Adam's Curse: A Future without Men

This book has something to intrigue geneticists, genealogists, science fiction fans, feminists and others looking to explore the edges of our human reality particularly as related to differences between the sexes. The author is a geneticist with a flare for tracing probabilities of change he has found and that face the male chromosomal and genetic future.It got my attention because of the title which sounded clearly like a pending threat facing males including me. Most of the book addresses the title subject in detail in many ways in and out of the laboratory. Initially, in the lab at Oxford, he finds characteristics of his male chromosome which cause him to ask questions about details of the family name – Sykes – in relationship to what he sees in the lab regarding his genetic profile. Who were his forebears in terms of his genetic and geneaological history? Thus Chapter 1.From that point he travels to towns in Great Britain seeking to verify his family history as it appeared in his own genetic profile and another Sykes he had met also a scientist. In this part of the book he visits with other Sykes, looks through secondary school records, etc. These chapters constitute a practicum on tracing ones own genealogy. In these explorations he encounters others curious about the history of their families as revealed in laboratory genetic studies. As a result he expands his horizons to look at patterns for other families such as the MacDonald’s of Scotland. Such beginnings lead him to continue a journey researching Scottish clans and their being influenced by Viking raids. This part of the book provides the reader with even more ideas of paths to follow in creating family histories but also how the historical elements are related to genetic histories. That, of course, means he not only looked at hard records but collects swabs from mouths of various individuals to articulate relationships between historical, genetic, genealogical, and physiological features. These chapters are very informative about ingredients of family histories.Following this he tries to answer questions about who were first settlers of Iceland. From these diversions he returns to more questions of how chromosomal differences between males and females influence human generations they produce and how this history reflects the chromosomal patterns of diseases and personal characteristics. Along the way he begins to ask about a longer term future of the human race because of genetic permutations and changes generation to generation. It is in these chapters he raises additional questions into which he ventures in increasing detail all leading to more questions raised related to the book’s title. The first reflections are not very promising for the human male.By the time one reaches chapter 16 we begin to see the immense impact of the male chromosome on history of the world. That, in turn, provides insights into such things as Mongol raids under Genghis Khan throughout the far east and into eastern Europe. Marks of the male Khan ‘Y’ chromosome are genetically everywhere evident in affected populations. Thus, the reader will have seen this type of influence beginning with his family, moving on to much larger families such as the MacDonalds, and broadly covering the ubiquitous influence of Viking and Mongol raids. The genetic mixing and the resultant record is useful in tracing history of these times down to individual families though he ventures in less detail than provided for the Sykes and Mac Donalds.The really interesting parts of the book, for me, are found in the last four chapters. In these he verges on writing science fiction as he speculates, without wandering far afield of hard science, about the long term fate of males in human society. Essentially he concludes male genes may be a chromosomal dead end for their future history. The final chapter title hints at where he will go next – “Lifting the Curse”. The speculations in this chapter are mind expanding but not conclusive. There is a smidgen more offered for thought on the last page – The Afterword.This book is a logical complement to his others including “Seven Daughters of Eve” and “Saxons, Vikings & Celts”.

but not about this book, because these people do not read much. they are bigfoot hunters who have given samples to him that he has probably tested but not yet let out the results.i know why he has not, because i came out the worse for wear when i did not know truths i had to offer got in the way of rich powerful interests that did not want my particular truths to cut into their profit margin.because i have always studied population genetics, and also keep bees, which are the easiest population to learn from that includes sexual propagation patterns that are not yet in human populations, but according to sykes , may someday be, i really enjoyed this book.sykes writes in a way that is scientific, but not so much of the figures and math that makes science sometimes confusing to those of us who barely passed algebra by cheating. he is warm and excited about what his work has made possible, in uniting many people from unlikely places.if you watch time team on youtube you may have seen the episode when a lady believed that if they dug up a parking lot where the letter 'r' was written on one parking space, they would find the skeleton of richard III. they dug it up and found a skeleton that had certain traits that history believed richard III had.but the last thing that proved it was richard III, was finding someone who was his descendant whose genes matched the dna that they found in the skeleton. this book will tell you just why they could know for sure.

This one breaks down the underlying battle between the sexes, sort of like a computer with many programs running under the hood. As it turns out there’s limited free will as our programmed DNA is more in charge than we are. A little disappointing. I’ve ordered my Oxford mDNA study including the British Isles paternal input. Looking forward to the results. I also recommend his earlier book, Seven Daughters of Eve.

0. the BOOK just came Is unread.

