I am by the sea and I have a picture

[sovay]

The news which made my day when I woke up and saw it in the paper: some of us have Neanderthal DNA. The original published papers are here, currently free to all visitors.

My mother is delighted. "Of course," she said when I showed her the article. "And they were gentle and ate wonderful grubs and were telepathic." The first book she ever read about the Neanderthals was William Golding's The Inheritors (1955).

I think it's pretty awesome, too.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the links! I'm glad they've left the papers unlocked.

I think this is brilliant, although I'm not entirely surprised. A few years back a lot of people were saying there probably wasn't any interbreeding, that the DNA didn't seem to indicate it; I kept thinking that there seemed to be some evidence from the physical anthropology side of things, and that there was a good chance that further and deeper DNA work would end up showing the physical anthropologists had a point.

I like your mother's comment. I've never read that book--I expect I should remedy this.

[sovay]

I like your mother's comment. I've never read that book--I expect I should remedy this.

I should warn you that I haven't read The Inheritors since ninth grade, when my mother gave it to me as an antidote for being assigned The Lord of the Flies, but I remember it fondly. I hope it's still in print.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

An antidote for The Lord of the Flies sounds a good thing, although I have to admit that, in stereotypical boy-like fashion, I didn't much mind reading it. (Looking back, I'm surprised I didn't write fanfic where Piggy was a weapons geek and he and his friends used crossbows and bamboo rockets to maintain order on the island, but I was presumably too busy writing Star Trek parodies.)

I hope it's still in print.

I hope it is, also. Will put it on my list to pick up--I'll take your fond memories as proof it's worth the reading.