The Wonder of Genetics

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Author :
Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1616142626
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wonder of Genetics by : Richard V. Kowles

Download or read book The Wonder of Genetics written by Richard V. Kowles and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2011-12-29 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kowles devotes separate chapters to popular genetic topics, addresses misconceptions, and emphasizes the disciplines potential for curing some diseases, extending human lifespan, enhancing medicine and agriculture, and generally improving society.

The Biology of Wonder

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Publisher : New Society Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1550925946
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (59 download)

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Book Synopsis The Biology of Wonder by : Andreas Weber

Download or read book The Biology of Wonder written by Andreas Weber and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new way of understanding our place in the web of life from a scholar praised for his “graceful prose” (Publishers Weekly). The disconnection between humans and nature is perhaps one of the most fundamental problems faced by our species today. This schism is arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unraveling around us. Until we come to terms with the depths of our alienation, we will continue to fail to understand that what happens to nature also happens to us. In The Biology of Wonder Andreas Weber proposes a new approach to the biological sciences that puts the human back in nature. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. From this basic premise flows the development of a "poetic ecology" which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us—showing that subjectivity and imagination are prerequisites of biological existence. Written by a leader in the emerging fields of biopoetics and biosemiotics, The Biology of Wonder demonstrates that there is no separation between us and the world we inhabit, and in so doing it validates the essence of our deep experience. By reconciling science with meaning, expression, and emotion, this landmark work brings us to a crucial understanding of our place in the rich and diverse framework of life—a revolution for biology as groundbreaking as the theory of relativity for physics. “Grounded in science, yet eloquently narrated, this is a groundbreaking book. Weber’s visionary work provides new insight into human/nature interconnectedness and the dire consequences we face by remaining disconnected.” —Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods

She Has Her Mother's Laugh

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Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101984600
Total Pages : 672 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis She Has Her Mother's Laugh by : Carl Zimmer

Download or read book She Has Her Mother's Laugh written by Carl Zimmer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-05-29 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist "Science book of the year"—The Guardian One of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018 One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2018 One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2018 One of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018 One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018 “Extraordinary”—New York Times Book Review "Magisterial"—The Atlantic "Engrossing"—Wired "Leading contender as the most outstanding nonfiction work of the year"—Minneapolis Star-Tribune Celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities... But, Zimmer writes, “Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are—our appearance, our height, our penchants—in inconceivably subtle ways.” Heredity isn’t just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors—using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates—but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer’s lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it. Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world’s best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations.

Am I My Genes?

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190207671
Total Pages : 376 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Am I My Genes? by : Robert L. Klitzman M.D.

Download or read book Am I My Genes? written by Robert L. Klitzman M.D. and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the fifty years since DNA was discovered, we have seen extraordinary advances. For example, genetic testing has rapidly improved the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as Huntington's, cystic fibrosis, breast cancer, and Alzheimer's. But with this new knowledge comes difficult decisions for countless people, who wrestle with fear about whether to get tested, and if so, what to do with the results. Am I My Genes? shows how real individuals have confronted these issues in their daily lives. Robert L. Klitzman interviewed 64 people who faced Huntington's Disease, breast and ovarian cancer, or Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. The book describes--often in the person's own words--how each has wrestled with the vast implications that genetics has for their lives and their families. Klitzman shows how these men and women struggle to make sense of their predicament and its causes. They confront a series of quandaries--whether to be tested; whether to disclose their genetic risks to parents, siblings, spouses, offspring, friends, doctors, insurers, employers, and schools; how to view and understand themselves and their genetics; what treatments, if any, to pursue; whether to have children, adopt, screen embryos, or abort; and whether to participate in genetic communities. In the face of these uncertainties, they have tried to understand these tests and probabilities, avoid fatalism, anxiety, despair, and discrimination, and find hope, meaning, and a sense of wholeness. Forced to wander through a wilderness of shifting sands, they chart paths that many others may eventually follow. Klitzman captures here the voices of pioneers, some of the first to encounter the personal dilemmas introduced by modern genetics. Am I My Genes? is an invaluable account of their experience, one that will become all the more common in the coming years. "An extraordinary exploration...probing the many roles and implications of genetics in our lives today.... Filled with astonishing insights, this riveting book is vital reading for us all." --Paula Zahn "Klitzman lucidly discusses the moral and psychological complexities that come in the wake of genetic testing.... An important book for anyone who has the genes for pathology, which is all of us, and I recommend it highly." --Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind "An illuminating voyage through the medical, familial and existential quandaries faced by those of us at genetic risk." --Thomas H. Murray, President and CEO, The Hastings Center

