The Gene: An Intimate History

As others have stated, the writing is both clear and elegant. Modern genetics is a hugely important topic, but the future of genetics technology is murky. Mukherjee deals nicely with the complexities although there are bound to be disagreements about his conclusions and musings. More to the point, understanding modern genetics is far from easy especially for those of us without the appropriate scientific background. Toward the end of the book when he discusses many of the modern technologies the going gets rough. However, I have a fairly good lay understanding of genetics, and have read many attempts to explain how all this works. It's just hard work. There were certainly places where I didn't completely follow although perhaps a second or third reading might have done the trick. At any rate this is by far the best introduction to modern genetics although something like Genetics for Dummies would make a nice companion for help in clarification. The latter is somewhat too simplified (and now dated), but it is useful for relatively non-technical explanations. The author nicely integrates discusses individual cases including those from his own family which makes for a more interesting reading. He also does a superb job of bringing the history to life by focusing on individual scientists and their contributions. It would have been fun to read more about the various personality conflicts and rivalries, but such gossip while interesting is hardly central to the story. The early part of the book dealing with early genetics through Watson and Crick is engaging, and in fact I could hardly put the book down during the first half when the technical issues are not so complicated. The latter half is certainly less of a page turner, but there's just no way to give a reasonable explanation in page-turning mode. This book is certainly too long and too detailed for the causal reader, but it's brilliant for those of us willing to invest some time. Even the parts I didn't fully understand were interesting if a bit opaque. Highly recommended so long as potential readers do not expect an easy go of it. The negative reviews are mostly about delivery failures and Kindle mishaps which are not relevant to the worth of the book. These are not issues likely to affect the majority of us and say nothing about the book itself. This is not the best place for complaining about such matters although, of course for some items consistent problems in manufacture and delivery are important to know. Not true here. And there are legitimate complaints about some material that might have been included but wasn't. However, the lack of such material is hardly reason to denigrate the whole book. I too missed material that I wish had been included, but the book is long and inevitable decisions must be made about what gets in and what doesn't. Missing material, which is not extensive in any case, is hardly reason to give the book really low ratings. It's important to have such lapses pointed out, but they have to be balanced against the many strengths of the book.

Dr. Mukherjee’s earlier book, The Emperor of All Maladies, a book on cancer, is on my list of all-time top ten books. His new book is also at or close to the same level: It is a six star book on a scale of one to five. Dr. Mukherjee writes beautifully and with extraordinary clarity on very difficult technical subjects, moving effortlessly from complex, detailed biochemical processes to enormous ethical issues affecting our very future as a species. This book is a masterful story of the history of genetics, starting from Mendel and Darwin right up to the latest gene modification processes; it is the clearest and most comprehensive account that I have read. But it is much more because Dr. Mukherjee introduces us to human dramas involving both researchers and patients. He also sets out the moral issues of our growing power to change the genomes not only of living people and embryos but also of descendants who have yet to be conceived. Woven through the book is the personal story of Dr. Mukherjee’s family, which has a history of schizophrenia. Two of Dr. Mukherjee’s uncles and one of his first cousins suffered the devastating effects of schizophrenia and he lives with the possibility that he, too, may someday be struck down and/or have passed the disruptive genes on to his children. This is not a lightweight book but I found it easy to read, thanks to the elegance of the writing, and totally gripping. As Dr. Mukherjee makes clear, we stand on the brink of a genetic future that has great promise and also great peril. This is an important book and deserves to be widely read.

