I really enjoyed this. There is a number of times where it gets bogged down in the technical stuff, but overall I found it an easily accessible and fascinating read. Recommended reading even if you have the barest of interests in genetics and human genealogy.

ستطول مراجعتي له وسأكتب في ذلك مقالاً قريباً ..
لكن، كانت الإضافة ربما الأهم في هذا الكتاب، هي أنه كما يوّرث الرجل كروموسوم واي لأبنائه من الذكور، فيمكن بذلك تتبعه في الأجيال المنحدرة منه، فإن حواء كذلك توّرث دي إن ايه الميتوكندريا الخاصة بها لكل أبنائها بجنسيهم ..لكن السلسلة تتصل فقط من بناتها .. وهو ما يفسر فكرة الصراع بين جينات الذكورة في كروموسوم واي وجينات الأنثى في الميتوكندريا ..أيهما يُحقق بقاءً أكثر بإنجاب الأبناء الذكور أو الإناث!
هذه المعلومة جعلتني أرتبط مع سايكس لأضع كتابه الأسبق "سبع بنات لحواء" على قائمة القراءة القريبة .. لسبر أغوار قصة الميتوكندريا وجيناتها التي تعمل في صمت قاتل ..كظل الأفعى!

Y chromosome is on the decline. Wow.

كتاب رائع جداً للمهتمين بعلم الوراثة و الجينات. يعرفك الكتاب على كيفية عمل فحص الجينات و كيفية التعرف على الأسلاف المشتركة الأموية و الأبوية. كما يسرد لك بأسلوب قصصي شيق رحلة الصراع الجيني بين الأنوثة و الذكورة. يوضح أيضاً مفهوم الانتخاب الجنسي و طريقة عمله و تأثيراته السريعة و كيف أن الذكورة تعاني من خطر الانقراض على المدى الطويل و قد يكون انقراض الذكور من أهم اسباب انقراض الكثير من الانواع قبلنا. يتميز الكتاب بلغة مبسطة و اسلوب قصصي شيق يساعد جداً في فهم مثل هذه المواضيع المعقدة.

The author tends much more to hyperbole in this book than in his other two, and you have to take his conclusions with a large grain of salt, but it still has some interesting information.

قرأت منذ سنوات كتاب "سبع بنات لحواء" لنفس المؤلف المتخصص فى علم الوراثة "بريان سايكس" والذى نشر فى مكتبة الاسرة فى عهد "سمير سرحان"
فى هذا الكتاب "سبع بنات لحواء" يعرض سايكس كيف امكن التوصل لحل العديد من الغاز التاريخ واصول الانسان عبر جينات الميتوكوندريا حيث ان جيناتها تورث فقط من خلال الام وبالتالى فهى تورث كما هى دون تغيير باستثناء الطفرات التى قد تحدث بها والتى وان حدثت فانه ايضا تكون هناك ثمة قرابة بل ويعكس معدل الطفرات زمن معيشة الام الاولى .......وفى النهاية توصل الى ارجاع اصل الاوروبيين الى سبع امهات
فى هذا الكتاب "لعنة ادم" يكرر "سايكس" نفس الفكرة ولكن على جينات اخرى تورث من الرجال فقط هذه المرة ..هى الجينات الموجودة على كروموسوم "واى" ويبدأ فى الكشف عن اصول بعض العائلات ومنهم عائلته نفسها ويحاول ان يقارن بين نتائجه التى توصل اليها مسبقا فى كتابه الاول عن جينات الميتوكوندريا المورثة من الام فقط بنتائجه فى كتابه الثانى عن جينات كروموسوم "واى" المورثة عبر الاب فقط ....ويتطرق الى مستقبل الذكور فى العالم ...وهل تفيد هذه التقنية فى تفسير ظواهر مثل غلبة الاناث او الذكور فى بعض العائلات ..وضعف الحيوانات المنوية لدى البعض ...والشذوذ الجنسى ...والاستنساخ
يندر ان تجد ترجمة عربية سلسة غير منفرة للمواد العلمية...المترجم للكتابين "مصطفى ابراهيم فهمى" احد القلائل جدا الذين يترجمون العلوم باحتراف دون فذلكة للمصطلحات ودون اى اشتقاقات غريبة وباضافة حواش مختصرة تصيب اهدافها

