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A review by kevin_shepherd
Adam's Curse by Bryan Sykes
4.0
First published in 2003, Adam’s Curse is very much a companion piece to Sykes’ earlier book The Seven Daughters of Eve (2001). Where the first publication focuses on mitochondrial DNA, a circular chromosome passed from mothers to daughters, this one centers around the Y chromosome, that biogenetic sex determinant passed from fathers to sons.
Selfish Genetics
“Our genes are not serving us at all. It is the other way around. We are serving them. Faceless, thoughtless and ruthless. This was even worse than straight Darwin for those people still looking for the hand of God in shaping the natural world. How could all this wonder have such a blind and mechanical foundation as the simple chemistry of DNA?”
If this sounds familiar it’s because Bryan Sykes is firmly in the camp of Richard Dawkins.
“This unsettling conclusion, deeply troubling to those who feel their fundamental beliefs have been shattered, has overshadowed all of biology for the past thirty years. There are those who disagree, certainly, but while the supremacy of the gene as the moving force in evolution has faced vigorous challenges from all quarters, it has not been overthrown.”
The So-Called “Gay Gene”
After much contemplation and self reflection I’ve decided I don’t want to risk an excursion through the minefield of public opinion by examining what Dr. Sykes wrote over twenty years ago. I’ll just say that the question of nature versus nurture when it comes to sexual orientation has, for the most part, been resolved. But in light of the fact that certain religious types still operate ‘conversion therapy’ programs—I’m looking at you James Dobson—it is worth reiterating that a human being can no more choose which sex they are attracted to than they can choose their height or their lactose tolerance. Most (not all) men with a specific segment of the X chromosome (Xq28) are predisposed to be gay. So what? Some people are gay, some people are left handed, others have red hair. None of these are “unnatural,” and certainly none of these are “abominations.”
Whoops. Here I am standing in the minefield. Allow me to egress.
The Curse of Adam
Because of decay and mutation in the Y chromosome, about one percent of each generation of males is 10% less fertile than the generation before. The average sperm count of males is falling at a noticeably significant rate. In fact, medical journals have already decreased the lower limit of an average sperm count from 60,000,000 to 20,000,000 per milliliter. If you do the math you’ll see that, if trends continue, men will eventually become extinct. Before we decide if this is necessarily a bad thing you should know that the rate of decline is excruciatingly slow. Fortunately, or unfortunately, something like climate change or a space meteor will have wiped us all out long before the last set of human testicles turns to dust.
Acid Flashbacks?
In both this book and The Seven Daughters of Eve Professor Sykes briefly departs from hard science into what I would describe as a ‘flight of fiction.’ In Seven Daughters it was his inventive biographies of all seven mitochondrial ancestors. Here in Adam’s Curse he quite inexplicably tangents into a history of human evolution from the perspective of Gaia the Earth Goddess. I don’t really have any explanation for these offshoots of imagination other than, possibly, the after effects of the 1960s.
Minus the star sacrificed on the alter of Gaia, this is a four star read.
Selfish Genetics
“Our genes are not serving us at all. It is the other way around. We are serving them. Faceless, thoughtless and ruthless. This was even worse than straight Darwin for those people still looking for the hand of God in shaping the natural world. How could all this wonder have such a blind and mechanical foundation as the simple chemistry of DNA?”
If this sounds familiar it’s because Bryan Sykes is firmly in the camp of Richard Dawkins.
“This unsettling conclusion, deeply troubling to those who feel their fundamental beliefs have been shattered, has overshadowed all of biology for the past thirty years. There are those who disagree, certainly, but while the supremacy of the gene as the moving force in evolution has faced vigorous challenges from all quarters, it has not been overthrown.”
The So-Called “Gay Gene”
After much contemplation and self reflection I’ve decided I don’t want to risk an excursion through the minefield of public opinion by examining what Dr. Sykes wrote over twenty years ago. I’ll just say that the question of nature versus nurture when it comes to sexual orientation has, for the most part, been resolved. But in light of the fact that certain religious types still operate ‘conversion therapy’ programs—I’m looking at you James Dobson—it is worth reiterating that a human being can no more choose which sex they are attracted to than they can choose their height or their lactose tolerance. Most (not all) men with a specific segment of the X chromosome (Xq28) are predisposed to be gay. So what? Some people are gay, some people are left handed, others have red hair. None of these are “unnatural,” and certainly none of these are “abominations.”
Whoops. Here I am standing in the minefield. Allow me to egress.
The Curse of Adam
Because of decay and mutation in the Y chromosome, about one percent of each generation of males is 10% less fertile than the generation before. The average sperm count of males is falling at a noticeably significant rate. In fact, medical journals have already decreased the lower limit of an average sperm count from 60,000,000 to 20,000,000 per milliliter. If you do the math you’ll see that, if trends continue, men will eventually become extinct. Before we decide if this is necessarily a bad thing you should know that the rate of decline is excruciatingly slow. Fortunately, or unfortunately, something like climate change or a space meteor will have wiped us all out long before the last set of human testicles turns to dust.
Acid Flashbacks?
In both this book and The Seven Daughters of Eve Professor Sykes briefly departs from hard science into what I would describe as a ‘flight of fiction.’ In Seven Daughters it was his inventive biographies of all seven mitochondrial ancestors. Here in Adam’s Curse he quite inexplicably tangents into a history of human evolution from the perspective of Gaia the Earth Goddess. I don’t really have any explanation for these offshoots of imagination other than, possibly, the after effects of the 1960s.
Minus the star sacrificed on the alter of Gaia, this is a four star read.