Genetics is humanity and life writ large, and this book on the gene by physician and writer Siddhartha Mukherjee paints on a canvas as large as life itself. It deals with both the history of genetics and its applications in health and disease. It shows us that studying the gene not only holds the potential to transform the treatment of human disease and to feed the world’s burgeoning population, but promises to provide a window into life’s deepest secrets and into our very identity as human beings. The volume benefits from Mukherjee’s elegant literary style, novelist’s eye for character sketches and expansive feel for human history. While there is ample explanation of the science, the focus is really on the brilliant human beings who made it all possible. The author’s own troubling family history of mental illness serves as a backdrop and keeps on rearing its head like a looming, unresolved question. The story begins with a trip to an asylum to see his troubled cousin; two of his uncles have also suffered from various "unravelings of the mind". This burden of personal inheritance sets the stage for many of the questions about nature, nurture and destiny asked in the pages that follow. The book can roughly be divided into two parts. The first part is a sweeping and vivid history of genetics. The second half is a meditation on what studying the gene means for human biology and medicine. The account is more or less chronological and this approach naturally serves the historical portion well. Mukherjee does a commendable job shedding light on the signal historical achievements of the men and women who deciphered the secret of life. Kicking off from the Greeks’ nebulous but intriguing ideas on heredity, the book settles on the genetics pioneer Gregor Mendel. Mendel was an abbot in a little known town in Central Europe whose pioneering experiments on pea plants provided the first window into the gene and evolution. He discovered that discrete traits could be transmitted in statistically predictable ways from one generation to next. Darwin came tantalizingly close to discovering Mendel’s ideas (the two were contemporaries), but inheritance was one of the few things he got wrong. Instead, a triumvirate of scientists rediscovered Mendel’s work almost thirty years after his death and spread the word far and wide. Mendel’s work shows us that genius can emerge from the most unlikely quarters; one wonders how rapidly his work might have been disseminated had the Internet been around. The baton of the gene was next picked up by Francis Galton, Darwin’s cousin. Galton was the father of eugenics. Eugenics has now acquired a bad reputation, but Galton was a polymath who made important contributions to science by introducing statistics and measurements in the study of genetic differences. Many of the early eugenicists subscribed to the racial theories that were common in those days; many of them were well intended if patronizing, seeking to ‘improve the weak’, but they did not see the ominous slippery slope which they were on. Sadly their ideas fed into the unfortunate history of eugenics in America and Europe. Eugenics was enthusiastically supported in the United States; Mukherjee discusses the infamous Supreme Court case in which Oliver Wendell Holmes sanctioned the forced sterilization of an unfortunate woman named Carrie Buck by proclaiming, “Three generations of imbeciles are enough”. Another misuse of genetics was by Trofim Lysenko who tried to use Lamarck’s theories of acquired characteristics in doomed agricultural campaigns in Stalinist Russia; as an absurd example, he tried to “re educate” wheat using “shock therapy”. The horrific racial depredations of the Nazis which the narrative documents in some detail of course “put the ultimate mark of shame” on eugenics. The book then moves on to Thomas Hunt Morgan’s very important experiments on fruit flies. Morgan and his colleagues found a potent tool to study gene propagation in naturally occurring mutations. Mutations in specific genes (for instance ones causing changes in eye color) allowed them to track the flow of genetic material through several generations. Not only did they make the crucial discovery that genes lie on chromosomes, but they also discovered that genes could be inherited (and also segregated) in groups rather than by themselves. Mukherjee also has an eye for historical detail; for example, right at the time that Morgan was experimenting on flies, Russia was experimenting with a bloody revolution. This coincidence gives Mukherjee an opening to discuss hemophilia in the Russian royal family – a genetically inherited disease. A parallel discussion talks about the fusion of Darwin's and Mendel’s ideas by Ronald Fisher, Theodosius Dobzhansky and others into a modern theory of genetics supported by statistical reasoning in the 40s – what’s called the Modern Synthesis. Morgan and others’ work paved the way to recognizing that the gene is not just some abstract, ether-like ghost which transmits itself into the next generation but a material entity. That material entity was called DNA. The scientists most important for recognizing this fact were Frederick Griffiths and Oswald Avery and Mukherjee tells their story