Here are the ten writing assignments for

the Anthropology class at Broward College.

Even through only ten papers were
required, I decided to write twelve. I wrote
four on the topic of Anthropology, three on
the topics of Culture and Language, and
two on the topic of genetics. I have also
included a table of contents and a
bibliography to cite my sources.
Anthropology
Writing
Assignments
ANT2000
Kevin Keating
Seth Adler
Contents
Bonobos .................................................................................................................................................................................. 2
Francis Galton ......................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Largest Flying Bird ................................................................................................................................................................... 4
Pollution .................................................................................................................................................................................. 5
Asmat ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Death ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Middle East Fighting .............................................................................................................................................................. 10
A Game of Throne Languages ............................................................................................................................................... 12
African Languages ................................................................................................................................................................. 13
European Communication .................................................................................................................................................... 15
AIDs ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Evolution of Genes ................................................................................................................................................................ 17
Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18


Bonobos
onobos are the closest existing relatives to humans. I had never heard of these apes until this class. This
is why they are interesting to me. Watching the video , at first, made me laugh. How can these
creatures, with such long arms and legs, be related to us? However, when the narrator mentioned that they were
bipedal, meaning that they can walk on two legs, and I saw one walking, it looked eerily similar to how humans
walk. I also find bonobos interesting because of their habits. I have never heard of any other animal with
sexual behaviors like these apes. I do, however, find their appearances to be very creepy. They look scary
because they look almost like humans.
probably have never heard of this animal before because I never had an interest in animals or anthropology.
I have always thought that humans were closely related to chimps. I did not know that there was another
animal more closely related to us. By taking this class, I hope to learn more about the evolution of humans.
The reason I find the habits of the Bonobos interesting is because I do not know of any other animal that acts
like they do. The only animals I know a lot about are cats and dogs and the few other animals that are in my
neighborhood. To me, I think these animals look like monsters from a movie when they stand up on two legs.
They are very hairy and look like deformed humans. I probably think this way because I watch too many horror
movies.
onobos are an endangered species and live in the Congo. I find it amazing that these scientifically
important creatures are being hunted and killed. They should be used to study and observe. They might
give us information from our past. We may have used to look and act like them. I wonder if the only reason
why I think this is because I have a good education and home. Other people around the world may not know
this and that could be one of the reasons why they are killing these animals. They might not think that they are
important.

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Francis Galton
have decided to write this article on Sir Francis Galton, a famous English anthropologist, inventor, and
statistician. Again, I had never heard of this guy until you mentioned his name in our first class. I thought
he was just going to be another scientists like the other thousand, until I heard you say that he was a statistician.
This peaked my interest because I took AP Statistics last year and I have always had an interest in stats. I went
to look this guy up and found out that he was a smart and incredible person, responsible for many new ideas and
creations, such as the concept of statistical correlation, the use of surveys for collecting data, his study in
eugenics, and the first dog whistle. How could this guy not be interesting?
am so amazed at this guy because of how brilliant he is. I find it interesting to know where things came
from because I like to know why they came about. I like to know why they were invented. Since I am
taking an Anthropology class, I wanted to know what Sir Francis Galton did in the anthropological field. It
turns out that he is a half-cousin to Charles Darwin. Thats pretty cool. I also found out that Francis Galton had
an interest in anthropometry. I have never heard of this word, I thought it was a typo. Apparently,
anthropometry is the study of the measurements of the human body. In 1885, he set up an Anthropometric
Laboratory to study peoples measurements. Unfortunately, the data size was so large that it would unable to be
processed until the 1920s. I find the fact that his data was too large to compute interesting, because I am so
used to using calculators to compute everything. Back then, it must have been so much work.
ince Francis Galton lived a long time ago, but I wanted to see if there would be any news about him on
Google. In 1906, Galton wrote a way the perfectly cut cake. (Galton, 1906) This letter has recently been
found and that is all I could find in the news. Sir Francis Galton has also left a huge impact on the fields that he
worked in. In meteorology, he created the first weather map. In psychology, he created the science of
measuring mental faculties. Although there are thousands of scientists that ever lived, Galton is now my
favorite one because of his work in the mathematical and anthropological fields.

