Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Genre: Science, NonFiction
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: An incredibly well-written book with a comprehensive history on genetics.
This book was Genetics 101 for me. I knew very little about genes, heredity and genetic engineering before I picked up this book. The author takes us through the history of genes starting from Mendel and Darwin through Watson and finally right up to China announcing the first genetically modified human embryo. It was fascinating to read how much we have advanced in genetics in the last 40 years. It is a really well researched book and takes a good amount of refreshing of high school biology to absorb all the facts but it was a real page turner overall. Mukherjee also gets us thinking about the moral dilemmas we face today about genetic testing and gene therapy. I paused for a few minutes when I read about the perils that scientific advancements can and are causing today. It is quite a challenge writing about science for all kinds of audience but this was an amazingly clearly written book. It was a real slog to finish it due to the sheer volume of the book, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about life itself. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter and the diagrams and pictures are a treasure. I now look forward to reading his Pulitzer prize winning book on the biography of cancer.
Genre: Science, NonFiction
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: An incredibly well-written book with a comprehensive history on genetics.
This book was Genetics 101 for me. I knew very little about genes, heredity and genetic engineering before I picked up this book. The author takes us through the history of genes starting from Mendel and Darwin through Watson and finally right up to China announcing the first genetically modified human embryo. It was fascinating to read how much we have advanced in genetics in the last 40 years. It is a really well researched book and takes a good amount of refreshing of high school biology to absorb all the facts but it was a real page turner overall. Mukherjee also gets us thinking about the moral dilemmas we face today about genetic testing and gene therapy. I paused for a few minutes when I read about the perils that scientific advancements can and are causing today. It is quite a challenge writing about science for all kinds of audience but this was an amazingly clearly written book. It was a real slog to finish it due to the sheer volume of the book, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about life itself. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter and the diagrams and pictures are a treasure. I now look forward to reading his Pulitzer prize winning book on the biography of cancer.
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