well; however I would have appreciated a fuller account of Friedrich Miescher who discovered DNA in pus bandages from soldiers. Griffiths showed that DNA can be responsible for converting non-virulent bacteria to virulent ones; Avery showed that it is a distinct molecule separate from protein (a lot of people believed that proteins with their functional significance were the hereditary material). All these events set the stage for the golden age of molecular biology, the deciphering of the structure of DNA by James Watson (to whom the quote in the title is attributed), Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and others. Many of these pioneers were inspired by a little book by physicist Erwin Schrodinger which argued that the gene could be understood using precise principles of physics and chemistry; his arguments turned biology into a reductionist science. Mukherjee’s account of this seminal discovery is crisp and vivid. He documents Franklin’s struggles and unfair treatment as well as Watson and Crick’s do-what-it-takes attitude to use all possible information to crack the DNA puzzle. As a woman in a man’s establishment Franklin was in turn patronized and sidelined, but unlike Watson and Crick she was averse to building models and applying the principles of chemistry to the problem, two traits that were key to the duo’s success. The structure of DNA of course inaugurated one of the most sparkling periods in the history of intellectual thought since it immediately suggested an exact mechanism for copying the hereditary material as well as a link between DNA and proteins which are the workhorses of life. The major thread following from DNA to protein was the cracking of the genetic code which specifies a correspondence between nucleotides on a gene and the amino acids of a protein: the guiding philosophers in this effort were Francis Crick and Sydney Brenner. A parallel thread follows the crucial work of the French biologists Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod - both of whom had fought in the French resistance during World War 2 - in establishing the mechanism of gene regulation. All these developments laid the foundation for our modern era of genetic engineering. The book devotes a great deal of space to this foundation and does so with verve and authority. It talks about early efforts to sequence the gene at Harvard and Cambridge and describes the founding of Genentech, the first company to exploit the new technology which pioneered many uses of genes for producing drugs and hormones: much of this important work was done with phages, viruses which infect bacteria. There is also an important foray into using genetics to understand embryology and human development, a topic with ponderous implications for our future. With the new technology also came new moral issues, as exemplified by the 1975 Asilomar conference which tried to hammer out agreements for the responsible use of genetic engineering. I am glad Mukherjee emphasizes these events, since their importance is only going to grow as genetic technology becomes more widespread and accessible. These early efforts exploded on to the stage when the Human Genome Project (HGP) was announced, and that’s where the first part of the book roughly ends. Beginning with the HGP, the second part mainly focuses on the medical history and implications of the gene. Mukherjee’s discussion of the HGP focuses mainly on the rivalries between the scientists and the competing efforts led by Francis Collins of the NIH and Craig Venter, the maverick scientist who broke off and started his own company. This discussion is somewhat brief but it culminates in the announcement of the map of the human genome at the White House in 2000. It is clear now that this “map” was no more than a listing of components; we still have to understand what the components mean. Part of that lake of ignorance was revealed by the discovery of so-called ‘epigenetic’ elements that modify not the basic sequence of DNA but the way it’s expressed. Epigenetics is an as yet ill-understood mix of gene and environment which the book describes in some detail. It’s worth noting that Mukherjee’s discussion of epigenetics has faced some criticism lately, especially based on his article on the topic in the New Yorker. The book then talks about early successes in correlating genes with illness that came with the advent of the human genome and epigenome; genetics has been very useful in finding determinants and drugs for diseases like sickle cell anemia, childhood leukemia, breast cancer and cystic fibrosis. Mukherjee especially has an excellent account of Nancy Wexler, the discoverer of the gene causing Huntington’s disease, whose search for its origins led her to families stricken with the malady in remote parts of Venezuela. While such diseases have clear genetic determinants, as Mukherjee expounds upon at length, genetic causes for diseases like cancer, diabetes and especially the mental illness which plagues members of the author’s family are woefully ill-understood, largely because they are multifactorial and suffer from weakly correlated markers. We have a long way to go before the majority of human diseases can be treated using gene-based treatment. In