The Wonder Down Under

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Author :
Publisher : Quercus
ISBN 13 : 1681440199
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (814 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wonder Down Under by : Nina Brochmann

Download or read book The Wonder Down Under written by Nina Brochmann and published by Quercus. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A joyful and indispensable guide filled with astonishing, important, and little-known information about the vagina that will equip a new generation to make informed choices about their sexual health and happiness. The Wonder Down Under is a comprehensive guide to a miraculous and complex part of the body that too few of us (regardless of gender) are all that familiar with--the vagina. With wisdom, humor, and scientific aplomb, medical student Ellen Støkken Dahl and Dr. Nina Brochmann take readers on a fascinating journey of female sexual organs and sexual health--from the clitoris to contraception to cervical cancer. More than a user's manual, this book is the funny, frank tribute to the vagina that we have been waiting for. The Wonder Down Under is filled with astonishing, essential, and little-known information--relayed with both medical expertise and genuine empathy. Did you know, for instance, that female and male sex organs are merely variations on the same basic structure? Or that there's no such thing as a virginity test--because examining the hymen cannot meaningfully indicate whether or not someone's had sex? Brochmann and Dahl have written a tour-de-force about the biology, anatomy, and reality of the female body, examining the many ways in which widespread misinformation and silence about the vagina have been harmful to women over time. The Wonder Down Under makes crucial contributions to the discussion: the book was an instant bestseller that sold out in its native Norway in just three days. Since then it has been acquired by publishers in more than two dozen countries around the world. The Wonder Down Under is a joyful and indispensable book that will educate readers of all kinds and equip a new generation to make informed choices about their sexual well-being.

The Selfish Gene

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 9780192860927
Total Pages : 372 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (69 download)

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Book Synopsis The Selfish Gene by : Richard Dawkins

Download or read book The Selfish Gene written by Richard Dawkins and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1989 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science

The Art of Genes

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0192862081
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (928 download)

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Book Synopsis The Art of Genes by : Enrico Coen

Download or read book The Art of Genes written by Enrico Coen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2000 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this highly original synthesis of art and science, Enrico Coen describes the recent revolution in human understanding of how plants and animals develop and how this offers fresh insights into evolution and human creativity.

Are We Slaves to our Genes?

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108426336
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Are We Slaves to our Genes? by : Denis R. Alexander

Download or read book Are We Slaves to our Genes? written by Denis R. Alexander and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Genetic differences can influence differences in our human behaviours, but only occasionally undermine the reality of our free will.

In Pursuit of the Gene

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Author :
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674034910
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis In Pursuit of the Gene by : James Schwartz

Download or read book In Pursuit of the Gene written by James Schwartz and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-30 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mystery of inheritance has captivated thinkers since antiquity, and the unlocking of this mystery—the development of classical genetics—is one of humanity’s greatest achievements. This great scientific and human drama is the story told fully and for the first time in this book. Acclaimed science writer James Schwartz presents the history of genetics through the eyes of a dozen or so central players, beginning with Charles Darwin and ending with Nobel laureate Hermann J. Muller. In tracing the emerging idea of the gene, Schwartz deconstructs many often-told stories that were meant to reflect glory on the participants and finds that the “official” version of discovery often hides a far more complex and illuminating narrative. The discovery of the structure of DNA and the more recent advances in genome science represent the culmination of one hundred years of concentrated inquiry into the nature of the gene. Schwartz’s multifaceted training as a mathematician, geneticist, and writer enables him to provide a remarkably lucid account of the development of the central ideas about heredity, and at the same time bring to life the brilliant and often eccentric individuals who shaped these ideas. In the spirit of the late Stephen Jay Gould, this book offers a thoroughly engaging story about one of the oldest and most controversial fields of scientific inquiry. It offers readers the background they need to understand the latest findings in genetics and those still to come in the search for the genetic basis of complex diseases and traits.

Are We Hardwired?

