway, but the argument seems a bit overblown.

On the whole, though, a very interesting and thought-provoking read!

An interesting perspective on our possible genetic future, but hardly earth-shattering.

In Adam’s Curse, Bryan Sykes zooms in on the battle of the sexes to a microscopic level: it all comes down to the Y-chromosome which is passed from father to son, and the mitochondrial DNA which we inherit exclusively from our mothers. The first half of the book is absolutely fascinating and I enjoyed reading about the likely origins and the evolutionary advantages of sexual reproduction, how certain species gave up on sex, as well as the reproduction methods of the blue-headed wrasse, the bdelloid rotifers, the aphids and the sea turtles. Who knew that there is a sea worm species called Bonellia viridis where the tiny males live inside a female's womb? In the second half, however, the science becomes hazier and the writing more speculative. Somewhere between the adventurous genes of the Vikings and the musings of the earth goddess Gaia, Sykes lost a bit of his persuasive power. Still, this is an entertaining read, recommended to anyone who is interested in reproduction methods, evolutionary biology and the role of our genes.

واحد من أجمل الكتب في طريقة عرض البحوث العلمية .
طريقة عرض الاكتشاف العلمي القصصي

الكتاب بحوي كم هائل من المعلومات الجميلة و الهامة

a very readable book by a geneticist; surprisingly he links his research on human's y-chromosome and what he thinks is its link to the sexual attraction of wealth, power and influence to the demise of goddess worship; it's a fascinating premise which ties in so perfectly with my world view and interest in the goddess; I suspect that this view would diminish him among his fellow scientists; I definitely want to read his first book now, The Seven Daughters of Eve

قال الله تعالى: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اتَّقُوا رَبَّكُمُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكُم مِّن نَّفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ وَخَلَقَ مِنْهَا زَوْجَهَا وَبَثَّ مِنْهُمَا رِجَالًا كَثِيرًا وَنِسَاءً ۚ وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ الَّذِي تَسَاءَلُونَ بِهِ وَالْأَرْحَامَ ۚ إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَانَ عَلَيْكُمْ رَقِيبًا (1) سولاة النساء
اذن أصل البشر نفس واحدة ، فهل يمكن أن يصل الخيال لانقراض أحد الجنسين ؟ والرجال تحديد! هل يدور عليهم الزمان و يتم تنحيتهم بعدما سيطرو على عرش الشعوب منذ الأزل!؟
يعتبر الكتاب بحث علمي متسلسل عبر التاريخ لجنس البشر منذ بداية نظرية داروين
ولكن شعرت بتحيزكبير ضد كروموسوم واي و كأن اكس هو من كتب هذا الكتاب حتى يتخلص من واي!
الكتاب يكشف العديد من الدراسات العلمية في ما يخص الانتخاب الطبيعي في عملية التكاثر ، و خطر المثلية ضد البشرية.
كتاب غني و لكن علمي بعمق و يحتاج الكثير من الدراسة للتحقق من نظرياته.

This book drills down into the battle of the sexes on a cellular level (and how this has played out in our human history) and why the eventual demise of the Y-chromosome is inevitable.
Found the book packed with just enough technological facts and clear information to not make it too dry and keep you interested.

Bryan Sykes is a scientist. Bryan Sykes is a very brilliant scientist. Bryan Sykes is worlds ahead of historians and sociologists. Bryan Sykes is, dare I say it, invincible.

If you know anything by the end (or, even, the beginning) of Adam’s Curse, it will be this. Bryan Sykes himself never loses an opportunity to laud his own achievements. On his journey to find the origin of his own “Sykes Y-chromosome” (after, he assures us, he has mapped out the genetic history of all women on Earth, NBD), Adam’s Curse attempts to lead the reader on a journey to discover the triumphs, losses and probable future without the Y-chromosome, according to Bryan Sykes. What results is more of a mash-up of notes on the contentious relationship between mtDNA and the Y-chromosome, a brief interlude into the world of historical man whores and, you guessed it, the Triumphs and More Triumphs of Me, Bryan Sykes.

True to his word, Adam’s Curse is initially a rundown of Sykes's own Y-chromosome and what a future without the chromosome could mean. Some species have learned to do with it, says Sykes, and so could potentially every species. But eventually I started seeing less and less of what the book promised, and more and more about mtDNA and, of all things, Genghis Khan. What readers may expect to be more about the male prospective of this material is really not, instead hijacked by Sykes's fascination with the maternally inherited mtDNA. It never truly becomes about the unique Y-chromosome, but more about the struggles between it and the female counterpart, mtDNA. And insert self-praises here.

Sykes's initial voice was unpleasant and presumptuous, as if he had done the world some great favor by switching on his microscope everyday. This made Adam’s Curse difficult to read objectively, but eventually I stopped noticing it or Sykes really did scale back, and the language took on an unassuming delivery I much preferred. I was especially softened by chapter fourteen, when Sykes reprimanded various others scientists in his field for criticizing mitochondria for being only a single system, consequently only unveiling one facet of genetic history. He obviously has a great appreciation for the mitochondrial line.

Expectedly, Adam’s Curse did have a small tendency to overindulge in information output. As it was written in a level meant to accommodate the non-scientist reader, I was surprised at how much emphasis was placed on Syke's various procedures and experiments. It grated, and did not contribute enough to the meat of the material to warrant its depth.

Where my experience with Adam’s Curse suffered were in two places: his voice - he needed us to know how important he was at all times, and in the lack of any cohesive dedication to the book's premise. He ricochets from the so-called war between mtDNA and Y-chromosome to strange chapters about Mother Earth’s anger to the supposition that men are inherently violent. His thoughts never settled in any over-arching way, and it was hard to make conclusions about the information given and the information promised.

If you want to know anything about your Y-chromosome, the endurance of the sexes or about the power-struggles of the Vikings, then Adam’s Curse may be to your liking. But if you were hoping for an organized and compelling read on the genetics of male-inherited violence or dominance, I would maybe search elsewhere.