Genome

Rating:
Summary: Ain't nothin' like the real thing
Review: The study of the genome compares with, though greatly exceeds, one of the greatest technological advancements of in human history, one which took us from the age of faith to the age of reason: the microscope. Why, you might ask? Because it allowed man to come to grips with and understand the germ theory of disease. The notion that one contracted illness from some sort of heresy was pushed aside by the scientifically induced realism that illness is caused by microbes, bad ones, that endangered the health of the human body; sometimes fatally. This helped to change the balance of political power just as surely as the crossbow, the stirrup or the trireme. Suffice it to say it was a "big deal".

Matt Ridley has written a terrific book within which he avers that we, today, are living through the greatest intellectual moment in the history of man. Until now, he says, human genes have been almost a complete mystery. However, because of the human genome project we will be the first humans to penetrate that mystery, which will in turn give us great new answers along with even greater new questions. We will be the first generation since "the beginning" - 4 billion years ago (?) - to read this book that is the genome, a book which will tell us more about our origins, our evolution, our nature and our minds than all the other efforts of science to date.

We've now discovered that the complete set of human genes (the human genome) can be found in our chromosomes, 23 separate pairs of them. These genes, an arbitrary collection of genes on the chromosomes inside the cell nuclei, are each composed of DNA which hold the information (the recipe for life) to create proteins which will determine how we as an organism look, behave, fight infection, metabolise food, and do virtually everything else.

This book tells the story of the human genome by picking a gene from each chromosome as a way to chronicle the story of our lives. By constructing the book in this manner, the author represents the basic themes of human nature thru genetics. Thus, the genome is an autobiography of our species, recording the most important events in our history as they've occurred.

There are 100 trillion cells in the body. In each cell you have a set of chromosomes composed of genes, which make up a genome pair or set, one from mom and one from dad. There are probably 60,000-80,000 genes in our human genome of which the great majority are merely tedious biochemical middle managers. All of these genes have not been found, but their story continues to unfold almost daily. Each of the 23 chromosomes making up the 23 chapters of our story, include several thousand stories called genes. Each gene has paragraphs (exons), advertisements (introns), words (codons) and letters (bases). Genomes are like a book, but they don't all read just left to right, they sometimes read both ways. While books are written in words of varying lengths genomes are written in 3 letter words which always use the same 4 letters. These letters are written in long chains of sugar and phosphate called DNA molecules to which the letters (called bases) are attached.

Each chromosome is one pair of very long DNA molecules. Through a process of the DNA being transmitted by RNA to produce proteins, which have themselves been formed by amino acids, we begin to see how the proteins switch genes on and off. When genes are replicated mistakes are sometimes made, usually referred to as mutations. Human beings accumulate about 100 mutations per generation and if they occur in the wrong place they can be fatal. This is an oversimplification and there are many exceptions to these rules, so you'll just have to read the book for the details. Believe me it's worth it!

For each of the 23 chromosomes Ridley explores the following human instincts, traits and abilities: ...life, species, history, fate, environment, intelligence, instinct, conflict, self-interest, disease, stress, personality, self-assembly, pre-history, immortality, sex, memory, death, cures, prevention, politics, eugenics and free will. Within these discussions you'll find more cocktail party ammunition than you'll ever need to know. Plus, it will open up a whole new world of understanding of "the whys and wherefores" of human nature.

Ridley has done us all a service by reducing a complex subject, one with a mind numbing array of details, to an understandable easy to grasp format. It will leave the more intellectually inclined of us gasping for more. Don't miss it!

Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: Matt Ridley presents some of the recent findings of molecular biologists in a language that we can all understand. There are approximately 23 chapters, and an Introduction. Each chapter focuses on a particular chromosome and a set of genes on that chromosome. This fancy organization is arbitrary and loose. Biochemistry of the human genome is so complicated that actual chromosomes aren't so tidily organized. This is reflected in the chapters with numerous references to other genes in other chromosomes.

The first few chapters explains with some beautiful analogies what the genome is in terms of its biochemistry. Ridley gives some very nice historical accounts of relevant topics: the major contributors to genetic knowledge, the history of eugenics, and the history of intelligence testing. He also has a wonderful chapters on the origins of DNA, and the origin of man.