its latter half the book also describes attempts to link genes to homosexuality, race, IQ, temperament and gender identity. The basic verdict is that while there is undoubtedly a genetic component to all these factors, the complex interplay between genes and environment means that it’s very difficult currently to tease apart influences from the two. More research is clearly needed. The last part of the book focuses on some cutting edge research on genetics that’s uncovering both potent tools for precise gene engineering as well as deep insights into human evolution. A notable section of the book is devoted to the recent discovery that Neanderthals and humans most likely interbred. Transgenic organisms, stem cells and gene therapy also get a healthy review, and the author talks about successes and failures in these areas (an account of a gene therapy trial gone wrong is poignant and rattling) as well as ethical and political questions which they raise. Finally, a new technology called CRISPR which has taken the world of science by storm gets an honorary mention: by promising to edit and propagate genes with unprecedented precision - even in the germ line - CRISPR has resurrected all the angels and demons from the history of genetics. What we decide about technologies like CRISPR today will impact what our children do tomorrow. The clock is ticking. In a project as ambitious as this there are bound to be a few gaps. Some of the gaps left me a bit befuddled though. There are a few minor scientific infelicities: for instance Linus Pauling’s structure of DNA was not really flawed because of a lack of magnesium ions but mainly because it sported a form of the phosphate groups that wouldn’t exist at the marginally alkaline pH of the human body. The book’s treatment of the genetic code leaves out some key exciting moments, such as when a scientific bombshell from biochemist Marshall Nirenberg disrupted a major meeting in the former Soviet Union. I also kept wondering how any discussion of DNA’s history could omit the famous Meselson-Stahl experiment; this experiment which very elegantly illuminated the central feature of DNA replication has been called “the most beautiful experiment in biology”. Similarly I could see no mention of Barbara McClintock whose experiments on ‘jumping genes’ were critical in understanding how genes can be turned on and off. I was also surprised to find few details on a technique called PCR without which modern genetic research would be virtually impossible: both PCR and its inventor Kary Mullis have a colorful history that would have been worth including. Similarly, details of cutting-edge sequencing techniques which have outpaced Moore’s Law are also largely omitted. I understand that a 600 page history cannot include every single scientific detail, but some of these omissions seem to me to be too important to be left out. More broadly, there is no discussion of the pros and cons of using DNA to convict criminals: that would have made for a compelling human interest story. Nor is there much exploration of using gene sequences to illuminate the ‘tree of life’ which Darwin tantalizingly pulled the veil back on: in general I would have appreciated a bigger discussion of how DNA connects us to all living creatures. There are likewise no accounts of some of the fascinating applications of DNA in archaeological investigations. Finally, and this is not his fault, the author suffers from the natural disadvantage of not being able to interview many of the pioneers of molecular biology since they aren’t around any more (fortunately, Horace Freeland Judson’s superb “The Eighth Day of Creation” fills this gap: Judson got to interview almost every one of them for his book). This makes his account of science sound a bit more linear than the messy, human process that it is. The volume ends by contemplating some philosophical questions: What are the moral and societal implications of being able to engineer genomes even in the fetal stage? How do we control the evils to which genetic technology can be put? What is natural and what isn’t in the age of the artificial gene? How do we balance the relentless, almost inevitable pace of science with the human quest for responsible conduct, dignity and equality? Mukherjee leaves us with a picture of these questions as well as one of his family and their shared burden of mental illness: a mirage searching for realization, a sea of questions looking for a tiny boat filled with answers. Overall I found “The Gene: An Intimate History” to be beautifully written with a literary flair, and in spite of the omissions, the parts of genetic history and medicine which it does discuss are important and instructive. Its human stories are poignant, its lessons for the future pregnant with pitfalls and possibilities. Its sweeping profile of life’s innermost secrets could not help but remind me of a Japanese proverb quoted by physicist Richard Feynman: “To every man is given the key to the gates of heaven. The same key opens the gates of hell.” The gene is the ultimate key of this kind, and Mukherjee’s book explores its fine contours in all their glory and tragedy. We have a choice in deciding which of these contours we want to follow.

