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The Gene: An Intimate History

Siddhartha Mukherjee

4.35 · Rating details · 41,109 ratings · 3,898 reviews

Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function.

The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 where a monk stumbles on the idea of a ‘unit of heredity’. It intersects with Darwin’s theory of evolution, and collides wit ...more

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Hardcover, 592 pages

Published May 17th 2016 by Scribner

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Oct 13, 2016 Tony rated it it was amazing

Shelves: top-ten-2016, science-nature

I have this tendency, when I read a book as brilliantly informing as this one, to wipe the froth from my mouth, shuffle the pages of notes I've written contemporaneous to the reading, and plunge into the cocktail party which is this forum, grabbing each of you by the virtual lapels, and launching into a lecture about one of the hundreds of things I learned in the process. As if, you know, I missed some of the froth.

So, imagine me back from some journey, casting pleasantries aside, and launching I have this tendency, when I read a book as brilliantly informing as this one, to wipe the froth from my mouth, shuffle the pages of notes I've written contemporaneous to the reading, and plunge into the cocktail party which is this forum, grabbing each of you by the virtual lapels, and launching into a lecture about one of the hundreds of things I learned in the process. As if, you know, I missed some of the froth.So, imagine me back from some journey, casting pleasantries aside, and launching wild-eyed and, yes, maybe a little frothy, insisting that you grasp the fraction of what I've learned via the fraction of my ability to explain, as if it is the most important thing in the world. Until next week's book and next week's cocktail party, that is. Passionate and off-putting. Aware, but unable to stop myself. Yup, that's me. But I have a defense.There's probably a gene that makes me so.Seems I got more than blue eyes from Mom, more than dark hair from Dad. There are many chambers of the human heart and many caverns in the human mind, but they are all there somewhere pinned onto the genome which is Tony.This book is worth the read just for the section on sickle-cell anemia, or the one explaining the genetic basis for sexual identity, or the story of Mitochondrial Eve. Did you know that when the Allied forces entered the Nazi death camps, they found an inordinate number of twins among the survivors. This was so because Mengele was fascinated by ? These survivors, sharing as they did identical genetic markers, served as the subjects of much subsequent genetic research. But, I've now learned, "the vast proportion of genetic diversity (85 to 90 percent) occurs so-called races (i.e., within Asians or Africans) and only a minor proportion (7 percent) between racial groups..."I knew the story of Carrie Buck, legally sterilized after an Opinion by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes stating "Three generations of imbeciles is enough." But Mukherjee lets that story hover over us as he takes us to a lecture he attended in 2013, a lecture given by a fifteen year-old girl named Erika, who suffered from a severe, progressive degenerative disease, causing muscle tremors that progressively worsened. She tried new drugs, clinical trials. Nothing worked. Yet there she was speaking to this hall of scientists, "by far, among the most articulate, introspective teenagers that I have ever encountered." A prenatal test to find the mutations that caused Erika's condition is theoretically possible. We could, bluntly, prevent future Erikas. Mukherjee lets us ponder this as he watches Erika being pushed by her mother across a parking lot in her wheelchair, "her scarf billowing behind her, like an epilogue."It's that last little bit, that fragment of a quote like a piece of DNA, that I hope exposes why this book had such a purchase on me. It's not just that Mukherjee can take a very complicated scientific subject and make it understandable. It's that he does so with really gorgeous writing.At one point he is explaining how 'we' got here, how 'humans' began on an arid mesa in South Africa and, from there, "went west, as young men often do..." The migrants made it to the northeastern edge of Ethiopia or Egypt, "where the Red Sea narrows to a slitlike strait." And then he writes this: The same but different; different but the same. I'll stop there, having no doubt expressed my enthusiasm better than my understanding of human genetics. I'll stop even though the clicker below says I have 15,480 characters left, or about 500 less than the number of genes in one of my cells. But one of the truly entertaining parts of this book was the author's use of quotes. So, since I'm feeling epigrammy, I'll add my favorites to the comments.Bye. I have to go. ...more

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Feb 17, 2020 Always Pouting rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I think this was really good, and even better than The Emperor of All Maladies which I just read recently as well. I might have enjoyed this one more because it's relevant to my current day to day thing though. I really liked the way it ties in the personal elements of genetics through out the book and how it acknowledges really important questions of what we actually deem normal and healthy. I feel like a lot of times there isn't as much acknowledgement of the tradeoffs made when trying to elim ...more

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Jul 26, 2016 Aditi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-reviews, penguin-books

Hello bookish peeps,
Another one of my review has been posted on our country's largest daily newspaper's website, The Times of India.

