Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear follows three people after a million-year old retrovirus
begins showing up in the human population. The book opens in the Alps, with Mitch Rafelson, a
discredited anthropologist trekking the mountains with two other travelers in search of human
“mummies”, which he identifies as Neanderthals. He manages to procure samples of the remains
before having to turn back due to health issues and weather conditions. The other two die, but the
deformed mummy baby is found in the backpack of the woman he travelled with.
The book jumps to the Republic of Georgia, with Kaye Lang (independent researcher)
and Christopher Dicken (from the CDC) both looking into mass deaths that have seemingly no
explanation. As the plot moves along it is revealed …show more content…
Around the same time as Kaye becomes
pregnant, the President is killed as tensions mount. 90 days later, Kaye gives birth to the interim
daughter. She is still pregnant with the 52-chromosome SHEVA baby. After being forced into
quarantine, Mitch and Kaye undergo physical changes to prepare them for their daughter. Their
daughter Stella is the first live SHEVA baby to be born, the first of the evolved human children.
The science behind the book is based in the introns of human DNA: the long sections of
nucleotides that, when transcribed to RNA, don’t code for proteins but are just nonsense bases.
These sections of the RNA are cut out, leaving only the exons. The premise of the book is that
there is a retrovirus coded within these introns, which has laid dormant for thousands, even
millions of years within the human genes. The Neanderthals found in the beginning of the book
have this retrovirus in their genes, and it was expressed which is why the baby found with them
does not seem the same as they do, but rather very malformed. This baby is similar to all of the
SHEVA babies that died before birth in the present
begins showing up in the human population. The book opens in the Alps, with Mitch Rafelson, a
discredited anthropologist trekking the mountains with two other travelers in search of human
“mummies”, which he identifies as Neanderthals. He manages to procure samples of the remains
before having to turn back due to health issues and weather conditions. The other two die, but the
deformed mummy baby is found in the backpack of the woman he travelled with.
The book jumps to the Republic of Georgia, with Kaye Lang (independent researcher)
and Christopher Dicken (from the CDC) both looking into mass deaths that have seemingly no
explanation. As the plot moves along it is revealed …show more content…
Around the same time as Kaye becomes
pregnant, the President is killed as tensions mount. 90 days later, Kaye gives birth to the interim
daughter. She is still pregnant with the 52-chromosome SHEVA baby. After being forced into
quarantine, Mitch and Kaye undergo physical changes to prepare them for their daughter. Their
daughter Stella is the first live SHEVA baby to be born, the first of the evolved human children.
The science behind the book is based in the introns of human DNA: the long sections of
nucleotides that, when transcribed to RNA, don’t code for proteins but are just nonsense bases.
These sections of the RNA are cut out, leaving only the exons. The premise of the book is that
there is a retrovirus coded within these introns, which has laid dormant for thousands, even
millions of years within the human genes. The Neanderthals found in the beginning of the book
have this retrovirus in their genes, and it was expressed which is why the baby found with them
does not seem the same as they do, but rather very malformed. This baby is similar to all of the
SHEVA babies that died before birth in the present