Interest in the power of the gene has heightened by the popularity of the numerous ancestry testing sites, like 23 & Me, which is the one I used to find out that I was 99% “Northwestern” European, which included Britain and Ireland (this would also include Scotland, which wasn’t a surprise) but the “Irish” ancestry was. The book provides a comprehensive history of the most intimate science of our time—the fundamentals of heredity. What better person to tell this story than the author of The Laws of Medicine and The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and was voted one of Time’s 100 best and most influential books since 1923. Mukherjee is a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Oxford, not to mention Harvard Medical School. The author has embarked on a most ambitious quest to understand human heredity’s influence on lives, personalities, identities, fates and the choices we make as individuals. Through the story, the author’s own family members were present, plagued by mental illness. The book is divided into two parts. A vivid history of the development of genetics and then a meditation of the study of what it means for biology and medicine (not to mention human identity). He also explores the challenges and dangers of genetic modification. For years, “experts” proposed that male homosexuality was caused by the distorted dynamics of a family, “by the fatal combination of a smothering mother who was often ‘close-binding’ and (sexually) intimate, if not overtly seductive, to her son and by a detached, distant father.” All of this changed in July of 1993 with the discovery of the so-called gay gene, which incited one of the most vigorous public discussions about genes, identity, and choice in the history of genetics. Just one of the surprises I came across in this eye-opening book. The author also explores the future of this new, quickly developing science with the following quote from Gina Smith, author of The Genomics Age, “Probably no DNA science is at once as hopeful, controversial, hyped, and even as potentially dangerous as the discipline known as gene therapy.” He goes on to say, “It would rebound from the ugliness of the initial trials and learn the moral lessons implicit in the “cautionary tale of scientific overreach.” Over the years, we can expect to see more headway on how genes can identify and prevent serious diseases. As I was writing this review, I listened to a story on Public Radio about a new test made possible through research at “T-Gen” (Translational Genomics Research Institute) here in Phoenix of a breakthrough that would decrease the test turn-around time for Valley Fever from 21 to only one day, which would accelerate the healing process. As far as my own 23 & Me test, I added Ireland to the countries I needed to visit, which is fairly straightforward. Not so for one of my close Guatemalan friends whose test indicated over 80% of his family comes from the Iberian Peninsula, which includes Spain. This was not a surprise, but the 20% of Indian influence (Mayan Indian, in this case)) was a surprise and opened up some interesting questions and speculation. Although over 50% of the population is Mayan Indian, they are still ignored and considered second-class citizens to a degree making this revelation an embarrassment to some. This book is possibly one of the greatest detective stories ever told. And Mukherjee tells a dramatic story that is sweeping and transcendent. A perfect read for anyone who wants to better understand and appreciate the considerable impact that genomics will have on our personal lives as well as new trends in health care.

My daughter wrote summary of this book. The “Missing Science of Heredity” is a chapter covering the oldest history of the gene - the discovery (and re-discovery) of genes. It may be split into two parts. The first part covers the theories that existed for heredity in the past (preformation), and the observations of the leading scientists at the time (Pythagoras, Aristotle, Mendel, Darwin, and others, progressively moving forward in time). It covers the issues with initial theories, and shows consequent theories, proved from correlation and evidence (pangenesis) and terms created at the time (composites, alleles, dominant, recessive, gemmules), and the eventual discovery of evolution. The second part of the chapter covers the more - well - unnatural - and human - history of the gene. After discovering natural selection, the idea was created that unnatural selection could be induced, eliminating more undesirable traits. Eugenics. It covers how the word gene was christened from pangene, and genotypes. The beginning of eugenics is covered in this part of the chapter, as well as racial purity and ‘cleansing’, of which two types are detailed. “In the Sum of the Parts, There Are Only the Parts” is a chapter covering how scientists connected environments and physical body parts to the abstract concept of the gene. Protein, form, function, genotypes, and phenotypes are slowly linked together by brilliant minds. From Dobzhansky to Watson and Crick, this chapter also elaborates on how these scientists, though brilliant, may not have been the best people. This chapter also shows how discrepancies, or ‘mistakes’ in the genome can cause dangerous diseases. To sum it up, it covers inheritance. It also covers eugenics, and the danger of falling onto the path of thinking you can fix the genome by editing it. It elaborates on the horrific experiences of concentration camps. It also covers how DNA and genes were discovered separately and only linked together later as two parts of the same whole. “The Dreams of Geneticists'' is a chapter covering the sequencing and cloning of genes. Genetic hybrids are covered in this chapter along with terms such as recombination, splicing, exons, and introns, while also including key scientists. Composition, decomposition, and cloning of genes are covered. In this chapter there’s also a captioned selection of pictures that are relevant to genes. “The Proper Study of Mankind Is Man” is a chapter covering deeper gene editing, and delving deeper into connections between diseases and genes from Parkinson’s disease to cystic fibrosis. It also gives information on how the human genome was finally sequenced, and the trouble in fragmented overlapping of the human genome. It shows the exact ways gene-caused diseases are caused hereditarily, and/or the mutations which cause them. After a brief skimming of neo-eugenics, the chapter also goes into how scientists and doctors have tried to cure these gene-caused diseases, both by preventing them before they happen and gene editing after they have happened. The chapter is completed with a subchapter: The Book of Man (in Twenty-Three Volumes). Through the Looking Glass is a chapter covering how genes affect identity - the effect of genes on sexuality and gender identity, and how environments also may or may not contribute to these. It also covers the issue of “race based intelligence”, and how stereotypes and standards are enforced leading to more issues, not because of genes. It covers how sex and gender identity may be tied to genes, or of course, may not be, ending with the a diagram of the phenotype-genotype cycle. Post-Genome is a chapter covering the future of genes and genomics. It covers current gene therapy and gene editing procedures and why it’s flawed, and that may be improved in the future. It covers crossovers between different species, and choosing ideal genes from each species. It also covers diseases caused by a single, relatively common mutation (breast cancer), multiple, untreatable mutations (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder), or a few extremely rare mutations and different and irreversible effects on people afflicted with them (previvors). When should these diseases be fixed? Positive eugenics is also discussed. Then the book discusses the differences between genetic emancipation - and genetic enhancement, and the questions which come about these two. It discusses the difference between editing a gene and editing the genome. The chapter shows the difference between phenotype and genotype, and how the two are inevitably linked, and it is impossible to have one without the other. It ends with a list of thirteen things to learn from the book in sum.

