Rating: 
Summary: Quite a find
Review: Seeing genetic-related stories constantly cropping up in the news, my curiosity was sparked and had to be sated. I'm not sure why I chose this book, but I'm certainly glad that I did. Not only does this book provide the reader with more than a surface view of the science, it offers a history of the players (what characters!) and classic anecdotes (flies sometimes learn better if you cut their heads off). Most interestingly though, it provides a glimpse of what may be to come. Cloning? Big deal, what about curing genetic flaws, creating designer children, etc. Its a brave new world, and this book shows you why. The best thing that I can say about this book is that it makes you feel as though you know what is going on behind what seemed to be closed doors. And it is very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible.
Review: The most beautiful and inspiring nonfiction I've read. I intern in a molecular biology lab, so the science wasn't new to me. The story, however, was breathtaking. I've recommended this to many people--the same goes to you, Amazon reader!
Rating: 
Summary: Wiener's writing is so overrated...
Review: The topic is fascinating. The book is mediocre. A sad mix. Wiener can't just write about the topic at hand, he has to dress it up with his oh-so-impressive cross-disciplinary knowledge -- poetry, history, cute phrases. I couldn't even finish "Beak of the Finch" because of Wiener's meanderings. I gave the book to the library rather than keep it on my bookshelf. Finally I got "Time, Love, Memory" out of the library -- in Hawaii, I'm only the second person to have checked out. I love Benzer's work. But this is the last Wiener I'll waste time on. If you love the topic, read "The Eighth Day of Creation" and anything by Watson or Crick or Luria. Or go right back and read Shroedinger's "What Is Life". But don't learn about the field from this arrogant twaddle.
Rating:
Summary: The story behind the headlines
Review: There is so much about genes in the news these days, especially how they affect our behavior, our personality, etc. A lot of the headlines are overblown--"popularizations" of the science. If you want to really know the connection between genes and behavior--and the remarkable scientists who are figuring it out, read Time, Love, Memory. It explains it all so simply and clearly that you can actually explain it to others (a feat for me since I did not take any science courses beyond the requirements Freshman year of college!). Plus Mr. Weiner is obviously an incredibly well-read person because he pulls in all kinds of things from literature, poetry, and myth. These references illuminate the science, bringing it home, so to speak, so that you can really draw the parallels between flies and human beings, between science and literature. I loved The Beak of the Finch and I adore this book. Time, Love, Memory just won the National Book Critics Circle Award, I understand. It deserved it, and it deserves to be read--and enjoyed--by all. Bravo! I can't wait for the next one by this talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: The story behind the headlines
Review: There is so much about genes in the news these days, especially how they affect our behavior, our personality, etc. A lot of the headlines are overblown--"popularizations" of the science. If you want to really know the connection between genes and behavior--and the remarkable scientists who are figuring it out, read Time, Love, Memory. It explains it all so simply and clearly that you can actually explain it to others (a feat for me since I did not take any science courses beyond the requirements Freshman year of college!). Plus Mr. Weiner is obviously an incredibly well-read person because he pulls in all kinds of things from literature, poetry, and myth. These references illuminate the science, bringing it home, so to speak, so that you can really draw the parallels between flies and human beings, between science and literature. I loved The Beak of the Finch and I adore this book. Time, Love, Memory just won the National Book Critics Circle Award, I understand. It deserved it, and it deserves to be read--and enjoyed--by all. Bravo! I can't wait for the next one by this talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've read all year.
Review: This book is a work of art. It has everything! It is not just a great book about an unsung hero in science. It is a suspenseful story (will they or won't they discover the genes for time, love, and memory?), a touching story (Seymour Benzer is a character--a real character that is--you will remember forever), and an important story (all the headlines of a gene for this kind of behavior, a gene for that kind of behavior: This is the real story, the science behind the headlines). You might not think a serious book about science is a good summer book, but it is! Take it to the beach, the mountains, wherever you go--or read it at home. You will not be sorry. Your life will be greatly enriched. I loved The Beak of the Finch (which won the Pulitzer). I love this book even more.