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Largest Flying Bird
ecently, anthropologists discovered the fossils of the worlds largest flying bird. This bird had a 6.4-
meter wingspan and lived tens of millions of years ago. I chose the Pelagornis sandersi as my topic for
this paper because I found out about it on a page that I follow on Facebook. I figured that has to do with
anthropology and I wanted to find out more about it. This topic was also interesting to me because I like
dinosaurs. I like how before humans existed, there were these great, big, monstrous creatures that roamed the
Earth. I also like the movie, The Land Before Time, which is a cartoon about dinosaurs. I think that dinosaurs
are really cool and its interesting that we can use their bones to reconstruct them and picture what they looked
like when they were living.
he most interesting part about the Pelagornis sandersi, I believe, is that it could have flown for a week at
a time without landing. That is amazing. I have heard of birds that could fly for a few days straight but
a whole week is incredible. I wonder if it is because the bird had a lot of muscle or does it not take as much
energy to fly. Another reason why I like this topic is because I like birds, in general. I find them to be very cute
and they look funny because they do not have any arms. When I was younger, I used to have pet birds and that
could be another reason why I find them fascinating. I had a parrot named Max and a Macaw named Cherry.
n the article, it said that researchers had previously thought that birds with wingspans wider than 5 meters
made it impossible for flight. (Khan, 2014) This new bird proves this wrong. Researchers also believe that
this bird would mostly glide when it flew. Birds this size require a lot of energy so they tend not to use it.
What I mean is that since they are so large they cannot do the things that smaller birds could do. The bones of
this bird was found in South Carolina, but I wonder if they also lived in other areas of the world. Researchers
said that this bird could fly across oceans so I believe that they would have been able to live somewhere else.
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Pollution

orldwide pollution is a serious topic and that is why I wanted to write about it. I have studied forms
of pollution and I know that it is dangerous. The article I read was about NASAs satellite that tracks
the pollution around the world. (Patel, 2014) The article included pictures and image layering showing the
pollution around the world. I find this topic interesting also because I like space and NASA. That is why I
went to this website that was on the handout. This topic is also interesting to me because pollution affects
everybody, not just me. I have to be conscious of what I do and how it affects the environment. I care about
the planet because it is the only one I have and if I ruin it, then I will be miserable living on it. Adults are
always saying that it is my generation that needs to find a solution and they are right. If me and everybody else
keeps polluting the planet, than there are going to be massive consequences.

have a lot of knowledge about the environment and pollution because I took AP Environmental Science
and a majority of that class was learning about pollution. The whole reason for that field of science is to
come up with a way to mitigate or stymie or reverse the damages done by pollution. The reason why I chose
this article about pollution is because it looked at the problem from an outside view, from space. This is
different than a lot of other articles that look at the problem from Earth. Those articles would show plants or
forests and statistics but this article had pictures of the Earth and color coded them to show the pollution. I like
NASA and their mission so that is another reason why I chose this article as opposed to others.




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y looking at this problem from an informed perspective, I realize that this problem is not everyones
fault but it does affect everyone. What I mean is, only certain countries, such as America, India, and
Chine, cause the most pollution, while many other people are affected by it. I have in mind the native tribes in
Africa. They did very little to pollute the planet yet they are being affected because of MDC countries like I
mentioned above. Another way to look at this problem would be to look at it over time. This article includes
graphs that show the amount of ozone as well as carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. These chemicals are very
bad for the environment and causes global warming as well as acid rain. These chemicals have been increasing
and it needs to stop. I once read another article that said it is already too late to save the planet. I hope that was
wrong.