I read with great interest Siddhartha Mukherjee's recent book The Gene: An Intimate History. This work represents a masterful weaving together, intimately, of many different strands related to the gene. First and foremost is the technical strand. Here Mukherjee goes into detail, explaining in simple language many key concepts behind genes. What I most liked was the discussion of the Mitochondrial Eve and the dating of populations in terms of coalescent theory and the overview of apoptosis and master regulators and how the careful tracing of cell lineages gave rise to the unintuitive idea of cell death. I also liked the account of the development of positional cloning as just a mental lightning bolt relating to what random markers on the genome connect to. The next thread, of course, is the scientists themselves. Here we see them feuding and competing with each other. There is, of course, the famous tale of Watson and Crick versus Rosalind Franklin and how the former dynamic duo essentially stole the key concepts in "Photograph 51" from her. Then there are discussions of the rivalries of Morgan’s disciples, in particular Muller and Sturtevant, and the rivalry at the beginning of biotechnology between Boyer and Swanson in California versus Gilbert on the East Coast, racing to clone insulin and other genes. A third strand relates to the ethical and social implications of genetics. Unfortunately the field has had quite a checkered past with eugenics beginning almost as soon as genetics. The book describes how eugenics, in a sense, set the backdrop for Nazism and the horrors of the Second World War. What is interesting is the contrast of the Nazi focus on genetic determinism with the Soviet notion, backed by their scientist Lysenko, which is diametrically opposite, that an organism could be profoundly changed by its environment. The book then goes on to discuss how we are coming into a new era of eugenics, dubbed new-genics, based on positive choice, in terms of having the genetic offspring of one's choosing. The final strand of the book is in a sense the most intimate: the author often digresses on his own personal history in connection to genetics, discussing in particular his family battles with schizophrenia. It is sometimes hard to see how these anecdotes relate to the science, but they do add to readability. Overall the readability of this book is fantastic. On the one hand, it has lots of simple aphorisms that stick in one's head. One that comes to my mind most is how Mukherjee concisely characterized the key elements of 20th Century science as the byte, the atom and the gene, putting those three concepts together in a simple phrase. Another great illustration of the book’s readability is how the author contrasts the biochemist versus the geneticist, with the first focusing on concentrating something more and the second looking for informative differences to pick something out of the crowd. Overall I would highly recommend this book as it is a great way to soak up a lot of scientific knowledge while being exposed to other dimensions of genetics.

