Welcome to Litsy!

Having spent most of my adult life in academic biology and chemistry departments, I could relate to Paabo‘s frustration with inaccuracies and other issues with sequencing methods! What an incredible tale of tenacity and perseverance. This is how great science is done — translating good ideas into action items and executing them with sincerity. I read the book well before Paabo won the Nobel prize, and I‘m not surprised that he did.

The science was too dry.
His sex life was too spicy.
I bailed at 42% done.
Maybe I'll try it again sometime... But maybe not.

"Setting up a laboratory is an intimidating experience, especially the first time you do it, even more so when you're doing it in an unfamiliar environment." #24in48 switched to my science story. Interesting tale of how we're able to figure out % of Neanderthal DNA in modern people. Picture is Institute of Zoology in Munich where author's first lab was setup.

Fascinating stuff. Not so much about Neanderthals as about the author's progress toward leading the team which sequences their genome. Very biological, technical focus in terms of the work, also discusses the fact that the author is bi, various events in his life. Didn't really like a lot of those details -- dude, you could be apologetic about HAVING AN AFFAIR WITH A COLLEAGUE'S WIFE.

Wow, I never expected to be so caught up in a book about paleoanthropology. In spite of a lot of science, I didn't have a sense that I was losing track of the ideas presented. Well written and narrated.

Been listening to this almost obsessively. It's highly scientific but also gripping.

Waiting for coffee -- eye opener, attitude adjuster -- and listening to a real life mystery about lost genomes.