Product Description

The human genome, the complete set of genes housed in 23 pairs of chromosomes, is nothing less than an autobiography of our species. Spelled out in a billion three-letter words using the four-letter alphabet of DNA, the genome has been edited, abridged, altered and added to as it has been handed down, generation to generation, over more than three billion years. With the first draft of the human genome due to be published in 2000, we, this lucky generation, are the first beings who are able to read this extraordinary book, and to gain hitherto unimaginable insights into what it means to be alive, to be human, to be conscious or to be ill. By picking one newly discovered gene from each of the 23 human chromosomes, and telling its story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future medicine. He finds genes that we share with bacteria, genes that distinguish us from chimpanzees, genes that can condemn us to cruel diseases, genes that may influence our intelligence, genes that enable us to use grammatical language, genes that guide the development of our bodies and our brains, genes that allow us to remember, genes that exhibit the strange alchemy of nature and nurture, genes that parasitise us for their own selfish ends, genes that battle with each other and genes that record the history of human migrations. From BSE to cancer, he explores the applications of genetics: the search for understanding and therapy, the horrors of eugenics, and the philosophical implications for understanding the paradox of free will.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9173 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-16
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Science writer Matt Ridley's Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters is an elegant reflection on the significance of being able, for the first time in history, to read our own genes. The book is loosely organised around the stories of one gene per chromosome, rather than the whole genome. This enables Ridley to take in most of the usual topics associated with genes--our relations with other species, the nature of intelligence, the origins of behaviour--and add some new ones. Ridley is a fine writer and explains his selection of genetic stories exceptionally well. This is especially helpful when he is dealing with the intricacies of evolutionary theory or the tangled webs of genes influencing biochemistry influencing behaviour, influencing biochemistry influencing genes. His libertarian-right politics (state intervention bad, individual choice good) cut through many traditional worries about screening, testing and eugenics. The generally even tone only deserts him in a rather bad- tempered discussion of BSE (which starts with the gene for the protein implicated in the disease) and public attitudes to beef-eating. Otherwise, he is almost always persuasive, always interesting. By the time they finish cataloguing all our DNA, there look like being as many books on the subject as there are human genes. This is one of the ones worth having. --John Turney

Synopsis
The genome is our 100,000 or so genes. The genome is the collective recipe for the building and running of the human body. These 100,000 genes are sited across 23 pairs of chromosomes. "Genome", a book of about 100,000 words, is divided into 23 chapters, a chapter for each chromosome. The first chromosome, for example, contains our oldest genes, genes which we have in common with plants. By looking at our genes we can see the story of our evolution, what makes us individual, how our sexuality is determined, how we acquire language, why we are vunerable to certain diseases, how mind has arisen. Genome also argues for the genetic foundations of free will. While many believe that genetics proves biological determinism, Ridley will show that in fact free will is itself in the genes. Everything that makes us human can be read in our genes. Early in the next century we will have determined the function of every one of these 100,000 genes.

About the Author
Matt Ridley's 23 chromosomes (above), together with a PhD degree from Oxford University, equipped him for a career as a science journalist with The Economist and the Daily Telegraph. His books include The Red Queen and The Origins of Virtue. He is chairman of the International Centre for Life, Newcastle-upon-Tyne's project to greet the millennium with a science park and visitor centre devoted to life science. He has ingeniously combined his chromosomes with those of his wife, the neuroscientist Dr Anya Hurlbert, to produce two entirely new human beings.

Customer Reviews

The curates' egg
Read for interest rather than serious study.
Can't say I enjoyed it as much as some other reviewers - it is like the curates' egg -good in parts.

Loosely structured as a romp through the human genome - one gene from each chromosome. At times the author seems happy to slip the bonds of this literary structure to follow his enthusiasms and interests.

Best bits - chapters on junk DNA, cancer, and gene therapy.

I still find it odd that scientists can talk dispassionately and abstractly about the statistical results of procedures which involve injecting diseased tissues into monkey's brains. Indeed the author gets most excited when defending the `rights' of individuals to chose to eat potentially prion-infected meat products (or medicines) produced by an industry which has fed cattle on rendered and recycled bovine brain matter. He argues that the low number of human deaths from new variant CJD is an acceptable loss.

Which bit of the genome makes us so indifferent to the treatment of those species that we are initially told share 94% of our DNA?

A great overview of chromosomes and the genome
A popular science book subtitled "The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters". It goes through the 23 pairs of chromosomes of the human body (including the sex chromosomes X and Y) and discusses one or two of the genes found on each. Topics covered include Life (where human DNA came from and its discovery by Watson and Crick), Intelligence, Disease (although he frequently reminds us that genes do not cause disease), Stress, Memory and Death (programmed cell death called "apoptosis" and it's relation to cancer).

The chapter on Eugenics was perhaps my favourite talking about chromosome 21 and Down symdrome (found when a person has 3 copies of the chromosome compared to the usual 2). It also discussed the idea of sterilising mentally retarded people and criminals which went on in America and Germany, but interestingly not the UK although Winton Churchill was a big fan. Interestingly the chromosomes on the front cover are a photograph of the authors which I didn't realise until I read the note after finishing the book.

You definately need a basic understanding of genetics to appreciate this book. The author does try to explain things without too much terminology, but it's pretty impossible in some places. I really enjoyed it and was surprised to find it is the first science book I have read voluntarily since graduating in 2004. It was a lot to take in and I will definately be reading it again in the future. I am really pleased I finally got around to reading it and although some of it is already out of date (it was published in 2000 and genetics has made so many advances in the last few years) I definately recommend it.

A Good and Informative Read
This is an excellent book about the genome. It is simple to read even if you only have basic background knowledge of the subject - as the preface explains all the background science you need to know prior to reading the book. However, even if you have a background of science, it is not dumbed down enough to make it dull, as most popular science books are - I found that it contains many interesting facts about the genome that I hadn't known prior to reading it. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in science.