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didactylos's review against another edition
3.0
A hard read because there's lots of facts in there and often a lot of repetition. To me it keeps losing focus as the writer heads off down some meandering side track.
beth_has_books's review against another edition
4.0
Interesting. Before reading, expected it to be mostly familiar content. But she went into more depth that I had not read elsewhere, particularly about the locations of where the different species were domesticated. It seems like we have only learned some of this recently due to advances in genetics. There was some content about how they got domesticated too, but it seems like we have much less visibility into that. The author gave some speculations which sounded plausible and illustrated it nicely.
The author seems in favour of GM. I agreed with most of her points, such as how it is arbitrary that the public is fine with using radiation to modify genes but drawing the line at the other GM methods. I had one concern which she did not address: golden rice. She talked about how it is enhanced to provide a vitamin that rice normally wouldn't, and how this would be beneficial for malnourished people in developing countries, and she said it wouldn't have any health negatives. However it left me a little worried that other people who currently have well-balanced diets would start finding themselves unintentionally overdosing on that vitamin, if they continued eating same quantities of rice alongside their usual portions of other foods such as fish. But maybe there are nuances I was missing.
From her concluding remarks in the final chapter, it reads like earlier drafts may have included a chapter on pigs too, because she mentions about them interbreeding with wild boars. But I didn't notice any mention of pigs earlier in the book, so maybe they were too similar to the cattle chapter to be worth including in the published version.
The author seems in favour of GM. I agreed with most of her points, such as how it is arbitrary that the public is fine with using radiation to modify genes but drawing the line at the other GM methods. I had one concern which she did not address: golden rice. She talked about how it is enhanced to provide a vitamin that rice normally wouldn't, and how this would be beneficial for malnourished people in developing countries, and she said it wouldn't have any health negatives. However it left me a little worried that other people who currently have well-balanced diets would start finding themselves unintentionally overdosing on that vitamin, if they continued eating same quantities of rice alongside their usual portions of other foods such as fish. But maybe there are nuances I was missing.
From her concluding remarks in the final chapter, it reads like earlier drafts may have included a chapter on pigs too, because she mentions about them interbreeding with wild boars. But I didn't notice any mention of pigs earlier in the book, so maybe they were too similar to the cattle chapter to be worth including in the published version.
snoakes7001's review against another edition
5.0
Tamed is the story of the domestication of nine species that have proved vital for the development of humans from the Neolithic to the present. For each, Professor Alice Roberts looks at the history and the archaeological record and then brings that story bang up-to-date with the latest from the world of genetics.
In almost every case, the accepted wisdom is being turned on its head by the geneticists. It's easy for us to think that we clever humans saw the potential of a species, and set out to tame, modify and and 'improve' it for our own ends, bringing the domesticated varieties with us as we spread around the globe. In fact the genetics prove that the story is very much more complicated than that. The process of domestication was generally more accidental or co-operative than previously thought, with very little conscious input on the part of humans.
The interactions between the species and humans changed them - and us - to the extent that Alice chooses humans as the tenth species to be domesticated providing a final chapter that summarises and wraps up this evolutionary tale. She does an excellent job of making a complex subject that crosses many different branches of science and research totally accessible and extremely interesting. She has a light, almost lyrical style that makes it a joy to read and easy to absorb.
In almost every case, the accepted wisdom is being turned on its head by the geneticists. It's easy for us to think that we clever humans saw the potential of a species, and set out to tame, modify and and 'improve' it for our own ends, bringing the domesticated varieties with us as we spread around the globe. In fact the genetics prove that the story is very much more complicated than that. The process of domestication was generally more accidental or co-operative than previously thought, with very little conscious input on the part of humans.
The interactions between the species and humans changed them - and us - to the extent that Alice chooses humans as the tenth species to be domesticated providing a final chapter that summarises and wraps up this evolutionary tale. She does an excellent job of making a complex subject that crosses many different branches of science and research totally accessible and extremely interesting. She has a light, almost lyrical style that makes it a joy to read and easy to absorb.
kiramke's review against another edition
4.0
I have read books about at least 3 of these chapters, but it was delightful to learn new things, newly discovered things. Her arguments seemed pretty balanced (and I'm gauging from where I disagree slightly), her writing was clear, and I found her to be quite funny, not in a gimmicky way but just in her phrasing and observations. I'm a fan. This has been on my list since before Adam Rutherford, but I'm delighted by their professional relationship and dialogue as I've since discovered it.