Genetik ve psikolojiye merakı olan herkesin okuması gereken bir kitap. Güncel genetik ve evrim araştırmalarını gayet akıcı bir dilde anlatmış. Özellikle y kromozomu ve cinsiyet hakkındaki araştırmaları detaylı anlatmış.

I've been interested in genetics since the 8th grade when I did my first punnett square. So that is probably why I really loved this book, despite it's controversial nature. (That women are the 'superior' sex, men's Y chromosome is a weakened one, and the entire gender will eventually be extinct)

There's also an interesting (and also controversial) chapter on homosexuality -- nature vs nurture type stuff. Definitely open for argument though, I'm sure.

For me it seemed a bit slow getting into it, but overall I found it to be very interesting from both a social and scientific standpoint.

Had a few essentialist themes i.e I think it is very reductive to blame gender inequality on some power-seeking chromosome which makes men inherently aggressive but definitely learned a lot. This reignited my interest in genetics and although it is the title that caught my attention, I was pleasantly surprised about how comprehensive (from a beginner's pov) this book is. I enjoyed reading it and definitely will be reading more about the topics it covered. Also loved the writing style and how the technical concepts were spiced up with mystical metaphors and witty comments. I think that's a beautiful way to frame our biology and certainly makes the read more interesting as well. The evidence provided for Engels' theory of the origin of the patriarchy reasonates a lot with me too, would classify this as an essential feminist read.

I just finished the book and totally impressed, there are so many amazing information that I haven’t read before and also another great things about this book is you understand your gen role and your ideas change every time

Only one thing that I can’t agree with Sykes is his research not enough for entire world.

I fall in love with this author immediately. Almost as excellent as Richard Dawkins, though probably not as productive. I bought the book 5 years ago in a HK bookmark. And I didn't feel intrigued enough to open it. Probably because of the bad design (almost no charts or pictures in the whole book, just paragraph after paragraph of long text. But don't get intimidated. Once I started it felt like reading an interesting thriller. The opening chapter about finding the common father of surname Kyres in the UK reads really like a novel. And then the book takes you with a general but very insightful review of what is gene, DNA, mitochondria, and Y chromosome. A lot of eye opening things about how other animals decide the sex of their offsprings, such as turtle egg by temperature. And the most knowledge intensive part of the book is about how human genes develop a Y chromosome and how mitochondria and Y chromosome have battled each other for the interest of their different agenda. Then the author talks about various separate topics related to Y chromosome, such as tracing the Y chromosome of Vikings, Chengis Khan, gay genes, and so on.

The author may overly described the role of y chromosome on the impact of human history, such as how agricultural society arose out of the interest of male Y chromosome. And then following this reasoning it is the Y chromosome that caused the various violence and natural environmental disaster.

The final chapters of the destiny of Y chromosome getting sicker and sicker because 1) it cannot recombine with X chromosome and therefore its mutated damage won't have a chance to heal, and 2) it has to split super fast to generate sperms everyday such that it gets more mistakes during split compared to more stable mDNA.

And finally I was told that in 125000 years from now, human male will be extinct as the Y chromosome and the male gene switch master on that chromosome will be too damaged to generate any workable sperms. Which is not necessarily the end of human species because by then two girls will become dual parents to their baby and their baby will be normal because two eggs can evolve and become recombined in future!

The early part is really interesting, but things quickly devolve into following a silly theory further and further down an increasingly silly path until we're talking about mitochondrial DNA making men gay as a step toward turning men into worker bees in a girls only cloned race of humans. Also, the warning on the cover about a world without men... That's 120,000 years down the line, so don't go losing any sleep