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laurieb755 's review for:
The Gene: An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Having read two previously written books by Mukherjee (Goodreads reviews here and here), I was once again predisposed to enjoy his writing and, once again, it did not disappoint. This book is exactly what the title implies – an intimate history of the discovery of genes in all their glory, and the people and processes involved along the journey.
I have written on my personal blog (1st post and 2nd post) about the topics of the book that made especial impressions on me, but all of the book is fascinating for the tales it tells about the essence of what makes us human on a biological and chemical level.
To read this book at my maximum time of alertness meant reading it during the day, which meant taking longer to read because work days precluded absorbent reading, thus relegating the book to weekends and days off.
Mukherjee's beautiful command of language, coupled with his earnestness in telling the many stories that comprise The Gene, left me with a renewed sense of appreciation and awe for the diversity that makes us human, both internally and externally, emotionally and cognitively. It is these very differences that likely ensure the survival of our species. If we were all identical, with no changes between us, then it would take just one interference from an external entity to throw our species off kilter. As it is, a single virus or bacteria can promulgate havoc, but there are so many humans that either due to geographic location or genetic differences our species will keep going, albeit with a slightly revised gene set.
I have written on my personal blog (1st post and 2nd post) about the topics of the book that made especial impressions on me, but all of the book is fascinating for the tales it tells about the essence of what makes us human on a biological and chemical level.
To read this book at my maximum time of alertness meant reading it during the day, which meant taking longer to read because work days precluded absorbent reading, thus relegating the book to weekends and days off.
Mukherjee's beautiful command of language, coupled with his earnestness in telling the many stories that comprise The Gene, left me with a renewed sense of appreciation and awe for the diversity that makes us human, both internally and externally, emotionally and cognitively. It is these very differences that likely ensure the survival of our species. If we were all identical, with no changes between us, then it would take just one interference from an external entity to throw our species off kilter. As it is, a single virus or bacteria can promulgate havoc, but there are so many humans that either due to geographic location or genetic differences our species will keep going, albeit with a slightly revised gene set.