This map shows the Antarctic ozone hole on September 16 in 2006 and 2011. Image Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory


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Asmat

ust like I wrote about the bonobos last week, I decided to write about the video that we watched this week,
about the people in New Guinea. I think they were called the Numera people, but when I went to look
them up, I could not find anything. After some more searching, the only cannibals in New Guinea are the
Korowai people. I find these people interesting because of how they are able to use what the land gives them,
and how they did not use money or electricity. They have had the same culture until the British came. It is
amazing to see what tribes were like before technology and before the agricultural revolution. What I think are
unique about these people is that they are open cannibals, meaning they want to be eaten, and work was fun to
them until the Dutch and British came and started monetizing everything. So, after talking with a friend, I
found out that these people are actually the Asmat.

have heard of cannibalism before so I was not that shocked but I have never heard of people wanting to be
eaten by other people. Most cultures will bury or cremate their people after they die, but the Asmat people
want to be eaten so their soul lives on. I guess that makes sense. It also amazes me how many cultures there
are and how many different indigenous people there are on the planet. It seems that every week I am hearing of
some other people that I have never heard of before. I chose to do the article on these people for two reasons:
One, I had to watch a twenty minute video on them and two, their name sounds funny. Another thing that I
found interesting in the video was the fact that they put things in their noses. And not little things, those bone-
looking things were big. My reaction to this was to throw up and then to look it up. The film also talked about
the tradition of when a boy want to become a man. A person in the tribe lies the boy down and starts cutting his
forehead. I believed the film called it gar but I am not sure of that either because I found nothing online about
it.
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henever I would look up the Asmat online, I found a lot of articles about Michael Rockefeller.
(Howe, 2014) I had no idea who he was so I decided to look him up. He was exploring the Asmat
region when his boat capsized and he swam to shore. He was never seen again and it is believed that he was
eaten by the Asmat tribe in revenge for what the Dutch did to them. In 1958, leaders of the Otsjanep village
were killed by a Dutch patrol so when they found a white man, they wanted revenge. Soon after his death,
the tribe was swept with cholera, which they believed was revenge for killing Rockefeller. I also wanted to talk
about their ritual of becoming a man. In a process called gar, a person will cut lines in their forehead. This
shows that the boy can withstand the pain and become a man. There are many traditions of becoming a man all
over the world that are not this painful. For example, I was bar mitzvah, which means I became a man in the
Jewish religion. I only had to read from the torah, not have my head cut up. After the Dutch came in to the
Asmat region, they changed their culture a lot. Cannibalism and gar decreased because it was too inhumane.
While I do not agree with either of these processes, I do not believe that the Dutch had the right to invade their
land and change their culture.

An Asmat tribe member with a bone through his nose.
Image Credit: Daily Mail



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Death
am interested in death rituals in different cultures so I wanted to write about it. Almost every culture has
their own death ritual, whether it is burying, cremating, mummifying, or just letting the body out in the open
to be eaten by vultures. There are so many different ways of taking care of the dead so I wanted to find out
more about them. I never knew that there were so many ways of taking care of the dead until I read an article
by the PBS. (Huang, 2000) I used to only think that bodies were either buried or cremated. Death is also a
fascinating subject to me because there are so many opinions about it and nobody really knows what happens
when you die. Personally, I believe in reincarnation, where after I die, I get to live on in another body. I do not
believe in the idea of heaven or hell because I feel that that is too structured and death is not organized. Or
maybe I just disappear and never come back. I like thinking of these types of things.
ince I come from a Jewish background, when I die I will most likely be buried. I do not really like
talking about my death, but I would prefer to be cremated because I feel like it is cleaner. I know it wont
matter to me because Ill be dead, but I just dont want my carcass buried like some hidden treasure. And then
some kids come and disrespect my tomb stone by sitting on it. I do not want that. I also learned about different
death rituals when I was studying AP Human Geography in school. There was a chapter on different cultures
and I found them interesting. I wanted to learn about more cultures so I decided to write this article.
eligion and customs are very important to some people and that is why they have their own death
traditions. For example, Tibetan Buddhists leave the bodies of the dead to be eaten by wild animals
because they have no use for dead bodies, and before it was banned in India, widowed women used to kill
themselves on their husbands pyre in a process called Sati. Viking funerals were very strange. A slave girl
would have sex with every man in the village and them be killed so she could serve her maser in the afterlife.
Everyone has their own death traditions and even though they may seem strange to outsiders, it makes sense to
the people.