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190292318
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (92 download)

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Book Synopsis Are We Hardwired? by : William R. Clark

Download or read book Are We Hardwired? written by William R. Clark and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Books such as Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene have aroused fierce controversy by arguing for the powerful influence of genes on human behavior. But are we entirely at the mercy of our chromosomes? In Are We Hardwired?, scientists William R. Clark and Michael Grunstein say the answer is both yes--and no. The power and fascination of Are We Hardwired? lie in their explanation of that deceptively simple answer. Using eye-opening examples of genetically identical twins who, though raised in different families, have had remarkably parallel lives, the authors show that indeed roughly half of human behavior can be accounted for by DNA. But the picture is quite complicated. Clark and Grunstein take us on a tour of modern genetics and behavioral science, revealing that few elements of behavior depend upon a single gene; complexes of genes, often across chromosomes, drive most of our heredity-based actions. To illustrate this point, they examine the genetic basis, and quirks, of individual behavioral traits--including aggression, sexuality, mental function, eating disorders, alcoholism, and drug abuse. They show that genes and environment are not opposing forces; heredity shapes how we interpret our surroundings, which in turn changes the very structure of our brain. Clearly we are not simply puppets of either influence. Perhaps most interesting, the book suggests that the source of our ability to choose, to act unexpectedly, may lie in the chaos principle: the most minute differences during activation of a single neuron may lead to utterly unpredictable actions. This masterful account of the nature-nurture controversy--at once provocative and informative--answers some of our oldest questions in unexpected new ways

The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment

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Author :
Publisher : The Experiment, LLC
ISBN 13 : 1615191658
Total Pages : 345 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (151 download)

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Book Synopsis The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment by : Jessica Wapner

Download or read book The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment written by Jessica Wapner and published by The Experiment, LLC. This book was released on 2014-04-08 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year Philadelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research— the Philadelphia chromosome. It would take doctors and researchers around the world more than three decades to unravel the implications of this landmark discovery. In 1990, the Philadelphia chromosome was recognized as the sole cause of a deadly blood cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. Cancer research would never be the same. Science journalist Jessica Wapner reconstructs more than forty years of crucial breakthroughs, clearly explains the science behind them, and pays tribute—with extensive original reporting, including more than thirty-five interviews—to the dozens of researchers, doctors, and patients with a direct role in this inspirational story. Their curiosity and determination would ultimately lead to a lifesaving treatment unlike anything before it. The Philadelphia Chromosome chronicles the remarkable change of fortune for the more than 70,000 people worldwide who are diagnosed with CML each year. It is a celebration of a rare triumph in the battle against cancer and a blueprint for future research, as doctors and scientists race to uncover and treat the genetic roots of a wide range of cancers.

Evolving Ourselves

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143108344
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

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Book Synopsis Evolving Ourselves by : Juan Enriquez

Download or read book Evolving Ourselves written by Juan Enriquez and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-11-15 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eye-opening, mind-bending exploration of how mankind is reshaping its genetic future, based on the viral TED Talk series “Will Our Kids Be a Different Species?” and “The Next Species of Human.” Are you willing to engineer the DNA of your unborn children and grand-children to be healthier? Better looking? More intelligent? Why are rates of autism, asthma, and allergies exploding at an unprecedented pace? Why are humans living longer and having far fewer kids? Futurist Juan Enriquez and scientist Steve Gullans conduct a sweeping tour of how humans are changing the course of evolution for all species—sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. For example: • What if life forms are limited only by the bounds of our imagination? Are designer babies and pets, de-extinction, even entirely newspecies fair game? • As humans, animals, and plants become ever more resistant to disease and aging, what will become the leading causes of death? • Man-machine interfaces may allow humans to live much longer. What will happen when we transfer parts of our “selves” into clones, into stored cells and machines? Though these harbingers of change are deeply unsettling, the authors argue we are also in an epoch of tremendous opportunity. Future humans, perhaps a more diverse, resilient, gentler, and intelligent species, may become better caretakers of the planet—but only if we make the right choices now. Intelligent, provocative, and optimistic, Evolving Ourselves is the ultimate guide to the next phase of life on Earth. Chosen by Nature magazine as a Fall 2016 season highlight.

