chromosome by chromosome, by picking a gene from each.' That story begins with the basis of life on earth, the DNA-to-RNA-to-protein process (chapter one, 'Life,' and also chromosome one) the evolution of Homo sapiens (chromosome two, which emerged in early hominids when two ape chromosomes fused) and the discovery of genetic inheritance (which came about in part thanks to the odd ailment called alkaptonuria, carried on chromosome three). His inviting prose proposes 'to tell the story of the human genome. Ridley (The Red Queen The Origins of Virtue) anticipates the genomic news with an inventively constructed, riveting exposition of what we already know about the links between DNA and human life. HSoon we'll know what's in our genes: next year, the Human Genome Project will have its first-draft map of our 23 chromosomes. It will help you understand what this scientific milestone means for you, for your children, and for humankind. From Huntington's disease to cancer, from the applications of gene therapy to the horrors of eugenics, Ridley probes the scientific, philosophical, and moral issues arising as a result of the mapping of the genome. By picking one newly discovered gene from each pair of chromosomes and telling its story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future medicine.

Genome offers extraordinary insight into the ramifications of this incredible breakthrough. Questions that will affect the rest of your life. Questions that will profoundly impact the way we think about disease, about longevity, and about free will.

But what does it mean? Matt Ridley’s Genome is the book that explains it all: what it is, how it works, and what it portends for the futureĪrguably the most significant scientific discovery of the new century, the mapping of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes that make up the human genome raises almost as many questions as it answers. He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability.” - The New Yorker “Ridley leaps from chromosome to chromosome in a handy summation of our ever increasing understanding of the roles that genes play in disease, behavior, sexual differences, and even intelligence.

Genome autobiography of a species