Thanks

Elwood K. Tutt

What
is that destiny? To what end does this perpetual propagation lead? It's possible, probable even, to
an ever and ever higher state of evolution, as per Nietzsche's thesis, culminating at some future
time in an awesomely evolved Superbeing who will be the master of the Universe and not its humble
servant. In that scenario, Marie of Dorset, a direct mitochondrial descendant of the five thousand
year-old Iceman, should be a noticeably more evolved (via subtle and clever mutations) specimen than
her distant ancestor and her descendants more so than she. But the real kicker is that
simultaneously they are all one entity, which passes--almost intact--on to the next generation. You
literally are your own ancestral grandma and she you. Death takes an everlasting hike and
immortality is assured ... if the chain remains unbroken. If we all fulfill our only real purpose
and do our share of enlightend begetting the Superbeing of the future is us.

But who can say for
sure? Maybe there is no purpose other than replication for replication's sake leading to
nothingness. Maybe the Universe is entirely purposeless and the stars just look down and dust is our
only destiny.

While you're waiting to find out, read this book.

The title promised
me an ancient story--one that I imagined would lead me back to the mother-roots in Africa through
the chain of mitochondrial DNA. It did--sort of. But it didn't live up to it's promise. The book is
perfect for my teenage son, and it'd be perfect for anyone who is looking for an introduction to
mt-DNA. It's not a bad book, it just was lacking the 'meat' I was hoping for.

I could have handled
Sykes self-inflated writing style (his ego's so big it dominates!) if his book had offered some
insight. Rather, after a very long, round-about journey, he finally gets to fictionalizing our
roots. Instead of telling me
the story of molecular evolution and letting the wonder of science
fill in the blanks, he covers basic information between a million sidetracks--the result: his seven
daughters were terminally boring.

I've read the good reviews here--and am left to think that I may
have been expecting too much. Perhaps if this were my introduction to the subject, I could have
enjoyed it. I think Carl Sagan could have done this brilliantly, and it almost seems sad that he
didn't take it on before Sykes and that we'll never hear his voice on it.

My recommedation
would be to skip this book if you're already pretty familiar with mitochondrial DNA and the
mechanisms of inheritance, but pick it up if you want a good introduction told as a story rather
than as dense text.