This book makes one think of biology in an introspective fashion. Its state of the art narrative compels the reader to view life with a little more awe that is induced by the current scientific understanding of what makes ‘Us’…‘Us’. The author connects the dots in a broad array of scientific subject matter that leaves the reader informed and in my opinion self improved. He accomplishes this in an enticing manner using several approaches that makes the science of genes blend with everyday life. Early on the author personalizes his account by using family anecdotes that bonds the reader to the subject matter about to be presented. Reader empathy develops as the author recounts his family history with its assorted ills. Most people can relate to intimate anecdotes about family problems. He uses historical perspective to put scientific enlightenment in context. Who gets credit for what is the human side of scientific achievement but all science is built on the previous insight and work of predecessors. His smooth narrative provides an enjoyable understanding of the building blocks of genetic science. As Johnson had his Boswell so to did Mendel have his Bateson. The reader finds himself musing as to how the father of genetics just missed the boat by not having his heritable pea traits named ‘mendelibles’. Instead we have ‘genes’. The author’s network of links between life’s social issues and life’s DNA are presented in such a seamless manner that no fair reader should take offence. The genetic role in various topics pertaining to intelligence, gender, race, disease, crime, abortion, and eugenics is discussed is such a clear and disarming manner that it tempers the hot button nature of these issues. His connection with the reader is solidified by his obvious attempt to be genuinely objective. It is noted with some disappointment that the topic of consciousness as it relates to the DNA code and human genome was scarcely mentioned. As the gold standard of human life this phenotype might have received a little more attention than a nod or two. As a salient feature of humanity, this ‘gorilla in the room’ should have been given a few more citations especially if it’s going to soon know that it’s a gorilla. This book leaves me with various impressions. With the genetic code of the human genome demystified, the scientific understanding of the actions of genes in monogenic illnesses has advanced by leaps and bounds. On the other hand, the scientific understanding of the combinatorial actions of genes that cause polygenic illnesses and traits is still in its embryonic stage. Environmental feedback mechanisms that can activate or deactivate genes add to the biological mystery. Gene editing techniques along with cutting edge research striving to change the genome of a human embryo contrasts profoundly with research that cautions about inferring the capabilities of human embryonic stem cells from mouse embryonic stem cells. An aura of scientific gambling develops that seems to be taking place on the knowledge tip of an iceberg. Under the water lies our ignorance. The author has a knack for incorporating literary references into his narrative to clue the reader as to what lies ahead in the subject material. Shakespearian references make several appearances but a pertinent tocsin may have been given by one that was missing. “…laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” was the omen believed by Macbeth. He met his demise at the hands of Mr. Macduff who proved to be Macbeth’s ultimate toxin. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants a current and perspicuous account of our past, present and future genetic nature.

First and foremost, this book is a tour de force of modern scientific prose writing. It's not quite on the literary level of, e.g., Cajal's memoirs, but it is strikingly more pleasant to read than any other contemporary public-oriented piece of scientific writing. The author masterfully combines a history of genetics, relevant personal anecdotes, and a seemingly unfathomable well of cultural and literary adjacencies into a literary product that stands far above its peers. Secondarily, the book is extraordinarily well researched, even compared, again, against contemporary scientific writing. While some of the subtler scientific points could be said to be presented in a misleading fashion, given the lack of theoretical granularity offered in what is a deliberately surface-level treatment, there are very few obvious mistakes or out-of-lane tricks of overconfidence, and what few there are can be put down to unconversance with quantum physics or trivial misattributions of apocrypha about infinite stacks of turtles. It really is a surprisingly tight piece of work. But...for its length and precision, it leaves VERY much to be desired by the expert reader. While one may be induced to recollect -- and in some cases, learn for the first time -- various names and dates in the long history of the development of the field of genetics, there is no actual science in this book of history that even rises to the level of a middle-school survey of the field. It is of course a deliberate choice of the author to present a history rather than a scientific primer, much less a theoretical review or in-depth scientific analysis, but the lack of *scientific* rigor in such a masterfully rigorous history was a bit disappointing to this reader. Generally, I would give a book with such little science as this a maximum of three stars. As it stands, I had trouble subtracting even one from the final score -- it really is that well written. Bravo, Dr Mukherjee.

Eye-opening, well written and thought provoking book

Muy buen libro, explica de forma sencilla pero concisa conceptos importantes sobre genética y biotecnología, además que la forma de llevar la historia lo hace de acuerdo a los eventos más relevantes y en orden cronológico sobre dichas áreas.

