The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes - Essay Example

December 7, 2005 The Seven Daughter of Eve: A Summary In The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes, the author provides an easy-to-read account of his own activities in the field of mitochondrial DNA research and the findings those studies yielded. Rather than being an overly scholarly work understood by the scientific minority of the population, Sykes presents this tale with the rambling, conversational style of a chum at the bar while presenting key concepts of the science and the evidence to back his claims. Although most of the book is a journalistic account of his progress in the field and the results of his inquiries, a section of it is also dedicated to a fictionalized account of how the seven women who founded the major clans of the European continent must have lived. With the credentials to back him up, the experiences recorded as his studies progressed and the fictionalized account of the seven daughters, Sykes’ book provides an everyman version of what the field of mitochondrial DNA research has to offer, but still retains some of the human failings to which such a subjective account is prone. Having started his career seeking the answers to severe diseases such as brittle bone disease as a professor of genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, Sykes was distracted into more archeological genetics when he met up with Robert Hedges, the scientist who headed up the carbon dating laboratory for archeological samples at Oxford. One of the first scientists to have ever worked with DNA in archeology, Sykes has led numerous projects that qualify him as one of the pre-eminent scientists in the field. Following his investigations with the Iceman, Sykes helped trace the mitochondrial DNA of Polynesians to trace their ancestry back to the Asian continent rather than the American continents and demonstrated that if anything remains of the Neanderthals, it does not exist within the DNA of any of the modern men (including those that lived 7,000 years ago) that have been tested to date. These revelations led to large shifts in the thinking of the scientific world and intense challenges to the foundational principles upon which Sykes drew his conclusions. Having tested and retested his theories and found them to be accurate when compared with the tests conducted by other scientists in the field, Sykes is now recognized as having a large degree of expertise in DNA tracing. The Seven Daughters of Eve follows the author through his introduction to mitochondrial DNA through his final conclusion that the entire European population is descended from one of seven ‘clan mothers’ and the implications such a discovery has brought. “The book is written with the lay-person in mind, although it offers enough detail to keep the scientifically inclined engaged, as well” (Cargas, 2001). First encountering the problem in a discussion with a carbon-dating expert who wished he could learn more information from the bones he was presented with, Sykes explains his accidental focus on mitochondrial DNA in the early days of his research and explains why this happy mistake turned out to provide the foundational principle behind his subsequent discoveries. Through this research, he shows the Polynesians originated from Asia and not America and that most of the European population is descended not from the agricultural people’s of approximately 10,000 years ago, but rather from much older strains of hunter-gatherers who apparently adopted the farming lifestyle as it suited their specific needs at the time. Not shying away from the opposition of others, Sykes includes the negative reaction of the scientific world upon his revelation of the hunter-gatherer theory and carefully explains how he responded to each criticism. “We are introduced to deep-seated anthropological controversies and fundamental questions of human evolution” (Rietveld, 2002). He concludes the book with a fictionalized account of how the “seven daughters” must have lived based on evidence provided in the archeological record and relates how this ancestral connection has affected himself and his readers in ways far more profound than simple biology. As conversational and friendly as the book is, though, Sykes still manages to include quite a few human frailties within his work, including his own personal biases and interpersonal conflicts with other members of the scientific community. As one reviewer mentioned, Sykes “has a sizable ego and a flair for self-dramatization that annoys other scientists but appeals to the public” (Sailor, 2001). Several incidents are mentioned in the book where Sykes openly admits contention between himself and other scientists, specifically Erika Hagelberg and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, in such a way as to throw a suspiciously innocent light upon himself. However, later research similar to that of Sykes submitted by Cavalli-Sforza indicated the information, at least, was acceptable by that scientist. It is also noted that the very title of the book refers to the founding mothers of the European continent, suggesting a strong bias toward that continent only with little but passing reference given to the 27 other identified clans worldwide. It is necessary in such a work to reveal what scientific principles apply to such a study or research subject and Sykes is somewhat stingy in this regard. Although he makes mention of several scientists that contributed to his theories, including those who put forth earlier research on which he based his own, Sykes does little more than summarize these works and places the emphasis more upon his own achievements. Other scientists named in this book are either mentioned rather scathingly, as in the cases of Erika Hagelberg and Cavalli-Sforza, or are briefly named and then forgotten. Members of his research team are also occasionally mentioned, but seem to have little relevance to Sykes’ accomplishments. Having delivered the very difficult to achieve layman’s edition of mitochondrial DNA studies and the various discoveries that have been made as a result, Sykes is brilliant at describing this complicated process in a conversational style throughout, but manages to also include the frailties of everyday conversation within the pages. In discussing the process itself, he makes the science appear very dynamic and flexible, much different from the common man view of science as a cold, dead thing carried out in the emptiness of a basement laboratory. As he traces through his process, he includes his own thought process that led him from one investigation to another, very well incorporating the human element of curiosity into the work. The biggest failings included in the book, however, is his tendency to focus on himself as the star attraction and his own interests as the only interests. In addition, it is evident from the infrequent mentions of them in several areas that Sykes was not alone in conducting this research, yet other scientists are rarely mentioned, a fact which cannot endear him to the rest of the scientific community. Works Cited Cargas, Sarita. “Sykes Finds All Europeans Share Common Ancestry”. September 1, 2001. Science and Theology News. December 7, 2005. Rietveld, Merete. “Clan Mothers and Ancient Travelers”. July 5, 2002. Genome News Network. December 7, 2005. Read More