Neanderthal Man

In Search of Lost Genomes

By: Svante Pääbo

Narrated by: Dennis Holland

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: What does it mean to be human?

What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009. From Pbo, we learn how Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our hominin relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mystery of why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Drawing on genetic and fossil clues, Pbo explores what is known about the origin of modern humans and their relationship to the Neanderthals and describes the fierce debate surrounding the nature of the two species’ interactions.

A riveting story about a visionary researcher and the nature of scientific inquiry, Neanderthal Man offers rich insight into the fundamental question of who we are.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2014 Svante Pääbo (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Plotting the Neanderthal genome - Spelbinding

Mixing his own story with the scientific advances that he and his team has made in extracting the Neanderthal genome from thousand years old bones, Prof. Svante Pääbo, wrote an engaging and very interesting account of what might have been uninteresting scientific facts. He helps the nonspecialist listener like myself to understand not only the achievement of constructing the Neanderthal genome but its significance for us today. Who would have thought that while some human beings migrated from Africa to the rest of the world, some stayed behind. The differences between those who migrated and those left behind was a adventurous journey in which these early human beings encountered Neanderthal men and even bred with them. The journey to his conclusions are facinating and even spelbinding at stages.

I think this memoir is very important as demolishes some hypotheses in the field of Science that have become embedded in our make-up. It challenges the listener to think in a new way of him or herself and of our origins. It also challenges concepts like primitive and hopefully will demolish some forms of racial prejudice.

For me relating to Prof. Pääbo on a personal level was very difficult however. I realised that him not being a Christian, bisexual and the way he got his wife, were not in line with my own values. This made it sometimes hard to listen to his book. Yet, I was greatful for his honesty in the book. I think it helped me to be convinced of his integrity. This made his story so much more believable.

Dennis Holland did a superb job in narrating the book. I suspect that his narration has contributed to enhancing the content of the book and making it more accessible to the general listening public.

This book is strongly recommended for anyone who wants to know a bit about Neanderthal men and how our distant cousins impacted on the human race. It comes highly recommended.

NEANDERTHAL

“Neanderthal Man” offers more than most science dilettantes will want to know about human origins. Three fourths of the author’s book takes one into the science of genetics. The remainder is about science competition, the race for publication, and the personal experience of the author. Pääbo convinces one that desire-to-know, curiosity, and enthusiasm are the ingredients of break-through discoveries. Pääbo’s explanation of how he became involved in cracking the genetic code of an ancient descendant of humankind begins with his interest in Egyptian mummies. Pääbo is curious about the potential of being able to recover genetic material from a mummified body. His curiosity and enthusiasm is symptomatically expressed with late-hour science lab experiments after his regular work day. During the work day he is an intern in a University lab while pursuing a PhD.

In the early years of Pääbo’s career, he pursues his interest by securing mummy samples to test a hypothesis that genetic material cam be recovered after mummification. His research is marginally successful but flawed by inexperience. Despite the marginal success of his early experiments, curiosity and enthusiasm lead Pääbo to an obsessive interest in the science of genetics. As Pääbo’s education and life progresses, the idea of genetically mapping human remains leads to a search for “Neanderthal Man”.

“Neanderthal Man” is an interesting book but more suited for a geneticist than the general public. A dilettante may choose to pass.

Loved The Process

I loved that Dr. Pääbo walked us through the entire process of his research and how he overcame the challenges he encountered. I also liked that he talked about his anxiety with regards to not publishing early enough.

Excellent science tale

In this book the Swedish professor, Svante Päbo, who is currently running a lab at the Max Planck institute in Leipzig, tells his tale about how he ended up sequencing the Neanderthal genome. It is a well balanced tale which contains just the right mixture of personal details (including that he is bisexual and that he had a long affair with a woman married to a colleague), and science.

To my relief Päbo skips over his early childhood and jumps straight to the time when he studied medicine in Uppsala. Having worked with DNA sequencing Päbo wondered whether DNA could be extracted from old samples. First he tried a cow liver that he had stored in the lab for some time. When he realised that this was no problem obtained tissue from an egyptian mummy (which he had been interested in for some time). Though it involved some difficulties (describes in much detail in the book), Päbo managed to extract DNA from the mummy as well. When he sent his manuscript to a professor at Berkeley, the professor, who did not realize that Päbo had not even earned his PhD, asked if he could not come and spend his sabbatical at Päbo’s laboratory. Since Päbo did not have a laboratory, he ended up going to Berkeley instead.

