Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

by Matt Ridley

Book Overview

"Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability." -- The New Yorker

The genome's been mapped. But what does it...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060194979
• ISBN13: 9780060194970
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Poor shape x2

I ordered 2 of these and they were described as very good. I was in 'good' shape the other was in 'fair' shape. Disappointed. I was really thrilled to buy used and recycle, oh well.

Tremendously entertaining, enjoyable romp through genetics

This is the book that I wish Steven Pinker's "How the Mind Works" was. Matt Ridley unfolds the human genome for us in a crisply written and precise "Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters." OK, I don't know what the Hades that means, but this guy is a good writer, a smart scientist, and a friendly teacher of what is a really cool, but intimidating, branch of learning.Ridley's got a little shtick, which he openly mocks himself, where his 23 chapters each represent one of the 23 human chromosomes. It's kind of an interesting little angle, you want to like this guy, anyway, so the shtick mostly works, although I don't really have a sense that each of our 23 chromosomes is a particular type of chromosome at the end of it.Genome is a lot of good science explained with a clear, well-constructed hand. In an excellent seven-page introduction, Ridley answered for me all sorts of questions that my scientifically-literate yet communication-challenged science friends have been unable to answer, to wit: "Imagine that the genome is a book.There are twenty-three chapters, called Chromosomes.Each chapter contains several thousand stories, called Genes.Each story is made up of paragraphs, called Exons, which are interrupted by advertisements called Introns.Each paragraph is made up of words, called Codons.Each word is written in letters called Bases."Very nicely done, brings it to an understandable level for the literate layperson, and establishes a very solid foundation from which he is able to unfold the rest of this story.He handles the basic science very well, and mostly shys away from the "Believe It or Not!" school of science reporting, though the occasional oddity does pop up. One thing I found fascinating is the existence of "chimeras." Which is one creature ( a human, a mouse, anything) that has two different genomes in it: "Think of them as the opposite of identical twins: two different genomes in one body, instead of two different bodies with the same genome." This means that you could be the single body of two different people that had accidentally fused in the womb. Really weird thought experiment, no?He places humans and our development in the context of our nearest genetic cousins - the chimpanzees and the gorillas and so forth. And elucidates a number of compare and contrast thoughts: "What it means is that the mating system of the species was changing. The promiscuity of the chimp, with its short sexual liaisons, and the harem polygamy of the gorilla, were being replaced with something much more monogamous: a declining ratio of sexual dimorphism is unambiguous evidence for that."Ridley's wordcraft is superior. Enjoy all the learning, implications, and human foibles he packs into this one sentence on language acquisition:"Thus, although no other primate can learn grammatical language at all - and we are indebted to many diligent, sometimes gullible and certainly wishful trainers of chimpanzees and gorillas for thoroughly exhausting all possibil

A Brilliant Readable Introduction

A brilliant and eminently readable introduction this book explains the concept of the human genome. Ridley does a remarkable job of introducing you to how genes work, what their interactions seem to be, and the relationship between heredity and free choice. He makes a compelling case that in the end our genetic code contains limits (humans can not fly on their own) and probabilities (how likely we are to get breast cancer or Alzheimer's) but there are so many specific individual choices that no two twins are identical. If identical twins with identical genetic inheritances interact with their environment and their life experiences to become two substantially different people then imagine the range of differences between all of us.There are so many thought-provoking sections of this book that it is hard to single out any one item. Let me just note that the chapter which discusses mad cow disease and its human analogue, the laughing disease of New Guinea which was a major cause of death among the Fore Tribe. Ridley's explanation of the role prisons play in causing these diseases is lucid and yet the science behind it is daunting.For those who care about science education Ridley's approach to the mystery of knowledge explains a great deal about why the fact and memory based modern American approach to teaching science drives children away from the field. Consider just this passage: "The theme of this chapter is mystery. A true scientist is bored by knowledge; it is the assault on ignorance that motivates him -- the mysteries that previous discoveries have revealed. The forest is more interesting than the clearing." We need a science education based on learning about the unknown rather than memorizing the known. Ridley explains these principles again and again throughout the book.If you care about the most important scientific revolution of the last twenty years this book is a very good starting point.

