Genome

Rating:
Summary: Hard to beat
Review: I've spent my life trying to make science comprehensible to kids. There's a delicate balance between exactness and understandability and there's no easy formula that works for everybody. For me, this book puts together in one place, in a very readable form, recent advances in a field that, I believe, will dominate medical research for many years to come. Anyone interested in the evolution of life will also find a lode here. Maybe not for everyone, but for the interested layman that may sometimes have to read slowly (I did) it's a neat package, Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Twenty-two Plus X+Y
Review: "Genome" is a not a book for everyone. It is a book forwell-educated readers-doctors, nurses, professors, researchtechnicians, lawyers and writers. Laymen with an interest incontemporary biology will find this book challenging and satisfying.Doctors, geneticists and other biologists will appreciate the breadthof the book's scope. Specialists, especially department chairs andprofessors, i.e., those of us who spend all our time deliveringlectures and counseling medical students, appreciate the overview ofcontemporary biology. Only writers (whose editors do the work),technician-rich research scientists and deans with their executivelounge, overstuffed couch and coffee service can examine such thingsas they appear in the primary journals. I know, E.T., how much youappreciate a little humor. (Try to believe it. My Dean's initialsreally are E.T.)

It has been alleged that Ridley's "Genome" isa book of twenty-two plus one chapters, each chapter featuring a humanchromosome and representative gene. Not true, at least not exactly.More precisely and according to the author's first-personpreface:

"I wrote down twenty-three chromosomes and next toeach I began to list themes of human nature . . . There were frequentfrustrations when I could not find a suitable gene, or when I foundthe ideal gene and it was on the wrong chromosome."

Clearly,"Genome" is a collection of Ridley themes clustered within amembrane-bound nucleus, cloning out new science writers whiledistributing bibliographic information using messengers.

Indeed,the book features twenty-two numbered chapters (and one called X andY). Most chapters refer to a chromosome and one of its genes. Moreimportantly, each chapter is a titled essay- "Life","Species", "Intelligence", "Stress", "Sex","Personality", "Memory", "Free Will" . . ..Interestingly, the X and Y chapter is entitled "Conflict", whileChapter (Chromosome) 15 is called "Sex".

Given these titles,each chapter becomes the kind of essay one would expect of a writerwith Matt Ridley's reputation. For example, "Life" (aka:Chromosome 1) is a discussion of the nature and origin of life. Thefeatured gene is the deoxyribonucleotide sequence encoding 5S RNA(part of the protein-making cellular particle called a ribosome).Much of the pondering in Chapter 1 is on the suggestion that life andDNA evolved from an RNA gene.

"Fate" (Chromosome 4) is anintroduction to a problem characteristic of (but not unique to) DNAscience and human genetics. Beginning with a chromosome 4 mutationthat codes for the defective protein of Huntington's disease, Ridleyintroduces a theme (the problems of diagnosing untreatable, fatalconditions) that develops into discussions of genetic propensities andcivil liberties and extends to genetic testing, mortgage and insuranceeligibility and more. I remember when the same questions were askedabout a developing a test for HIV infection. .... In "Sex" (Chromosome 15), Ridleydescribes "imprinted" genes, i.e., genes that functiondifferently when they are inherited from ma than when they areinherited from pa. (Sorry, Fr. Mendel.) What are imprinted genes andwhy are they there? They are <wink> genes with"undemethylatable" C's. This reviewer will not tamper withRidley's discussion of the usefulness a gene able to represent itsgender.

"Death" (Chromosome 17) is the drama of genes andcancer. The simple plot is regulation of cell reproduction.Characters include (a) apoptosis (also called "cellularsuicide") regulated by genes like ced-9 (b) oncogenes (e.g., thewell-known cellular growth promoter called src) and (c) tumorsuppressor genes (e.g., Chromosome 17's TP53). Simply stated,oncogenes are necessary for fetal development, growth and cellularrepair, but mal-regulated oncogenes cause cancer. Normallyfunctioning TP53 either over-rides oncogenes or activates apoptosis.Cells with mutations in any of these genes and cells with certainvirus infections cause cancer. Studies of such genes and theirproducts are blurring the lines between research in embryology, cancerand injury repair.