What impressed me most about Päbo, is how he has managed to pursue one important goal (sequence the Neanderthal genome), for more than two decades. He has approached this goal in a methodical, stepwise manner, so that in retrospect, everything makes sense. Päbo also makes an effort to describe the often advanced methods used to attain his goal. For me (I have a PhD in neuroscience but only superficial knowledge about DNA), the level was just right, however, I think that even readers who have very little prior knowledge can learn a lot.

In parallel with this scientific tale, Päbo describes the Neanderthals and the world they lived in before they went extinct 30.000 years ago. Indeed one of this book's thrills is learning what the discoveries in the laboratory says about the life of our ancestors. Fire example, it was long thought (and still believed by many), that Neanderthals were an inferior race who went entirely extinct. However Päbo's discoveries indicate that Neanderthals were dominant to us and that because of interbreeding between our race and Neanderthals, modern humans actually have some Neanderthal DNA in them (some more than others).This interplay between scientific theory and its implications, methodological developments and what it tells us about our ancestors also makes this one of the best books I have read when it comes to illustrating the scientific process. Despite his success, Päbo at least appears to maintain an all important skeptical attitude towards his own work and he is careful not to make categorical claims when they are not warranted.

All in all the Neanderthal man is an impressive scientific story told by an impressive scientist. I would not be surprised if, in a few years, Päbo receives a well earned Nobel prize.

Excellent, human-scale, book about science

What made the experience of listening to Neanderthal Man the most enjoyable?

The author (& protagonist/narrator) made the hard science in the book very easy to listen to. He interweaves the drama & the process of science with the personal ambitions of scientists, annals of his own life & career. It all makes the science portion exciting, without the reader having to know all of the details he goes over. The narration is excellent. And I found it hard to put down my iPod throughout (thereby accumulating lots of podcasts, science-centric & otherwise, that I could enjoy when the book was done).

Fascinating book and great narration with one exception

The narrator repeatedly pronounces the word “deamination” as “deanimation” - an understandable mistake, but one which changes the meaning of the word quite a bit!

Otherwise, it’s a fascinating journey that tracks the frustrations and triumphs of the search for ancient DNA evidence about human history. It gets a little technical at times, so if you haven’t taken any biology courses in a while it might be hard to follow in places. However, it is as well explained in lay language as I think it can be in a general nonfiction book.

It’s also a glimpse into how science functions at the practical and political levels. So many ideas about how to solve problems turn out to be mistaken, and I’m glad Svante Paabo doesn’t seem to completely gloss over these dead-ends and tangents of inquiry.

Insight into the science world

In this book you get to follow Svante Pääbo and his team of scientist in their efforts to map the Neanderthal genome. It is a combined biography of Svante and the development, methods and findings of contemporary genetics. The majority of the really fascinating discoveries of today's genetics, anthropology and related fields come by the end of the book after you have had the opportunity to get more insight into the fields.

I would strongly recommend a basic knowledge of biology or at least catching up with foundation facts such as the cell, mitochondria, DNA, amino acids, proteins and RNA before starting to listen to this book. This is not a book for someone who wants easy understandable knowledge of the life and world of the Neanderthals and early modern humans. Though I am a bit of a amateur science nerd, I very much enjoyed listening to it! I feel as though I have gain a deeper understanding of both the origins of humans and microbiology as well as the scientific process.

I am from Sweden and the narrator has (understandably) a very strange way of pronouncing the name of Svantes son, I did not until the end of the book realise that it was the quiet ordinary Swedish name Rune! [Rune-ae]

I enjoyed it & not offensive to this Christian

The author gives a candid account of how the scientific process works. To me this is fascinating & helps to clarify the history of mankind. If you're a staunch young earth creationist you may or may not be put off. Narration is great & the writing is very fluid. Of course not everyone would enjoy the scientific content.

Not what I thought

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

It would depend on who that friend was!

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

Very very technical but still I caught a lot of it because he describes things very well. I have a mere bachelors degree so this was... a lot for me. I by no means caught it all but did learn a lot.

Any additional comments?

I really thought this would be more about our ancient ancestors and Neanderthals and give a lot of details about the past. Instead it is very autobiographical and primarily about the author's (admittedly) interesting career and life. As a result I have learned A TON about the science behind the dating of ancient artifacts and fossils. If you are not in the science field it could also be an eye-opening view into the nature of research... rustling up funding and the race to publish... the competition etc.
It's not what I thought it would be but it has definitely been interesting and I have learned new things. Boy do I wish I were smarter though...

excellent human & scientific story

This is an fascinating and well told story clearly telling not only the scientific challenges of measuring ancient genomes and the issues in running a scientific enterprise but also the human experience and feelings involved.