Fascinating, well done,

Fascinating stuff, this genetic science, especially now that we have mapped our DNA. This is a very well-written about genetics, in general, and some history surrounding the development of genetics and the human genome project. It is not, however, a history of the human genome project, which I assumed it was (one must be careful when buying a book based only on the title!). I was initially disappointed that it wasn't the story of the project, but I am very pleased at what I have learned from it. Especially intriguing is that the author talks a lot about what genes do and don't do, and how even a gene that is linked with a disease, say Huntington's disease, isn't really something you can call The Huntington's Gene. He's a very good writer. He can be fairly technical at times, but even when he is, he makes sure to also make an analogy, or re-explain in easier to understand terms. This is one of the best science books I have read simply in terms of writing that is lucid, structured, and keeps the reader wanting to read more.One major compelling point to this book is that he does include some history, including the different scientists and who fought with whom, and who continues to fight in the struggle to be the first to discover something new, and also in the struggle scientists have between each other in terms of the philosophical/cultural ramifications of certain genes. Especially interesting is the chapter on intelligence. The author delves into the history of the first, early and completely inappropriate IQ tests developed in the US and Britain, and the horrible fallout from them since they determined that immigrants have low IQ (which is not surprising, later criticizers have said, since the tests were in English, and many immigrants didn't speak English). But certainly the idea of genetic intelligence is a very touchy one, but the author does bring up a number of studies that show that IQ is, in some ways, genetic; that intelligence is not completely cultural/education-based (but is also not completely genetic, either). Of the chapters in the book, I found this one the most interesting, and especially the valid and well-done studies that have looked into the link between genetics and intelligence (and intelligence meaning and including a variety of intelligences - analytic, kinesthetic, language use, etc.), whatever the culture being studied, in whatever country. Fascinating stuff.Some might be turned off by some of the author's intentional visibility of self. I greatly enjoyed that instead of merely reporting the facts, he also comments on them from his own view, and also includes contrary views from contrary scientists. While many diseases are linked to certain genes, the rest of the human behavior, while genetic (at least somewhat) is vaguely and very imperfectly known, so it is helpful for me to hear the author's opinion about what some findings could mean for the future of healthcare, school curricula, racial tensions, etc.

Irresistible Reading to Understand What Your Genes Mean

The field of genetics is doubling knowledge every few weeks. So MattRidley had set himself an impossible task in writing one of the lastbooks before the completion of the Human Genome project. Yet, he hascreated a book of unique value to all of us as the full impact ofgenetic knowledge begins to take over our world.Forget 99 percentof what you have ever heard about genes. The school wasted your timewith obsolete knowledge that wasn't in the ball park, in mostcases.What Ridley has done is given us a roadmap of the kind ofterritory and effects that occur within our genes, and among ourminds, bodies, and genes. The interrelationships are extremelycomplex and diverse. Beware any simple judgments about what geneticsmean, as a result.What was most impressive to me was the remarkablepotential to use genetic information to shed light on all kinds ofissues. For example, the genetic record can give insights into thedevelopment of species, past expansion of nomadic peoples, language,personality, stress, memory, sex, instinct and the effect of theenvironment. To give us each a full panoply of ideas aboutgenetics, he adopted the interesting structure of having one chapterabout each chromosome. The chapter is not exhaustive, but picks onone or a few aspects of what is known or is in the process of becomingknown.Fear not! I never took biology, and know little biologicaljargon. Yet the book portrayed the ideas and information simply andclearly enough that I don't think I got lost anywhere.The only partof the book that I did not like was a completely unsatisfactorydiscussion of what free will is in the last chapter. Skip that andyou'll enjoy the book a lot more.How accurate is the book? In fivechapters, I had read source books or articles referred to by Ridley,and each was well chosen for what he was trying to do and scrupulouslydescribed. Of course, we are still up against the fact that we knowvery little on this whole subject.This is the most stimulatingscience book that I have read in a long time. I even liked in betterthan The Selfish Gene, which I thought was a terrific book (which isalso referred to and discussed in this book). I found that thebook stimulated a lot of new thinking on my part. Fifteen minuteswith the book led to four hours of conjecture on several occasions. Iliked that feature of the book.Have a great time reading this bookand thinking about its implications for your own life!

Things Have Changed

Things have, indeed, changed. This book chronicles the opening of the Genome mystery and the path science has taken to reach today's level of knowledge. It also includes a far reaching discussion of the current discoveries of DNA and the impact (including a realistic cure for Cancer) that they will have on our lives in the future.This is a far ranging discussion, moving from the genetic impacts on sexuality, personality, disease (or more appropriately resistance to disease), longevity, and other topics. It is an excellent, intriguing book for anyone who reads it. The scientific information can get a little overwhelming, but every turn of the page can reveal a new understanding about who we are and how our exploding genetic knowledge might shape our future.