Later chapters are more pertinent to the human genome itself. Here are some of the recent findings that may have not made the 'news' sections of your favorite science magazine:

-Body cells 'know' which copy of a gene came from which parent (imprinting)
-There are genes in our body whose only existence is to be copied.
-X and Y chromosomes can be described as battling each other with collateral damages. Sufficiently evolved male fruit flies have spermicidal fluid potent enough to kill a female fruit fly.

This isn't all. Ridley's main theme is to present fair picture of the nature versus nurture or genetic determinism versus free will debate in some various areas. He also presents their history, and facts found in other species. Here are some:

-Asthma and environmental pollution
-Intelligence 'genes'
-Personality 'genes'
-Longevity

Ridley takes careful pains to present genetics beyond 'billiard physics'. We have a temptation to think that this gene X causes this effect X. It simplifies understanding, but can be quite erroneous. I often wonder if I can grasp what the genome means to me, in the everyday. There is a long way between knowing that a sequence of amino acids affects personality, and why I go to work every morning. Scientists being buried in technical minutiae may be the worse at 'reaching out' and finding meaning in the everyday. After reading this book, I still don't think I understand what the genome means, but I'm not so worried about it as much. It turns out that things are just very complicated and need time to understand. Ridley does a fine job at illustrating some of these complexities.

Let's take intelligence. It turns out there is a variant of a gene encoded on chromosome 6 found in the top 1 percent of the smart kids in America. What does that mean? It's not simple. Surveys show that roughly half our intelligence is determined by environment. And of that, our womb environment is 3 times higher than any other environmental factor. So nurture plays a big role, but 'womb-nature' is determined. The other half of intelligence is accounted for by genes.

Where this book may go wrong is Ridley over enthusiasm to point out the hazards of genetic determinism, and of social determinism, before he completely makes his case. For instance, the chapter of personality (to paraphrase badly): [So there may be hundreds of genes that influence personality. So one gene, one out come is bad thinking.] Of course, many genes, one out come is still the same thing. All is not lost. Ridley presents his case completely by giving the social factors that determine personality in the next paragraph.

For the consummate reader, you may want to read the following articles to supplement your knowledge:

-The Importance of Context in Genetics by H. Frederik Nijhou, American Scientist Sep-Oct 2003
-The Unseen Genome: Gems among the Junk by W. Wayt Gibbs, Scientific American November 2003

The first article has a decent summary of genetics, and is about mutations and its affects on phenotypes. The second article is the role of introns in the genome, and such a finding can possibly the next biggest revolution in genetics.

Overall, Ridley's motives is to present the Genome beyond 'billiard physics'. This is a tough thing to do. With that in mind, let me close with a quote by Lord Ashby, in Technology and the Academics. "A student who can weave his technology into the fabric of society can claim to have a liberal education; a student who cannot weave his technology into the fabric of society cannot claim even to be a good technologist." I think Ridley has given a good example of how to relate the genome to society for future biologists, and policy makers to come.

Rating:
Summary: Buy one for your friends
Review: This is the first book by Matt Ridley that I've read; it encourages me to read his other works.
The approach is quite effective - each chromosome gets 10-15 pages, so its quite easy to read each story and be able to put it down, but in practice you want to get on and read about the next instalment.
I bought another copy for a visiting American Professor of Medicine who hadn't heard of it - but I wouldn't give her mine!

Rating:
Summary: Not a Science Mumbo Jumbo Book
Review: This book is wonderfully written. Ridley is able to take an extremely gargantuan, not to mention complicated, subject and make it understandably compact for the readers who are not up to tabs on the latest genetic breakthroughs and discoveries (myself included). He doesn't swamp us with the extremely intricate, and on the occasion boring, vocabulary that the scientific world is filled with. The genome becomes more understandable and most importantly, relative to our lives. However, Ridley does not make his readers perfectly capable of explaining the nature and purpose of the genome - he makes the point in stating that most of the genome has yet to be explained. By reading this book, you'll simply have a better idea of what the genome is and if not that, it's hard to say that Genome isn't a fun read.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Ideas, Some Careless Research
Review: I liked this book. There are lots of interesting ideas about the role of DNA in our lives. On many issues he considers evidence for a variety of theories before offering his own opinion. At its best, this style of writing can give the reader a sense of witnessing the cutting edge of research.

