Alberto Piazza

Absolutely stunning. The result of over 30 years' work by hundreds of scientists. A must for any historian, anthropologist, linguist or paleontologist. Should be of great interest to any scientist.

The authors have applied sophisticated statistical analysis to the evidence from samples of blood taken from thousands of people around the world. It is amazing how much information is teased out. Huge amounts of computing time were required.

They look at dozens of alleles (minor mutations) which show more can be traced in populations over space and time. The primary mathematical method is identification of principal components by multivariate analysis. Most interesting is the resulting geographical mappings of gene flow. There are very many of great interest. For example, they show the three major migrations into North America from Beringia. They confirm that the dispersion of farming out of Anatolia 8,000 years ago was from migrations of farmers rather than merely the spread of a farming culture.

The authors freely draw from the fields of anthropoly, paleontology and linguistics (and occasionally written history) to supplement and complement the genetic data.

(The work shows clearly that race is not of genetic significance, never mind what you may possibly read elsewhere due to misunderstanding.) show less