Ridley's grade: A- (I thought about a B+, but Iwould hate to risk discouraging talent.)

Aside to Mr. Ridley:Clear up that business with Chromosome 9 and we can talk about anA+.

Reader's assignment: Read the book and enjoy it. There is nodeadline, and no test or grade will be given.

Rating:
Summary: Scientific excursion of a 'novel' style
Review: Through its fusion of diverse fields of science, narrative strength, depth of research, historical and current discovery this book is a compelling excursion. The author sits above the genome as a surgeon, dissecting it in a novelist style around such fascinating subjects as fate, instinct, personality and immortality. The book provides enough consistency and focus across its journey to read like a novel, yet still offers glimpses of the vast depth of each scientific field. These include the obvious (genetic engineering, evolutionary bilology and immunology) the bizarre (psycholinguistics, evolutionary psychology and paleontology). In many ways Genome reminds me of some of my favorite novels by Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie in its ability to fascinate and stimulate simultaneously. Great fun for the multi-disciplinarian.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant, great stuff, popular science at its best!
Review: Easy to read, fascinating, a must ! It conveys the feeling of "work in progress" in the field of human genomics.

Rating:
Summary: Errors and errors
Review: The title is clever but incorrect. There are 24 human chromosomes. The double helix on the cover has the incorrect orientation. This gives an idea of the number of additional errors in this book. Clever but wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Do you want to understand a bit about the Human Genome?
Review: A simple review suits this book best. Aside from genomic professionals, we all likely need to understand more about what the mapping of (and understanding of) the human genome really means. In an entertaining, and understandable, way Matt Ridley offers GENOME as a way to allow you to understand the topic and its possible implications. They key to the book is the fact that much of what Ridley explains in the book about the implications of the mapping collectively are ONE OF THE BIGGEST EYE OPENERS that you can imagine. Likely nothing else in the world, in the next 100 years, will affect you and your children more than the knowledge that is coming from the mapping of the human genome.

Rating:
Summary: Self-discovery? This is a must read.
Review: I came to this book hoping to leave it with a better understanding of who I am, why I act the way I do and with a firmer foundation to view the changes I see around me regarding the subject of genetics. I was not disappointed in any aspect. Matt Ridley demonstrated that he has a strong understanding of the subject by simply and eloquently linking the new realm of genetic understating with the age-old concept of self.

He explains that we are bound to our genetics but are still in most cases able to exceed if not define our potential. I really enjoyed how he explained that the genome is a map of or migration, susceptibility and tradition as species. He dealt with the subjects of eugenics, intellect, free will and disease with a refreshingly unbiased point of view. Though he did expose his point of view excessively in other areas at times.

Great read.

Rating:
Summary: A mistake on the front page.
Review: This is an informative, interesting book for the layman. Indeed, it should be useful for many. However, there is an error on the first page that is propagated throughout the structure of the book. Indeed, there are 24 different human chromosomes. NOT 23. There are 23 pairs in the diploid human. But, there is a X and a Y. Thus, 24.

Rating:
Summary: Genome: A marvelous trip
Review: It is a fundamental book: clear, updated and, moreover, Matt Ridley is a mature writer, capable of make understable very difficult matters. He is well informed not only in biology but in history, social sciences and has a profound insight. It is a very commendable book for the sociologist (like me)and all the people that wants to know the real problems of our human specie.

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunate disappointment
Review: I was eager to read this book -- and the marketing led me to expect a "Stephen Jay Gould-like" collection of essays. Instead, we get a pompous Brit with didactic views of "nature vs. nurture," offensive views describing homosexuals as lacking "masculine" traits, and an eagerness to include himself in the royal "we" of biological researchers.

I found this book to include too much jargon and an attempt to explain too much science, reducing several principles to pure mush. The book treads in an uncomfortable middle ground of being too scientific to be accessible to the lay reader yet not nearly scientific enough to be useful to someone steeped in biotechnology.

The timing of the book is great. And the somewhat-gimmicky essay structure is a clever conceit on human chromosomes. But the voice of the author is annoying. And the final five chapters in particular attempt to create broad palette conclusions that are unsupported by the preceding text. Ultimately, a mildly entertaining diversion.

<< 1 .. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 .. 16 >>