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thestormcommando 's review for:
The Gene: An Intimate History
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Okay, maybe didn't quite get an existential crisis, but I did at least find myself learning way more than I ever expected to with this book. I suppose I should've at least expected to learn something when diving into a near 20-hour book about genealogy, but I have to say, as somebody who went from having almost no understanding about this subject as a whole, I now feel like I have some footing to begin to be able to understand more, and I could not be more thankful for it.
Whether going into the history of gene research, talking about extremely divisive subjects such as the effects of gene on sexual orientation, gender, sex, etc., or managing to maintain a completel neutral and objective approach through this all, this book does a really good job of instructing on an area of science that is still so unknown, but constantly having more added to its breadth. I now feel like I have a basis from which I can understand the news I keep on receiving about the human genome research still ongoing, efforts to manipulate it, etc., essentially opening up a whole new world to me.
Where I find this book lacking is something that I can not at all blame it for: it raises more questions than it answers. No kidding. Duh, I know. But I feel like there are at least some areas that if I was asking questions of all people, other people definitely would as well, particularly in reference to the effect of genes on gender-identitity determination. The book makes a lot of reference to the Y-chronmosome SRY gene that turns female aspects to male aspects, and compares this to baking with SRY being the flour that is essential. This, however, answered for none of the questions about what this means for females possessing more 'boyish' aspects. The book makes little to no reference to puberty and the effects of testosterone or estrogen here to the point that I needed to bother a friend of mine (Thanks, Layla) to explain it to me.
Naturally, in a subject such as this, there will always be more questions than answers, but I feel like some areas could've been given at least some small more attention especially when leaving it very open-ended.
That does not change from the fact, however, how amazing this book is, and, frankly, for such complicated subject matter, very digestable. If there's any book to read to help in starting to gain knowledge about genealogy (not that I've read any others), then this is it.
Whether going into the history of gene research, talking about extremely divisive subjects such as the effects of gene on sexual orientation, gender, sex, etc., or managing to maintain a completel neutral and objective approach through this all, this book does a really good job of instructing on an area of science that is still so unknown, but constantly having more added to its breadth. I now feel like I have a basis from which I can understand the news I keep on receiving about the human genome research still ongoing, efforts to manipulate it, etc., essentially opening up a whole new world to me.
Where I find this book lacking is something that I can not at all blame it for: it raises more questions than it answers. No kidding. Duh, I know. But I feel like there are at least some areas that if I was asking questions of all people, other people definitely would as well, particularly in reference to the effect of genes on gender-identitity determination. The book makes a lot of reference to the Y-chronmosome SRY gene that turns female aspects to male aspects, and compares this to baking with SRY being the flour that is essential. This, however, answered for none of the questions about what this means for females possessing more 'boyish' aspects. The book makes little to no reference to puberty and the effects of testosterone or estrogen here to the point that I needed to bother a friend of mine (Thanks, Layla) to explain it to me.
Naturally, in a subject such as this, there will always be more questions than answers, but I feel like some areas could've been given at least some small more attention especially when leaving it very open-ended.
That does not change from the fact, however, how amazing this book is, and, frankly, for such complicated subject matter, very digestable. If there's any book to read to help in starting to gain knowledge about genealogy (not that I've read any others), then this is it.