A review by thisotherbookaccount
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
It pains me to give up on this book. Mukherjee's first book, The Emperor of All Maladies, was a revelation to me; an insightful and eye-opening look at the history of cancer and the advancements we have made to cure it. It was written and constructed almost like a thriller, with cancer as the serial killer and the scientists being the detectives. The Gene, on the other hand, is a slow exploration of how it was discovered and the many ways it can be manipulated, recombined and clones -- in many ways, it is about how far we have come and where we can go in the future.
In short, it's a slog, and it reads like a textbook. If you are into biochemistry, I believe there is no better resource to learn about genes. This is as good as it gets, with every page packed with information. On the other hand, because most of the chapters feature scientists working on problems in their labs, its difficult to gain a wider perspective. That is, do these revelations have real world impacts? It does touch on these topics, sure, but it is a little too late.
I was particularly interested in the eugenics section of the book, as well as how early philosophers theorised about the nature of hereditary. Beyond that, though, this book is a well written encyclopedia. And encyclopedias are not fun to read.
In short, it's a slog, and it reads like a textbook. If you are into biochemistry, I believe there is no better resource to learn about genes. This is as good as it gets, with every page packed with information. On the other hand, because most of the chapters feature scientists working on problems in their labs, its difficult to gain a wider perspective. That is, do these revelations have real world impacts? It does touch on these topics, sure, but it is a little too late.
I was particularly interested in the eugenics section of the book, as well as how early philosophers theorised about the nature of hereditary. Beyond that, though, this book is a well written encyclopedia. And encyclopedias are not fun to read.