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Spencer Wells
Spencer Wells is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to... show more

Spencer Wells is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Frank H. T. Rhodes Class of '56 Professor at Cornell University. He leads the Genographic Project, which is collecting and analyzing hundreds of thousands of DNA samples from people around the world in order to decipher how our ancestors populated the planet. Wells received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted postdoctoral work at Stanford and Oxford. He has written three books, The Journey of Man, Deep Ancestry, and Pandora's Seed. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, a documentary filmmaker.
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Elentarri's Book Blog
Elentarri's Book Blog rated it 10 years ago
I would give this 2.5 stars. Some new stuff, lots of old stuff and rather a lot of vagueness. I still have no clue why the hunter-gatherer hold the key to our survival.Edit: Grandma like this book a lot.
Lit Lovers Lane
Lit Lovers Lane rated it 11 years ago
After reading Wells’ The Journey of Man and loving it, I couldn’t wait to dig into Pandora’s Seed, which promised to illuminate how “advanced” the hunter-gatherer societies were and what modern man can learn from these times for sustainability. Where there were a plethora of interesting ideas and fa...
Lit Lovers Lane
Lit Lovers Lane rated it 11 years ago
I have known of National Geographic’s genome project for years, so when I learned of this companion book, I bought it immediately. Working my way through the first few pages, I got a bit alarmed. Just between us, I all but royally flunked every science class I ever took from Grade 3 onward, and this...
Cassandra Reads
Cassandra Reads rated it 13 years ago
This is very different from what I've been reading. This is the first non-fiction book I've read in a while. The start of it made me feel like I was in a biology class and the topic of the day is genetics. Sorry, but I knew all of it. I'm sure not everyone who's read this book would know all of it, ...
spocksbro
spocksbro rated it 14 years ago
Spencer Wells argues in Pandora’s Seed that there are two critical events in humanity’s (relatively) recent past that have pushed us onto the path leading to modern civilization. Two cusps that have led to the marvels we enjoy today, as well as the horrors (which explains the book’s subtitle: “The U...
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