Chapter 12- The Madness Gene

In 1856 bones were discovered which gave the world the Neanderthal near the Neander Valley. Since the discovery Neanderthals bones have appeared all over Europe and the Middle East. The Neanderthals were thriving in Europe for around hundred thousand years until thirty thousand years ago in which they vanished. Many theories have been offered to explain the disappearance some revolving around climate change, disease or because introduction of modern humans. Modern humans came around forty thousand years ago in Europe evidence points that humans interbred with Neanderthals.

Kolbert visits the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. Kolbert meets Svante Pääbo the “father of paleogenetics” the study of ancient DNA. Pääbo's most ambitious project is uncovering and sequencing the entire Neanderthal genome. However, when an organism dies its DNA is left in fragments which is impossible to reassemble. Understanding and completing the project which will help humans compare homo sapiens and Neanderthal genetics side-by-side. The resulting hybrids from humans and Neanderthals reproducing would indicate “in our DNA must  lie the key mutation that set us apart--the mutations that make us the sort of creature that could wipe out its nearest relative.”(240) Humans desire to explore and repopulate the world and build new civilizations lead to decline of Neanderthals. Chapter 12 explains human survival depends on practices that benefit them but affect other organisms. The introduction of homo sapiens led to extinction of Neanderthals because of different cultural practices that allow them to ensure welfare of civilization and produce future generations.