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Middle East Fighting

decided to write an article about the biggest cultural event happening right now, the fighting in the Middle
East. I recently watched a video that easily explained to me what is happening over there. (Prager, 2014)
One group wants the other group dead. There is one Jewish state surrounded by 23 Arab states. This topic is of
interest to me because of a few reasons. One, this is all that is ever in the news. I have Google News as my
home page so whenever I turn on my computer, the front page is covered in the news that is happening in Israel.
I am not sure if this is a bad way to feel, but at this point, I feel like the media is trying to shove it down my
throat. I hear about it when I turn on the radio. I see it when I turn on the TV. I feel that since everyone else
is talking about it, I should give my opinion on it. And second, I am also Jewish so I guess this pertains to me.

his fighting has started ever since the British released control in 1948 (I believe it was 1948). Whenever
people talk about whose fault this war is, most of them say the Palestinians or the Arabs, but I always
say it was the British. They were the ones that chose this land for the Jews after World War 2. I believe that
the Jews should have a homeland, just not in the middle of their enemies. I believe that part of Germany should
have been given to the Jews as part of Germanys reparations. I feel this way because I have studied world
history in school and it just seems like the obvious reason. The video I mentioned before was a short, 5 minute,
video that was considered the simplest explanation for the fighting. My friend posted it on Facebook and so I
watched it. The reason for this is that I wanted to know more about the fighting because I always hear about it
in the news. I wanted to get a simple explanation for it and this video provided just that.



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f the Israelis decided to drop their weapons and surrender, they would be taken over and probably all killed.
If the Arabs decided to drop their weapons and surrender, there would be world peace. That is the message
I was able to take away from the video. The video that I watched did not give a solution to this problem, so I
will provide my solution. I believe that Israel should give up. I know that that is contradicting the into to this
paragraph, but I feel that the Palestinians and Arabs will always be against Israel for all of time because they do
not recognize it as a Jewish state. There will always be fighting and it will not end until one of the groups, most
likely the Jews, are defeated. I do not see how Israel can maintain this constant battle and struggle that has been
happening for over half a century.

To watch the video, go to this site:
http://www.israelvideonetwork.com/the-most-important-video-about-israel-ever-made

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A Game of Throne Languages
he topic I chose for this paper was the languages of Dothraki and Valyrian. If you have never heard of
these languages, that is because they are from the series, Game of Thrones. This topic was of interest to
me because I love the TV series and I am currently reading the books. On a recent episode I watched, there was
a lot of dialogue in High Valyrian and I thought it sounded beautiful. I went online to look up more about it and
I discovered that one man, David J. Peterson, from the University of California had created the two languages.
(Martin, 2013) Although he did not invent them, the author George RR Martin can take credit for that, he
elaborated them and created a dictionary and pronunciation guide for them. I was amazed that one person can
create an entire language so I wanted to write about it and share my thoughts.
he reason why I loved the languages so much, especially Valyrian, is because they sound beautiful. It is
not a coarse language, like African languages, but a flowing language, like Latin. I am not that into this
series that I would attempt to learn the language, but I find it interesting enough to read through the
pronunciation guide and some of the translations. One thing that I find funny, ironic even, is that everyone in
the show and audience is mispronouncing one of the characters name. Her name is Khaleesi. Most people
pronounce it like ka-LEE-see when is should be pronounced KHAH-lay-see. Peterson says that this always
bothers him but he was unable to have the produces change the pronunciation on the show. Trivial information,
like this, fascinated me and that is another reason why I like this language.
ven though these two languages were made up by one person, I do not believe most languages in the real
world are made up by one person. I believe it is a group collaboration that starts languages. Some
primitive people created words for simple items and these words evolved into a language. As people started to
migrate and become isolated from others, their languages evolved on different paths. I know that there are
language trees with families and groups. If Dothraki and Valyrian were placed on real family trees, they would
most likely be under the Germanic language family because of how they sound and how they are written. They
use the Roman alphabet and there are not symbols, like in Mandarin or Hebrew.
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African Languages

