Declare Books To Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
| Original Title: | Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters |
| ISBN: | 0060894083 (ISBN13: 9780060894085) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2000) |
Matt Ridley
Paperback | Pages: 344 pages Rating: 4.04 | 22875 Users | 933 Reviews
Representaion As Books Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
I wish I could give this book 6 stars! It's really fantastic, and I want to recommend it to EVERYONE, but in my heart I know the tone would bore some of my friends... I suggest thinking of the author/narrator as a cool guy you'd be friends with telling you all this information, instead of a nerdy/haughty *scientist* ...He's not a scientist, he's a writer & former editor, & this isn't a textbook, but it could be--he's done his research & includes all his references. Just slightly out-of-date (published in 1999) since genetics is such a fast-progressing area of knowledge but overall not "dated" or off-base.As for the content, WOW! Changed the way I think about evolution & heredity (duh), human biology, history, & psychology, disease, medicine, food, sexuality, instinct, intelligence, personality, behavior, EVERYTHING. Eye-opening in a way that encourages wonder rather than only prescribing answers.
If you can't stomach the whole book, browse the Table of Contents &/or the Index & pick out a chapter or two--they're fairly self-contained so you can get away with skipping around, and I guarantee you will learn something cool.
Define Containing Books Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
| Title | : | Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters |
| Author | : | Matt Ridley |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 344 pages |
| Published | : | May 30th 2006 by Harper Perennial (first published May 30th 1999) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Biology. Genetics. Evolution |
Rating Containing Books Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
Ratings: 4.04 From 22875 Users | 933 ReviewsWrite Up Containing Books Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
I'll fail to review this book if I thought about it as a single book. Genome feels like many books written in a specific order; many excellent book that is. Genome speaks of Health, Disease, Sex, Power, Philosophy, Politics, Geology, Literature, Language, History, Evolution, Science, People, & everything linking them together. That last statement might seem as overselling the book, & if it was me, I wouldn't buy that statement if I saw it in a review. However, it came as a surprise forRidley takes on a number of controversial topics. These include the genomes influence on intelligence, sexual orientation, personality and free will; genetically modified foods, eugenics and testing for incurable diseases. He explains how genes function, their structure, and how they shape our bodies and minds. The book was written in 1999 so some of it may be dated. Below are my notes.Genes are turned on and off throughout our life often dependent on environmental factors. Some genes code for
I finally, finally finished this book. Man, isn't this a phenomenal literature! Under the cover of biology, the book is really about humans on a philosophical level - the interesting balance between social determinism and biological determinism, the philosophical debate on if human have free will, and also who defined "self" - the genes, the brain, the mind, the body, or us? It triggers a waterfall of questions related to religion (belief systems) and buddhist ideologies - what is us? What is
Genome is somewhat out of date by now, published back in 1999. Bearing that in mind, it was a pretty good read; sometimes, the themes Ridley chose for a particular chapter werent all that closely tied to the chromosome he chose, and issues like that, but thats the problem with our chromosomes. The information isnt distributed neatly across our chromosomes: in fact, those of us with a Y chromosome have one that does almost nothing overall, despite the fact that it affects carriers phenotypes so
I really enjoyed this book. I would say it is so far the best book I have read this year and a great introduction to genetics. Quite a lot of the stuff in this book has been covered in other books I have read, most notably by Richard Dawkins, however the writing was fresh and I learned a hell of a lot of stuff throughout this book. For example, did you know that the placenta is actually a parasite, the result of male antagonistic genes battling the female's X chromosomes by redirecting more
Fascinating, but dated now. I need to look for more recent books on the subject.
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