De schrijver, van oorsprong oncoloog, beschrijft zijn zoektocht naar de genetische informatie die van de chromosomen vanaf de moestuin in het klooster dat Mendel kan worden afgelezen. Met verbazing kijkt hij achterom en ziet de ongelooflijk secure wijze waarop de wetenschappers grip krijgen op de "zwarte materie"die zich in de celkern bevindt. Maar ook beschrijft hij de pseudowetenschappelijke eugenetica van het Duitse Rijk onder Hitler, die een voortzetting van de gedachtenexperimenten van o.a. Galton, de neef van Darwin bleken te zijn. Van de chromosomen en de genen dalen we af in de getordeerde wereld van het DNA en RNA met als bouwteen voor de informatie de vier welbekende aminozuren. Erfelijkheid is echter afhankelijk van de dubbel aanwezige genen en de genexpressie. De zoektocht naar de locatie van het gen voor homoseksualiteit (Mukherjee noemt alleen de mannelijke variant) is een schoolvoorbeeld van inductie vanuit de wereld van tweelingen. Harde conclusies zijn er niet. Fraai uitgewerkt is het epigenetische geheugen met het intron als essentieel onderdeel. De zoektocht naar gentherapie is aanvankelijk een onthutsende beschrijving van gedroomde resultaten op basis van onvoldoende geverifieerde inzichten. Het zal anders worden, wanneer het enzymmechanisme van het HIV-virus wordt gebruikt om de echte gentherapie te ontwikkelen. Dit alles is geschreven in prachtig Engels. Lezen, zou ik zeggen..

A very interesting introduction to the science behind genetics and genomics that reads like a thriller. Not a dry and uninteresting text book, but the sort of book you can't put down until the last page. Comprehensive and well written, with plenty of references to the original research documents quoted if you want to go deeper into the subject.

In recent years there have been many excellent popular science books in the fields of biology and medicine. Some are short, often interweaving personal histories, such as ‘Do No Harm’ by the brain surgeon Henry Marsh; others attempt to cover much wider fields, such as the author’s previous blockbuster, ‘The Emperor of all Maladies’, a biography of cancer. ‘The Gene – an intimate history’ is definitely of the latter variety, weighing in at close to 600 pages. The approach is historical, starting with the modern origins of the subject in the pioneering work of Darwin and Mendel and proceeding through the rise of eugenics and its advocate Galton, the solution to the structure of DNA, gene splicing and the many discoveries thereafter. The work of Galton and his many followers is the darker side of the history of genetics. They thought they could fundamentally change nature by pseudo-scientific programmes, such as the attempts in America to eradicate ‘defective strains’ by forced sterilization and other means, which continued in some countries well into the 1970s. The most perverted and horrific use of genetics took place in Nazi Germany. There the misguided views of eugenics were closely link to race and led directly to the mass murder of ‘racially undesirables’, as well as the physically and mentally handicapped, in the mistaken belief that this would lead to a superior race. Conventional eugenics is now totally discredited, and in the West genetic experiments are subject to strict controls. Neverthess, it is legal to screen embryos for serious genetic conditions before implanting them in the wombs of women undergoing IVF treatment, and in some countries with weak supervision, experiments are being done to find methods of eradicating genes which have been linked to other diseases. While this may be laudable, what is next? Perhaps eradicating the genes for unsightly large noses? At what point would these procedures be ‘enhancement’ and eugenics by another name. Are we on the verge of ‘designer babies’? These ethical questions are re-examined throughout the book and become more focussed as technical improvements in genetics research presses steadily forward. The author has a particular interest in this because he comes from a family that has a history of serious mental illness, although I found his digressions about this a little distracting and added little to the story. As research has moved forward, the realization has emerged that genes are far more complex than previously thought and it is very rare for a single gene to be the sole ‘culprit’ for a particular disease. More often multiple genes are involved, working through complex interactions that are far from being totally understood, and moreover are also influenced by external factors, so that the final outcome is very difficult to predict. The role of these external influences is embedded in the relatively recent discovery of so-called ‘epigenes’, which appear to imply that genes may be responsive to environmental factors, raising yet again the old questions of eugenics, with its far-reaching ethical and social implications. Potential readers such as myself who read ‘The Emperor of all Maladies’ are faced with a daunting prospect, because like that book this one is not only long, but also contains much technical information about genetics. Don’t let this deter you. You may not fully follow all the scientific details (I certainly did not) but the writing is so beautifully clear that at the end of ‘difficult’ sections you will still have a good overview of the problems that the field has faced, or is still facing, and the arguments for and against different positions on important topics such as gene therapy. It is a book definitely well worth the effort of reading.