his paper is going to be about language, specifically the African languages. The ones with the click
sounds. This topic was of interest to me because I wanted to know why a lot of African languages,
including Xhosa and Khoekhoe. I have had some experience with African languages, mostly the Bantu
language, when I was reading the book, Things Fall Apart, in my English class last year. I find languages, in
general, to be interesting. There are so many of them and I would love to learn them all (even though I know
that is not possible). I know English, and I have had some experience with Spanish, Hebrew, French, German,
Latin, Polish, Czech, and Hungarian. I also like to think about what the world would be like if everyone just
spoke one language (ie English). I imagine that we would all be smarter because it would be easier to
communicate with everyone and share ideas. Another thing I find interesting about languages is the fact that
come of them are extinct. This is unusual because a language is not something you can see, such as an animal,
so for it to go extinct, you would have to think about it in a different way.

o find out more about the African click languages, I read an article titled Why Do African Clicks
Sound So Different? Its All in Your Head. (Sedivy, 2012) The article was basically about why people
who speak English find the click languages to sound so weird. The article brings up a good point when it says
that English-speakers also use click noises when speaking. Such as a tsk of disapproval or a click when
changing the conversation. I had to think about these examples and realized that the author of the article was
right. I never realized that I used clicking sounds when I talk. I have noticed that I now make these sounds
more and more when I speak. While I was reading the article I had to agree with everything the author, Julie
Sedivy, said because it made sense. So my reaction to the article was agreeness (I do not think that that is a
word).

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he reason why these click languages of Africa seem so weird to us is because we speak English and
are not used to hearing those sounds. I am sure that it is different for each language. Not everyone
things that the African languages are weird because they may be used to hearing them. In the article I read, the
author interviewed a native speaker of Xhosa. He said that it is not hard to make the sound and he does not find
it weird at all. He also says that get used to get offended when people ask him how he makes that noise. He
said that it offended him because it isnt a noise, its my language.


A map of the different languages in Africa.
Image Credit: Britannica

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European Communication
here has been this one question that I always wanted to find an answer for: How did the Europeans and
Native Americans first communicate? This topic is of interest to me because this is about the language I
speak. I do not understand how, if these two groups of people didnt even know the other existed, they learned
a new language. When I looked this up, many answers said that they used hand signals, demonstrations, and
time. That makes sense but there was another answer that said that Squanto and Samoset were able to speak
many languages, including English. I dont see how that is possible. That is also why I find this topic
interesting, because I do not know the answer and I am a curious boy.
he reason why I chose this topic is because I am currently studying AP US History and I was reading
about their encounter. At first, I didnt think anything of it but then as I thought about it, I did not
understand how the Native Americans could have taught the pilgrims how to grow corn and survive in the New
World without being able to speak to each other. I also chose this topic because it focuses and language and I
need to write more articles about language. I would love to be able to go back in time and experience how the
Europeans and Native Americans first met. I feel that that would be an interesting experience. I guess
anthropology is the closest I can get to being able to go back in time.
rom an informed perspective, I need to understand that this situation was like someone trying to
communicate to a person who spoke another language in todays time. Yes, it would be hard at first, but
after some time, they will start to understand each other. This situation can also be related to the modern times
such as when someone makes first contact with an isolated tribe. There are people trained today, just like there
probably was in the 1600s, that can be interpreters and study the art of communication. So, I guess the answer
to my question would be that at first they would communicate by gestures and eventually they learned each
others language.

