Palo Alto
April 20, 2007
Nicholas Wade, science writer for the New York Times, lectured at Stanford University on his recently published book, Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. His lecture outlined what we know about our evolutionary heritage from genetics, specifically the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variation. He mentioned that genetic analysis of the evolution of human lice can show when humans probably first wore clothing. He highlighted recent genetic evidence published in Science indicating that five different races exist, roughly corresponding to the different continents. Finally, he discussed how he believes Jared Diamond's arguments in Guns, Germs, and Steel do not fully account for the influence of genes on human evolution. The students really enjoyed the lecture, and both Abby and Tim asked him questions. After the lecture, he donated a signed copy of his book to our school library. Students from left to right: Jessica Walton, Nick Moyer, Frances Nguyen, Tim Switzer, Abby Dobyns, Alexa Shamshoian, and Aimee Walker.