Rating:
Summary: GOOD BYE TO JOHN DONNE AND ALL THAT?
Review: This book is an astonishingly graceful blending of the history of fruit fly genetics and molecular biology, biography, anecdotes, and quotations. However, I was brought up short by one passage in it, on page 244 -
"It is already possible - in fertility clinics it is done every day - to screen the DNA of a set of eight embryos at the eight-cell stage and let the parents pick the one they want to implant in the mother's womb. The more genes there are to screen and the better these gene complexes are understood, the more wealthy parents will select not only the healthiest but also the best and brightest embryo they can, designing the genes of their children....(O)ver the next few centuries whether governments legislate for or against it(,...t)he rich will pick and choose the genes of their children, the poor will not. The gap between rich and poor may widen so far in the third millennium that before the end of it there will not only be two classes of human beings but two species, or a whole Galapagos of different human species. These human species could be prevented from interbreeding by the genetic engineering of chemical incompatibility, so that the egg of one would reject the sperm of the other."
I can't help questioning Weiner's prediction that wealth will rule "over the next few centuries, whether governments legislate for or against it."
Toward the end of Marlon Brando's autobiography, Songs My Mother Taught Me, that wise and wonderful man summed up his life's learning as attaining a visceral understanding of how much mankind is driven by group instincts, and how much every group requires outsiders to feel superior to. In the paragraph in Time, Love, Memory following the one quoted from above, Weiner quotes E.O. Wilson saying, "Soon we must look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become....What lifts this question beyond mere futurism is that it reveals so clearly our ignorance of the meaning of human existence in the first place." At least, we know John Donne's answer to Professor Wilson's question.
Hopefully, there are Drosophilists looking for the genes whose sequences determine the proteins for the animal behaviors Brando referred to as "group instincts," and under what conditions their outsider-requiring aspects may be turned off, in order to ameliorate the dystopia of wealth-created castes to which we already belong as well as to prevent the potential dystopia of wealth-created species to which Weiner alludes. I'd call these our "Group-or-Gandhi" sequences, and as fine as this book is, I would have welcomed something in it about Drosophilists' thoughts about them.
Rating: 
Summary: Finding out about the fruit fly, and us
Review: This is a well written exploration of the role the fruit fly has played in the development of our understanding of the effect of genes on behavior. Weiner humanizes the search by interspersing personal stories of the researchers of the time with the discoveries they make.Who would have thought that we share a sequence of amino acids with a fruit fly--a sequence that is involved in setting circadian rhythms? Who would have thought that by changing just one nucleotide (in the right place) you can convert a fruit fly from one species to another? Who would have thought that one way to figure out what DNA sequences do in people is to see if they match sequences in fruit flies, or mice? Written in clear, lively prose, this book is a great introduction to genetic research.
Rating:
Summary: Finding out about the fruit fly, and us
Review: This is a well written exploration of the role the fruit fly has played in the development of our understanding of the effect of genes on behavior. Weiner humanizes the search by interspersing personal stories of the researchers of the time with the discoveries they make. Who would have thought that we share a sequence of amino acids with a fruit fly--a sequence that is involved in setting circadian rhythms? Who would have thought that by changing just one nucleotide (in the right place) you can convert a fruit fly from one species to another? Who would have thought that one way to figure out what DNA sequences do in people is to see if they match sequences in fruit flies, or mice? Written in clear, lively prose, this book is a great introduction to genetic research.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent subject for scientific biography.
Review: This is an informative and enlightening account of the life and work of "A great biologist". The subject matter is well worth bringing to general attention. My only complaint is that it is overwritten. Benzer appears an unassuming and imaginative scientist who was indeed doing work that was ahead of its time. Ideally, the tone of the book should have reflected this. To my taste, there is a little too much analogy, a little too much namedropping and a little too much hype. The book could be shortened significantly by cutting down on these aspects. Nevertheless, thank you Jonathan for bringing this man and his work into public view.
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