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AIDs
chose to do a genetics themed article on the HIV/AIDs virus. I find this topic interesting because I find
diseases, in general, to be interesting. I find it fascinating how these microscopic things can cause death
and destruction. I also find the history of how diseases and the medicine to prevent those diseases developed.
The process of becoming more sanitized and using sterilization methods has advanced overtime and it shows
the human ability to learn and become more advanced. I chose AIDs out of the plethora of diseases because
AIDs is the most well-known disease in the past century. It has gotten the most attention because it has affected
almost every country in the world. I wanted to write about this disease because of all the damage it has caused.
fter reading the article, I learned new information about the virus such as how it spread from chimps to
humans and when. (Nordqvist, 2014) The article was set up in a question and answer format so that
made it easy for me to understand the information better. My reaction to the AIDs disease was of interest and
fear. The disease is interesting to me because it is so advance and complex and can cause so much destruction.
I am also in fear of the HIV/AIDs virus because I do not want to get it. I have heard so many stories of what
happens to people when they get it and I really do not want to get it. The article also caused me to look up ways
of preventing the disease and I will make sure I follow those methods.
ow that I have more information on the AIDs virus, I understand why there was such an epidemic in the
1990s. My aunt was a nurse during that time and now I understand better what was happening and
why it was such a big deal. There were so many people with this disease and so many did not have insurance.
I had also previously thought that AIDs was mostly in America and Africa, but now I know that it also affected
people in Europe and Asia. This disease is one of the reasons why I want to become a doctor, to prevent
diseases and help those affected by them.

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Evolution of Genes
his paper is going to be about the evolution of genes. The article I read to find out information about this
topic is The Evolution of Genes, written by Carl Zimmer for The New York Times. (Zimmer, 2014) I
find genes interesting because my entire body and life is determined by my genes. My genes make me who I
am and are like a predetermined path for my life to take. Genes are also very complex and that is another
reason why I like them. I like the challenge of trying to understand them. Another aspect of genes that I am
intrigued by is that we are able to splice genes and reconstruct them to make almost anything we want. By
mutating genes in a process called genetic engineering, we can make the human body into something entirely
different and cause mutations, such as extra limbs or different body structure. Genes are very powerful and I
like studying them.
ne of the reasons that I am able to understand what genes are is because I have a decent education. I
was reading a story, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and the women did not understand what
genes are because she never went to school. I feel so lucky that I am able to go to school and understand genes
and other subjects. Another reason why I am interested by genes and their evolution is because I read a lot of
medical articles and books about health. I am interested in biology and chemistry and so I understand what
genes can do. Also, one of my family members is a nurse so that could be another reason why I am interested
in the medical field.
enes are very important when it comes to humans and human evolution. Genes are probably the most
important topic about anthropology because they are the things that change humans and cause us to
look and act the way we do. Its a shame that not everyone can get an education and fully understand what
genes are. I feel that there would be so many more advances in science if people knew what was out there. If
people just had basic education, then they can understand more about genes. Genes are everywhere and in
everyone so there is some irony that some people do not even know what they are, even though they are made
up of them.
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Bibliography
Galton, F. (1906). Cutting a Round Cake on Scientific Principles. 1.
Howe, C. (2014, March 18). Cannibal killing finally revealed: The gruesome details of how Rockefeller heir was gutted
and cooked by the Asmat tribe of New Guinea. Daily Mail, p. 4.
Huang, J. (2000). Death: Cultural Traditions. PBS, p. 2.
Khan, A. (2014, July 7). Fossil's 21-foot wingspan shows Pelagornis was 'largest flying bird'. Los Angeles Times, p. 2.
Martin, D. (2013). Learn to Speak Dothraki and Valyrian From the Man Who Invented Them for Game of Thrones.
Vulture, 3.
Nordqvist, C. (2014). What Is AIDS? What Is HIV? Medical News Today, 5.
Patel, K. (2014, July 16). Ten-Year Endeavor: NASA's Aura Tracks Pollutants. Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA, p. 2.
Prager, D. (Director). (2014). The Middle East Problem [Motion Picture].
Sedivy, J. (2012). Why Do African and English Clicks Sound So Different? Its All in Your Head. Discover Magazine, 3.
Zimmer, C. (2014). The Continuing Evolution of Genes. The New York Times, 3.