Okay, I have not read the other reviews so as not to be biased. I would like for several of my friends to read this book. I think it is very good, but after I tell them it is a about the genetics involving the inheritance of the Y-chromosome they ask me if it is too technical. I do not think so, but then again I work as a plant breeder and I have a fairly good knowledge of basic genetics. I consider this book to be more like "coffee table" science compared to the professional journals and books I read. That said, I think this book is very well written and approachable with Dr. Sykes once again doing an excellent job of intertwining genetics, statistics and narrative. The subject matter is of ineterest to all. I encourage those of you who are purists who only read modern or classic literature and those of you who stick to just one genre of fiction or non-fiction to break out of your mold and give this a 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.

I really enjoyed this book. The last few chapters blew me away! Bryan Sykes entertwines science and story explaining the history of the Y-chromosome and the impact it has had on shaping our past.

I think the writer is on to something. I bought the book on tape and then had to get the actual book.

The author starts off by investigating his paternal ancestry. Anyone with an interest in genealogy should find this very interesting especially as he discovers that his own surname seemed to be descended from one person. With this introduction he leads you into the main subject which is the Y-chromosome. What this book is not is a male version of The Seven Daughters Of Eve. No doubt some people would be interested in such a book and possibly Stephen Oppenheimer's Out Of Eden would be suitable. It is true that some material has appeared elsewhere - it seems no popular book on genetics is complete without a description of the Sickle Cell Anaemia gene. But most of it seemed new to me.He is always careful to make it readable and avoids losing the reader. Even more so than Matt Ridley. I know some people are suspicious of this as they think that anyone who writes in such a readable way must be a charlatan. But he is professor of Human Genetics at Oxford so he is much more qualified than anyone likely to be reading this book.The title Adam's Curse relates to how through sexual selection wealth, power and greed are valued at the expense of the natural world. The most controversial idea in the book is that men will be extinct in about 150,000 years because of falling fertility. However that is only a small part of the book and even if it is disproved does not invalidate the rest of the book which is mostly about sex! Er... sex at a genetic level that is.I'd recommend this to anyone with an interest in genealogy, human genetics and evolution and likes science to be jargon free and written more like a novel than a science book. Do you ever start reading "popular" science books and not finish them? Although this will not go down in history as a classic piece of science literature it deserves 5 stars because you will finish it.

This is a really fascinating read. The Y-chromosome problem is brilliantly laid out in this extremely readable book. Perhaps I would have liked a closing chapter covering a bit more informed speculation. Nevertheless, highly recommended.

I seem to have a talent for picking up books with scary messages and, despite my somewhat flippant headline, Adam’s Curse is indeed one of those. The subtitle of the work says it all: A Future Without Men!At his best, Professor Bryan Sykes has a flair for creative non-fiction unsurpassed in the popular science genre, and one which many novelists might envy. I have read some of his other works but only now got round to this one. Adam’s Curse is serious science and, though published as long ago as 2003, is still refreshingly topical and balefully prophetic.Readers of Sykes’s The Seven Daughters of Eve will recognise his approach. Beginning with personal anecdote, he reveals how he pursued the origins of the Sykes name and discovered strong links between surnames and DNA. He describes how he went on to extract his own Y-chromosome and have a look at it through a microscope.Readers who are familiar with the science of reproduction may miss some chapters here because most of it has been described and discussed elsewhere. The essential points to remember: our body cells contain two sets of chromosomes, one set from each parent; the germline cells (those giving rise to eggs and sperm) behave differently from all other cells; two special chromosomes, named X and Y, combine in two different ways to determine sex (gender). Most females have two X chromosomes; most males have an X and a Y. It is the behaviour and fate of this Y-chromosome which gives the book its title, Adam’s Curse, and form much of the book’s theories and conclusions.Throughout human history, Sykes argues, the Y-chromosome has been successful, and he judges this blind genetic entity as being responsible for the rise of patriarchal societies, in which success is measured by wealth and power.About five years before Adam’s Curse was published, in a book entitled The Alphabet and the Goddess, the American brain scientist Lleonard Shlain put forward a different theory for men’s desire to dominate women (and a rather more persuasive one in my view), that it began with the invention of writing. I’m not going to quote from this latter work; read it for yourself and judge. However, whichever theory one accepts (or neither), it seems likely that the age of male domination – in humans anyway – is coming to an end. The male Y-chromosome is shrinking. Mitochondrial DNA, present in the cytoplasm of all cells but inherited only by girls is winning the war of the sexes.In the final chapters of the book, Bryan Sykes examines what might be the consequences of the Y-chromosome dying out altogether. He also asks some very sensitive and controversial questions. Of course, if reproduction depends solely on conventional sex, our species will become extinct. But might there be other ways of ensuring survival (well, of the female of the species at any rate)?Adam’s Curse is a fascinating read, a mixture of anecdote, real science and controversial theory. Its conclusions are perhaps not something we want to hear, yet it is a book which, for anyone interested in the science of genetics, is difficult to put down.

I was reading this book for research purposes and it was extremely informative and an enjoyable read. It also contained an interesting introduction from the author about his thought processes in making this book. Great, thanks.

Book is heavily annotated.