Svante Pääbo's memoir that is mainly about the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome. I found the technical details that are present to be most interesting. The author's honesty also gives an interesting look into top tier competitive life science. Imagine being so prominent in your field that you can, on the one hand, run down the journals Nature and Science as being too eager to publish half-baked work, and, on the other hand, call the editors of Nature and Science to pre-announce and promote your upcoming work. Overall, it's well worth reading. I did find the details of the author's sexual proclivities to be especially uninteresting. ( )

If all scientists wrote as well (and/or had editors as good as) Svante Pääbo, popular science written by scientists would easily compete with those written by journalists.

Don't get me wrong, I have loved many science books written by journalists: [b:1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus|39020|1491 New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus|Charles C. Mann|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327865228s/39020.jpg|38742], [b:1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created|9862761|1493 Uncovering the New World Columbus Created|Charles C. Mann|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327900945s/9862761.jpg|14754158], and [b:Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors|110995|Before the Dawn Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors|Nicholas Wade|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348824723s/110995.jpg|2922823] just to name a few recent ones I've read. They are excellent books, well-written and researched.

When a professional in the field tells the story, be they a scientist, historian or whatever, you tend to get a different perspective: more on the inside, a bit better informed and in-depth.

Svante Pääbo does this wonderfully in Neanderthal Man. It is not only the story of the first sequencing of the Neanderthal genome, but the story of the person who lead the effort, written by that same person.

The science in it is top notch as befits a researcher at the top of the field, but what makes it hard to put down is the story. Pääbo shares the personal side of his journey to paleogenetics which is also the story of the birth and childhood of the field as well. From his youthful dreams of decoding ancient DNA to the first sequences and publishing, we see the ups and downs, the successes, frustrations, despairs, fears and ebulliences of all aspects of the scientific life: technical, cultural, competitive and social.

Science is amazing in what it has and can do for us, but we forget that it is a human endeavor and few scientists share this side of it with us (and, of course, the journalists rarely get a chance to see it). Svante Pääbo deserves high praise for wedding the stories of his amazing technical achievement with his intimate personal experience.
( )

Explains our complexity, mixing with other human species. ( )

Overall, this book did not completely live up to my expectations. While it was a fairly interesting premise, the author veered off track too often for me.

Author's Premise: Are we related to Neanderthal Man? If so, how?

Book's Structure: First 3rd is autobiographical. Second 3rd is heavily technical discussion of mitochondrial & ribosomal DNA- its extraction, viability and study. Final 3rd: interesting discussion of how we share certain genes with Neanderthals and how this possibly could have come to pass.

The good: If you are interested in the inner politics and workings of scientific discovery this books goes into great detail about this. The author proves pretty conclusively that we share DNA with ancient humans and has some plausible reasons why. The last third was the most interesting to me.

The bad: Author got side tracked by his own personal biography too often. The premise of the book did not drive the whole narrative. ( )

What I most appreciate about this scientific memoir is Paabo's frank analysis of his personal motivations and how they have driven his career from being a graduate student seeking to study a topic that really didn't exist yet to becoming a scientific entrepreneur with a sharp interest in playing the game to best personal and institutional advantage. ( )