A Troublesome Inheritance

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698163796
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

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Book Synopsis A Troublesome Inheritance by : Nicholas Wade

Download or read book A Troublesome Inheritance written by Nicholas Wade and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-05-06 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on startling new evidence from the mapping of the genome, an explosive new account of the genetic basis of race and its role in the human story Fewer ideas have been more toxic or harmful than the idea of the biological reality of race, and with it the idea that humans of different races are biologically different from one another. For this understandable reason, the idea has been banished from polite academic conversation. Arguing that race is more than just a social construct can get a scholar run out of town, or at least off campus, on a rail. Human evolution, the consensus view insists, ended in prehistory. Inconveniently, as Nicholas Wade argues in A Troublesome Inheritance, the consensus view cannot be right. And in fact, we know that populations have changed in the past few thousand years—to be lactose tolerant, for example, and to survive at high altitudes. Race is not a bright-line distinction; by definition it means that the more human populations are kept apart, the more they evolve their own distinct traits under the selective pressure known as Darwinian evolution. For many thousands of years, most human populations stayed where they were and grew distinct, not just in outward appearance but in deeper senses as well. Wade, the longtime journalist covering genetic advances for The New York Times, draws widely on the work of scientists who have made crucial breakthroughs in establishing the reality of recent human evolution. The most provocative claims in this book involve the genetic basis of human social habits. What we might call middle-class social traits—thrift, docility, nonviolence—have been slowly but surely inculcated genetically within agrarian societies, Wade argues. These “values” obviously had a strong cultural component, but Wade points to evidence that agrarian societies evolved away from hunter-gatherer societies in some crucial respects. Also controversial are his findings regarding the genetic basis of traits we associate with intelligence, such as literacy and numeracy, in certain ethnic populations, including the Chinese and Ashkenazi Jews. Wade believes deeply in the fundamental equality of all human peoples. He also believes that science is best served by pursuing the truth without fear, and if his mission to arrive at a coherent summa of what the new genetic science does and does not tell us about race and human history leads straight into a minefield, then so be it. This will not be the last word on the subject, but it will begin a powerful and overdue conversation.

Essential Genetics

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Author :
Publisher : Jones & Bartlett Learning
ISBN 13 : 9780763735272
Total Pages : 628 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis Essential Genetics by : Daniel L. Hartl

Download or read book Essential Genetics written by Daniel L. Hartl and published by Jones & Bartlett Learning. This book was released on 2006 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Completely updated to reflect new discoveries and current thinking in the field, the Fourth Edition of Essential Genetics is designed for the shorter, less comprehensive introductory course in genetics. The text is written in a clear, lively, and concise manner and includes many special features that make the book user friendly. Topics were carefully chosen to provide a solid foundation for understanding the basic processes of gene transmission, mutation, expression, and regulation. The text also helps students develop skills in problem solving, achieve a sense of the social and historical context in which genetics has developed, and become aware of the genetic resources and information available through the Internet.

The Wonder of Life

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780595719655
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (196 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wonder of Life by : John Husher

Download or read book The Wonder of Life written by John Husher and published by . This book was released on 2008-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wonder of Life takes you from Earth's beginning and describes the events that preceded man and carries you along the path of man's education. This came through wars, then religion, and always through the silent killers of man as disease became one of the major carriers of education as well as death. You will journey through the battles with the silent killers and understand how man went from a defensive mode to one of the aggressor with the invention of the microscope. Follow the progress of the wins over the Staff infections, to the use of penicillin during the war and then the defeat of Polio; always in the search of what made man tick. This carries him through the discovery of DNA, the genetic code, AIDS, the human genome and to today's great hope of the use of stem cells to correct for the body's malfunction of its organs. It's an exciting story told in a novel manner for the layman to understand.

DNA

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Author :
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0385351208
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (853 download)

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Book Synopsis DNA by : James D. Watson

Download or read book DNA written by James D. Watson and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive insider's history of the genetic revolution--significantly updated to reflect the discoveries of the last decade. James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate whose pioneering work helped unlock the mystery of DNA's structure, charts the greatest scientific journey of our time, from the discovery of the double helix to today's controversies to what the future may hold. Updated to include new findings in gene editing, epigenetics, agricultural chemistry, as well as two entirely new chapters on personal genomics and cancer research. This is the most comprehensive and authoritative exploration of DNA's impact--practical, social, and ethical--on our society and our world.

Genome

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Author :
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062253468
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (622 download)

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Book Synopsis Genome by : Matt Ridley

Download or read book Genome written by Matt Ridley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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. . . . . He addresses not only the ethical quandaries faced by contemporary scientists but the reductionist danger in equating inheritability with inevitability.” — The New Yorker The genome's been mapped. 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 future Arguably 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. Questions that will profoundly impact the way we think about disease, about longevity, and about free will. Questions that will affect the rest of your life. Genome offers extraordinary insight into the ramifications of this incredible breakthrough. 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. 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. It will help you understand what this scientific milestone means for you, for your children, and for humankind.