Product Description

Genetically speaking, the only difference between men and women is that where women have two X chromosomes, men have one X and one Y. It is surprising that one chromosome difference out of our total of forty-six can have such an important consequence, but it does. Is this relatively small genetic variance really sufficient to explain the huge differences between the sexes, not just the physical but the psychological, social, even cultural? Drawing on his own work at the forefront of modern genetics and the exciting theories of evolutionary biology, Bryan Sykes explores the mysteries of the science of sex and gender, and takes a scientific look at what makes men tick. He addresses the most basic issues of why there are only two sexes in humans and, even, why there is sex at all. He also raises more far-reaching questions, such as: Is there a genetic cause for men's greed, aggression and promiscuity? Is there such a thing as the male homosexual gene? And what do genes tell us about the future for men? Sykes's conclusions will surprise some people and are bound to cause controversy. The all-important male Y chromosome is getting smaller and, as the generations pass, the female genome is taking over as it cannibalizes parts of the Y chromosome. Women are winning the evolutionary battle of the sexes. The shocking conclusion is that men, slowly but surely, are headed for extinction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245561 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Sunday Times
Makes eye-opening reading for both sexes

From the Back Cover
Drawing on his own work at the forefront of modern genetics, Bryan Sykes takes us on a remarkable scientific exploration of the mysteries of the science of sex and gender - with some surprising and controversial results.

Genetically speaking, the only difference between men and women is that where women have two X chromosomes, men have one X and one Y. This one chromosome difference, out of a total of forty-six, holds the key to understanding the huge difference between the sexes.

But a closer look at the all-important Y chromosome reveals some shocking news for men. It is getting smaller. As the generations pass the Y chromosome is being cannibalized by the female genome and worn away by its own inability to recombine. Women are winning the evolutionary battle of the sexes.

The conclusion: men are slowly, but surely, headed for extinction.

About the Author
is Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, has had a remarkable scientific career in genetics. After undertaking medical research into the causes of inherited bone disease, he set out to discover if DNA, the genetic material, could possibly survive in ancient bones. It did and he was the first to report on the recovery of ancient DNA from archaeological bone in the journal "Nature" in 1989. Since then Professor Sykes has been called in as the leading international authority to examine several high profile cases, such as the Ice Man, Cheddar Man and the many individuals claiming to be surviving members of the Russian Royal Family. Alongside this, he and his research team have over the last ten years compiled by far the most complete DNA family tree of our species yet seen.He has always emphasised the importance of the individual in shaping our genetic world. The website www.oxfordancestors.com offers people the chance to find out for themselves, from a DNA sample, where they fit in. As well as a scientist, Bryan Sykes has been a television news reporter and a parliamentary science adviser. He is the author of The Seven Daughters of Eve.

Customer Reviews

The genetics of real people
According to Bryan Sykes, a 300 million year long experiment is about to conclude. The experiment is mammalian sex. The investigation into how best to reproduce and extend the species is running out of material - the Y chromosome. In a beautifully written, if somewhat suspect, work, Sykes surveys how sex became the driving force of evolution and what that means for humanity today - and tomorrow.

He describes the years of research, including many false starts, leading to the identity of the chromosomes determining our gender. Knowledge of the chromosomes came soon after Darwin's revelation of evolution by natural selection. Darwin realized that sex played a fundamental role in the mechanism of evolution, but the details remained an enigma. Unaware of genes, he still managed to envision the role of sexual selection among animals. When the process of cell division was understood, it led to searching for the means by which traits were transmitted through generations. "Dark blobs" observed by a Canadian military physician began the quest for their identity and significance. The find led to identity of the X-chromosome that forms females. The Y-chromosome, which drives a foetus to become a male, was a later discovery.

In Sykes' view, the human male's chromosome has been the major factor in human evolution and cultural development. Not only determining gender, it acts through a feedback loop. More powerful, aggressive males tend to reinforce their role in selecting mates and propagating traits in offspring. While the Sykes' progenitor has nearly ten thousand descendants, the MacDonald clan, long dominant in Scotland, has proliferated around the planet with nearly half a million progeny. The most numerous progeny, however, has resulted in 16 million descendants of Asia's Ghengis Khan scattered throughout Eurasia. The Khan is the most extreme example of the male's propensity for war, conquest, and, in Sykes' view, the "enslavement" of women. His descent into the depths of "political correctness" is brief and shallow, but telling for his thesis.

Today the planet is carpeted with humanity, the result of a society dominated by the Y-chromosome. When hunter-gatherer societies took up agriculture, it "chained women" to "serial pregnancies", depriving them of the "relaxation of a sedentary existence" while producing additional farm workers. The resulting population explosion ultimately drove the creation of our industrialized, polluting society. This condition, in Sykes' view, is now leading to a depletion of the Y-chromosome's prowess. Ultimately, he argues, human males will be replaced by a society of women. Whether men will be kept as breeding stock he doesn't predict.

A practiced adept at metaphor, Sykes' finesse in describing cellular mechanics is unusual in a scientist. He portrays a slow-motion ballet, with chromosomes gently finding their opposite number to "delicately lie alongside each other" until "they are entwined". It's very sensuous genetics. The tone changes when he portrays the head of a sperm entering an egg. The ensuing scene is a battle reminiscent of a Hollywood war film. Mitochondria launch vicious assaults on invaders, slaughtering whatever can be attacked. One wonders how conception ever occurs. It does, of course, but he makes clear that a decline in success is inevitable.

Although Sykes builds a compelling case for the roots of our society's ills, there are too many ignored aspects. He challenges the recent paper by a team demonstrating the Y-chromosome's prowess at self-repair. His arguments require further study, but his adamant insistence smacks of desperation, not evidence. Although this book is a valuable study, there's more work to do. With so much of human evolutionary history to be assessed, we can consider this an important, but not a final, step. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

A brief history of men
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.

A future without men?
Adam's Curse is Professor Sykes' second book (after the Seven Daughters of Eve) and develops the informative yet accessible, pacy readability of its predecessor. On the face of it, the book seems to cover much the same ground as Matt Ridley's "Red Queen" and Steve Jones' "Y: the descent of Man". However, it's a much better read and has more provocative angles than either. Sykes has a way of grabbing your attention by choosing an issue that's been niggling your curiosity for ages, and leading you step-by-step into the latest research without jargon or presumption. I suspect many will enjoy the way he describes his work unravelling the wayward rovings of Viking and Polynesian fathers. Others will be surprised at his evidence for generations of good marital behaviour in Yorkshire. In each of these stories he shows how an intelligent use of genetics can shed a detailed and humane light on our reproductive history. How about his big claim - that the Y chromosome and it's product, men, are doomed to fizzle out in an evolutionary dead end? I think the reader better decide for herself!