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4.33 AVERAGE
4.33 AVERAGE
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Song of the Cell, I had pretty high expectations of The Gene. I was not disappointed. This was a sprawling history of genetics from Mendel through Darwin, from the catastrophic whoopsies of 20th century Eugenics to a vision of the near-future of genetic therapy for debilitating heritable diseases.
Mukherjee has a tendency to draw parallels between the content and his personal life and that conversational writing style is the spoonful of sugar that helps the subject matter go down. Easily my new favorite science communicator.
Also, the epigraphs were great.
Mukherjee has a tendency to draw parallels between the content and his personal life and that conversational writing style is the spoonful of sugar that helps the subject matter go down. Easily my new favorite science communicator.
Also, the epigraphs were great.
Part history of our understanding of this basic building block of life, part philosophical examination of what it means to be human, the book is magnificent synthesis of science and humanity. 3.88 Martinie glasses
'The Gene' by Siddhartha Mukherjee is an extremely thorough and well-done history of the discovery of the gene and the scientists who teased out its form, function and purpose. I took my time to study the fascinating intricacies of the science involved to parse out visual clues and biochemical reactions and how it was developed by people who had nothing but guesses and hypotheses to work from.
Each new discovery led to small forward steps. Collaborations between scientists and sharing information, passing down their discoveries to yet another generation of investigators were enormously important to figuring it all out.
People learned the accidental interactions of nurture and nature affect not only personality, but genes too. Genetics profoundly interested those who wondered if conditional nurture and nature could be forced on purpose on the gene to correct mature imperfections and make humans disease free. The sometimes sad failures in attempts to treat patients cursed with miserable genetic diseases as well as the tantalizing successes are also clearly examined from all sides of the reasons for philosophical and medical caution. The horrors of the half-baked early eugenics movements in Europe and America are placed in context, and it is obvious these 'scientific' ideas reflected racial discrimination more than actual scientific fact. However, I feel sorrow how the 1920's-1950's eugenics movements poisoned the well of genetic discoveries in certain directions, particularly after ending in President George W. Bush's banning of work with stem cells. Pure idiocy, in my opinion, gentle reader.
Siddhartha Mukherjee writes in clear lucid language and in a logical procession of the centuries of research. He also gives short and interesting biographies of the many scientists who spent so many years trying to decipher the mysteries of why offspring are similar to their parents and yet show remarkable alterations which differentiate us from each other, with the exception of twins.
The book has historical photographs, a glossary, a timeline of discoveries, a section of notes, a bibliography, and an index.
'The Gene: An Intimate History' is a wonderful science read!
Each new discovery led to small forward steps. Collaborations between scientists and sharing information, passing down their discoveries to yet another generation of investigators were enormously important to figuring it all out.
People learned the accidental interactions of nurture and nature affect not only personality, but genes too. Genetics profoundly interested those who wondered if conditional nurture and nature could be forced on purpose on the gene to correct mature imperfections and make humans disease free. The sometimes sad failures in attempts to treat patients cursed with miserable genetic diseases as well as the tantalizing successes are also clearly examined from all sides of the reasons for philosophical and medical caution. The horrors of the half-baked early eugenics movements in Europe and America are placed in context, and it is obvious these 'scientific' ideas reflected racial discrimination more than actual scientific fact. However, I feel sorrow how the 1920's-1950's eugenics movements poisoned the well of genetic discoveries in certain directions, particularly after ending in President George W. Bush's banning of work with stem cells. Pure idiocy, in my opinion, gentle reader.
Siddhartha Mukherjee writes in clear lucid language and in a logical procession of the centuries of research. He also gives short and interesting biographies of the many scientists who spent so many years trying to decipher the mysteries of why offspring are similar to their parents and yet show remarkable alterations which differentiate us from each other, with the exception of twins.
The book has historical photographs, a glossary, a timeline of discoveries, a section of notes, a bibliography, and an index.
'The Gene: An Intimate History' is a wonderful science read!
I love this guy's writing. He manages to take complex subjects and explain them with insightful analogies without being patronising. I very much like the way he started this book - instead of delving straight into a specialised area, he begins with an unexpected personal story, that forms the backdrop of the entire book. This gives what could otherwise be a dry subject, an intimacy, and a thread to follow, drawing all the history and information together.
I knew the gist of several of these stories, but not necessarily how they fitted together in the time line, and some I had not made the connections between them before reading this. A worthy read if you are at all interested in science.
" A cake is a developmental consequence of sugar, butter and flour meeting each other in the right proportion, at the right temperature, and the right time. Human physiology, by analogy, is the developmental consequence of certain genes intersecting with other genes in the right sequence, in the right space. A gene is one line in a recipe that specifies an organism. The human genome is the recipe that specifies a human."
I knew the gist of several of these stories, but not necessarily how they fitted together in the time line, and some I had not made the connections between them before reading this. A worthy read if you are at all interested in science.
" A cake is a developmental consequence of sugar, butter and flour meeting each other in the right proportion, at the right temperature, and the right time. Human physiology, by analogy, is the developmental consequence of certain genes intersecting with other genes in the right sequence, in the right space. A gene is one line in a recipe that specifies an organism. The human genome is the recipe that specifies a human."
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Very interesting and engaging at some points, at others just too long
A journey through the history and future of the gene - from the early thoughts on heritability and human essence to the early discovery of the gene to the human genome project and gene manipulation. It is both dense and well written. However, it does somethings forget to carry the reader with it, as it assumes that one remembers all the minor details and property of genes, and therefore doesn't see a need to refresh the reader's memory. But still a great read.
Captivating story about the founding and rise of one of the biggest scientific disciplines of our times.
The biggest takeaway was that we have only fairly recently developed adequate tools to research genes and discover how the genotype, environment and epigenetic factors together decide the phenotype. There is a lot left to discover, and whatever we find out will surely have a big impact on our society. Genetics has had a bad reputation and various misuses throughout the years (nazis, eugenics). Recently there have been a lot of positive breakthroughs such as genetic testing during pregnancy. It is however the case, as noted by the author of the book, that deciding which genes are bad and which are good purely depends on the context in which they are judged. A disorder that causes one to make works of genius can also cause madness in another person. If the genetic composition of a human becomes a choice, then there will be a lot of deep philosophical questions we need to answer about what we find important in life. The future of human genomics is thus exciting, but also a bit worrying.
The biggest takeaway was that we have only fairly recently developed adequate tools to research genes and discover how the genotype, environment and epigenetic factors together decide the phenotype. There is a lot left to discover, and whatever we find out will surely have a big impact on our society. Genetics has had a bad reputation and various misuses throughout the years (nazis, eugenics). Recently there have been a lot of positive breakthroughs such as genetic testing during pregnancy. It is however the case, as noted by the author of the book, that deciding which genes are bad and which are good purely depends on the context in which they are judged. A disorder that causes one to make works of genius can also cause madness in another person. If the genetic composition of a human becomes a choice, then there will be a lot of deep philosophical questions we need to answer about what we find important in life. The future of human genomics is thus exciting, but also a bit worrying.
Brilliant book for the biologically undereducated. I think I learned more from this book than I did from my entire high school science curriculum.
An excellent read, and nowhere near as heavy-going as you would imagine a ~600-page book on genes to be. I admit to being confused at points, but overall I found this fascinating.
Really excellent history of the science and medicine and social impact of genetics and heredity. As a practicing oncologist (a discipline being revolutionized by recent advances in the genetics of cancer) Mukherjee brings a novel perspective to this subject. He also does not avoid the darker aspects of the field including our shameful history of eugenics.