Nicholas Wade has a new book out on human evolution and natural selection

Richard Cohen:

It traces the history of mankind from the time, around 50,000 years ago, when human beings left Africa and started to spread throughout the world.

This is our prehistory. It lacks archeological or written records, but much of what happened can be discerned from our DNA. This is all relatively new to us, but by peering into our most basic living material, snoopy scientists are beginning to see how we evolved -- and why. For instance, the gene that permits us to digest lactose as adults is a relatively new development -- linked, no doubt, to the advent of agriculture. Genetically speaking, we are still on the move.

Wade, a science writer for the New York Times, is a robust and refreshing critic of scientific political correctness. There is nothing in the scientific record, he points out, to validate the romantic notion that primitive man was essentially peaceful. On the contrary, our ancestors made war incessantly -- just as primitive societies did in the modern era until the authorities told them to cut it out. Similarly, he chides PC-addled scientists who insist there is no such thing as race when, just for starters, certain medicines work differently on whites than blacks. As with the noble savage, the raceless world is a myth.

Another myth concerns those cute chimps, one of whom, J. Fred Muggs, once co-hosted the "Today" show. They have 99 percent of a human being's DNA sequence, which may explain why humans and chimps are the only creatures to make war. (Their cousins, the bonobos, make love -- incessantly.) Still, there is hope. Evolution is making us less aggressive and smarter, since, clearly, brains are better than brawn in the modern world. (Jews from Europe, their ancestors compelled by discrimination into certain cerebral professions, have the highest average IQ of any ethnic group, Howard Stern notwithstanding.)

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