Reviews
The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA by Zander Cannon, Mark Schultz, Kevin Cannon
erlend's review
4.0
This book is great way for a non-scientist to refresh some long-forgotten knowledge from high school biology, as well as acquiring some new insight. As a bonus, by framing this introduction to genetics and DNA within a story about extra-terrestrials researching terrestrial biology, the reader is asked to view our biosphere from a new perspective.
disabledreamer's review against another edition
4.0
This is another great book giving a very deep and detailed understanding of genetics. The illustrations make this book fun and easy to understand a very complex subject. I highly recommend this book to anyone .
pollyno9's review
5.0
This book is NOT a *fun* read, but it is chock full of good, understandable information about genetics. I would very much recommend this book to anyone taking biology in high school who wants a more visual description.
debz57a52's review
I am not a science brain at all, but I thought a graphic representation of genetics might be good for me. It started easy enough, with the story that aliens from another planet have an inheritable disorder that is causing problems for the leading family. A representative from the alien planet has been studying earth and humans in particular and has learned about genetics through them. The first chapter was heavy into discussion of proteins and the building of genes and such, which kind of lost me since I don't have a lot of experience with those terms and concepts. the second chapter was a little more approachable, but my brain just wasn't in it. As I flipped through the rest of the book, it looked like they would touch more on the pioneers of genetic theories, family trees and heredity, and get into traits, diseases, and disorders. I was just done though. The illustrations were clear and complemented the text well. It's a good offering, but it's not for me.
claudiaswisher's review against another edition
2.0
Blech -- I tried!! I suspended my disbelief as a sea-cucumber-type alien reported back to his superiors about his research project on Earth...I tried to follow his oh-so-clever descriptions using proper scientific terms... I patiently waited for the narratives about the scientists in the field of genetics and DNA research...I was almost there. And then, in two frames the author lost me: "There are still some finishing touches that need to be attended to. Those RNA primer nucleotides that got replication started must be removed by the DNA polymerase and replaced with actual DNA nucleotides having the appropriate bases...and then all the fragmented sections of the new DNA molecule -- each started at its own origin -- must be joined together by the enzyme ligase, lining phosphates to sugars with their powerful bond." Huh? Even typing it here I couldn't translate it.
Clever idea...clever illustrations. NOW I'll have a science teacher read it to see if students can comprehend this when I couldn't. I won't be at all offended if they can.
Put a fork in me!
Clever idea...clever illustrations. NOW I'll have a science teacher read it to see if students can comprehend this when I couldn't. I won't be at all offended if they can.
Put a fork in me!
rgombert's review
4.0
A good book. This presents a lot of good information on Human Genetics.
Some I knew, some I have forgotten and some new information that I did not know. However it is already somewhat dated. This book was done before some Neanderthal DNA had been sequenced.
But they did a good job in covering the ongoing research at the time.
Recommended\.
Some I knew, some I have forgotten and some new information that I did not know. However it is already somewhat dated. This book was done before some Neanderthal DNA had been sequenced.
But they did a good job in covering the ongoing research at the time.
Recommended\.
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