Y : The Descent of Men

In his award-winning Darwin’s Ghost, acclaimed science writer Steve Jones updated the book of the millennium: CharlesDarwin’s The Origin of Species. Now, taking is cue from Darwin’s second greatest work, The Descent of Man, he turns his attention to one of nature’s most neglected creatures: men.

The birth of Dolly the sheep – conceived whitout male assistance, re-opened an old question: what, precisly, is the point of males? Thousands of species manage without them, so why do we bother? And if every time a man has sex he produces enough sperm to fertilize every woman in Europe, why are men so common?

Steve Jones’ fascinating study begins a hundred years ago, with the discovery of man’s defining feature, the Y chromosome. He draws on the latest research to produce an astonishing portrait of manhood: the reasons why Viagra users see the word in blue; the sexual habits of the ancient Britons (as manifst in their Welsh descendants); and why men invariably claim more parteners than women (wich, given the laws of arithmetic, is impossible). He shows how genetics is helping to reconstruct the past  from the infidelity of Thomas Jefferson to the origins of the Indian caste system.

The Y chromosome, the most decayed, redundant and parasitic part of the human genome, is a microscopic metaphor of those who bear it. Man may not be from Mars, but a mixture of society, stupidity and testosterone has created the crisis of modern manhood. Profound and thought-provoking, Steve Jone’s brilliant and timely analysis of the descent of men is absorbing and essential reading – for at least half the population.