商品簡介
Recent technology has allowed microbiologists, anthropologists and disease historians to examine fossil remains, whether of humans, animals, or plants. By sequencing DNA researchers can determine whether the diseases from which remains died are the same diseases present today, or early strains no longer present, or even whether they were diseases that have vanished for unknown reasons (and may have the potential to return). The revelations are of the highest interest in their own right, but they also reveal much about human evolution, human migrations, human settlement and occupations, and the interactions among humans, animals and plants. The results of this field, only recently brought into being, have helped to clarify some long-standing issues, such as when tuberculosis began to afflict humans and the obscure and controversial origins of syphilis.Paleomicrobiology of Humans addresses the larger issues being addressed by paleomicrobiology, reviews the technical approaches and controversies attendant upon recovering and sequencing very old DNA, and surveys a number of modern diseases of humans with ancient roots. This volume will be of very great interest to microbiologists, anthropologists and medical historians.