Unfortunately, he is not always so careful. In the chapter on personality (pg. 169) he states that "It is a curious fact that nearly all studies of cholesterol-lowering drugs in ordinary people show an increase in violent death compared with control samples that usually matches the decrease in death from heart disease."

A curious fact indeed, and apparently false. Ridley is apparently confusing association and causation. It is true that there is an association between having low cholesterol and depression, along with the nasty side effects of depression such as suicide.

From my own brief search of the medical literature, it appears that cholesterol-lowering treatments (either diet or drugs) do not cause depression. For example, the following article M R Law, S G Thompson, and N J Wald consider the MrFit trial and several other studies:
BMJ 1994;308:373-379 (5 February)
...conclude that "lowering cholesterol concentration does not lead to depression but depression lowers cholesterol concentration." In other words, Ridley has the cause and effect exactly backwards.

Several more recent studies also failed to show that an association between cholesterol reducing treatments and depression, accidents, or suicide.

Ridley provides no footnotes in his page-long discussion of this issue, so it is not clear how he reached a conclusion that appears to be so out-of-step with the relevant literature. Given his apparently careful treatment of other issues in this book, I expected better.

So enjoy the book, but don't stake your life on the information in it until you have checked with more reliable sources.

Rating:
Summary: Immensely enjoyable
Review: The timing couldn't be better. The content couldn't be more interesting, thought-provoking and applicable to everyday life. And the writing style couldn't be more enjoyable.

I put Matt Ridley in the same category as authors such as James Gleick (Chaos, Genius) - authors who have the rare ability to explain technical subjects in a style that's immensely enjoyable to read.

This is one of those books I'm sure I'll get back around to re-reading before too long.

Rating:
Summary: It's a Love/Hate Relationship
Review: I was assigned to read this book for an AP Biology class. I found it intriguing because it posed questions that had never risen to my attention before. It brought up issues that I had never discussed or learned about in the classroom. I would definitely recommend this book for someone who is confused about genetics and is looking to learn some basic knowledge and the implications of all the new scientific discoveries. Seeing that I have already taken a Biology class, I already understand the basic foundations of genetics. So I sometimes got impatient when Ridley oversimplifed things. I also found Ridley's style very annoying. It was as though he was trying to use fancy prose and sound "flowery," if you will. Other times he didn't fully explain everything, saying that it's complicated and he doesn't want to bore the reader. In a nut shell, I liked this book and hated it at the same time. So decide for yourself whether it's worth your effort.

Rating:
Summary: Why exactly 23 chapters?
Review: This book helps the general reader safely navigate choppy waters while enjoying the view. The author uses his vast knowledge to help us gain some understanding of the developing field of the human genome. While some of his analogies seem far-fetched, and some of his pontificating is annoying, his 23 chapter ploy is good enough to keep you turning the pages.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but Superficial
Review: First of all, I have to admit I liked the book. This is a good book if you are looking for something entertaining and easy reading. This is very basic science accesible for the lay person. This is too the reason I gave it four stars, I believe it is too superficial and shallow. Sometimes the author tends to exagerate discoveries and predictions about the future, at least that is my impression. That strategy sells, but I tend to dislike it when authors do that, this subject is really interesting as it really is, no exaggeration is necessary.

In conclusion, I like the book and recommend it for anyone interested in the subject, but with the precaution that it is nor deep nor conservative.

Rating:
Summary: a difficult subject made accessable
Review: Matt Ridley takes an intricately difficult subject (the code of all life on earth) and manages to explain it in such a manner that is universally accessable to the scientist and layman alike. No easy feat. The book itself is broken down into 23 chapters, one for each chromasome in the human body. Each chapter disucsses a specific gene on that chromasome, and with it the remarkable history of humankind, and indeed, all living things. I was astounded that deep within our genetic code is the story of our species' evolutionary history. But Ridley goes well beyond this in his marvelous book.

The nature of inherited diseases is discussed in a fascinating chapter on how our genes can work to protect us, and (in rare cases), horribly debiliate us. Race is addressed, as is one's prediliction for heart disease. Of particular interest to me was his exploration of cancer, possible reasons for its development, and a tantilizing glimps into how cancer research is being conducted to combat it.

I am not a scientist. But I have a much clearer understanding of not only genetics, but also how each life form is constantly changing and adapting itself in the eternal dance of evolution. I highly recommend this book for its clear, concise and understandable way in which the author explains a most complex subject.