PhD candidate Anna Meyer from the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science has not been wasting any time since leaving ANU. Her first book, Hunting the Double Helix: How DNA is solving puzzles of the past (Allen & Unwin, 2005) has just hit the shelves - and it could be the first of many, as the ANU Reporter discovered.
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Anna Meyer
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What are you doing now?
I am working as a freelance science writer, and work part-time for the Royal Society of New Zealand. I am also investigating options for a postdoctoral fellowship or other academic work.
Why did you write the book?
It was written as a major part of my PhD in Science Communication, which focuses on popular science books. I first became aware of the genre of popular science books by a fortunate accident. One day, a number of years ago, I was browsing the university bookshop in the hope of finding something to read, when one particular book caught my eye. Called A Monk and Two Peas, by Robin Marantz Henig, it was the story of the life of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics. I took it home, and found it to be the most enjoyable read I had had for many years. I was hooked, and ever since, popular science books have been the genre for me.
What is your book about?
This is a popular science book about the field of ancient DNA research, which involves the study of any DNA that still exists in the remains of living things that have died. Like a window into the distant past, ancient DNA has been found in a whole variety of things that have been dead from anything from around 100 years, like the extinct Australian thylacine (known as the Tasmanian Tiger), or the New Zealand moa, right up to tens of thousands of years, like Neanderthals and Woolly Mammoths.
The fact that DNA can survive for such a long time is interesting in itself. But there is much more to it than that. By studying ancient DNA in more detail, the most amazing discoveries have been made. Ancient DNA is a relatively recent technology, with research in the field only beginning in the 1980s. Nonetheless, it has already been involved in a whole smorgasbord of delicious stories. There are tales of murder, deadly disease, mysterious disappearances, animals that have long been extinct, and even human origins.
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