"This book is the story of the birth, growth, and future of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in the history of science: the "gene," the fundamental unit of heredity, and the basic unit of all biological information. I"
~Siddhartha Mukherjee
The 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner, Siddhartha Mukherjee, is back with another incredibly well-written book, The Gene: A Hello bookish peeps,Another one of my review has been posted on our country's largest daily newspaper's website, The Times of India. "This book is the story of the birth, growth, and future of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in the history of science: the "gene," the fundamental unit of heredity, and the basic unit of all biological information. I"~Siddhartha MukherjeeThe 2011 Pulitzer Prize winner, Siddhartha Mukherjee, is back with another incredibly well-written book, The Gene: An Intimate History that unfolds the extensive and profound knowledge and research about human genome and its genetics that reflects beyond the definition of both basic and advanced science. The above quote by the author, himself, simply outlines the story line of this in-depth and thorough yet intimidating book about genes.Since the primeval times, it has been observed that living organisms can pass down attributes to their offspring, who can then pass down to their own children and so on. The author begins his book with Gregor Johann Mendel, a scientist, who observed the nature of genes in pea plants by isolating them to discover the transmissible characteristics in pea plants. Thomas Hunt Morgan, who in the early 20th century observed a study on fruit flies to state the real location of genes in a living organism's cell. The author has mathematically noted down each milestone in genetic science in this book, rather descriptively. But with all this, the author ensures that his readers do not lose their focus from the fact that study of genes is not anymore just a progressive or evolutionary aspect in science and medicines, rather it is a study and observation about how an individual is insufficiently deciphering the technological advancement in the science of genetics as well as the study of oneself.Siddhartha Mukherjee sweepingly shares his own Bengali-family medical and genetic history through this book. This includes his father with a genetically challenged brain illness, his mother and her twin sisters and the sudden onset of schizophrenia among his cousins and uncles, thereby inducing fear for the future generations and shock and knowledge about the unknown genetic defects underlying in his family history of hereditary.The author's writing has a lot of gravity, meaning and research affixed with true facts, that might or might not be able to bring a change among the readers to look at this scientific study of genes and its underlying messages in a different way, but it will definitely open the tight-shut windows about human genome in the minds of the readers. In a crux, the book will gracefully enlighten the readers. The narrative is articulate and I believe the book is written in a way that even if you are not accustomed to big scientific and medical terminologies, they can easily be comprehended.Please follow the link below to read my review:Thank you! ...more

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Jul 08, 2016 Petra is in abeyance on hiatus, just not here much rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: medicine-science, reviewed, 2016-150-reviews, 2016-read, misc-reference

I listened to the BBC abridged audio book as I often do before ordering it. I like hardbacks so I try and be sure first I want to read it. I didn't like it enough. I loved The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer but couldn't feel that deep interest with this one.

Now it could be that the book is fantastic and it had a lousy editor at the BBC. Oliver Sacks autobiography, On the Move: A Life is a 10 star book, but the abridged BBC one is terrible, mostly the wrong episodes chosen. But st ...more

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Jun 06, 2017 Riku Sayuj rated it really liked it

Recommended to Riku by: Rohini

Shelves: science-gen, pop-science, insti-crit, medicine, genetics

Not half as good a narrative as The Emperor of All Maladies, but still a good account of the Gene's journey and where it is going. It will hold your attention even if you have read multiple accounts of the progress of Genetics such as Watson's, because most histories of the Gene focus on the Genome project or on the early phase of discovery of genetics, Mukherjee instead focuses on the applications that are currently ongoing and how those fields have developed.

My only complaint: the focus of th ...more

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Oct 05, 2018 Carol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, audio-books, medical

Cannot begin to tell you what I learned from this fascinating study of The Gene but I gained great insight from the thorough research of Siddhartha Mukherjee. I am destined for a second read/listen. The audio narration by Dennis Boutsikaris made this compelling, very well paced with a distinct and pleasant tonal quality. Highly recommended.

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Aug 06, 2017 Ayse_ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviews

In this beautifully written, vivid history of genetics; Mukherjee takes us by the hand and walks us through the hall of fame of all the people who are the reason for modern biology as we study it today. His picturesque descriptions make the book a joy to read.

Starting with Mendel and ending with embryonic stem cell research and beyond; the fascinating story of genetic research is given in the book. There are life stories of many exceptional scientists. Unfortunately many examples of bad science ...more

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Mar 28, 2016 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016-shelf, non-fiction, science

Thanks goes to Netgalley and a wonderful author for a wonderfully told series of stories within the world of genetics.

I was worried, briefly, by the insistence of bringing Aristotle's take on the genome, or the recapitulation of many of the grandfathers of the science, such as Mendel and Darwin, but the way that these otherwise well-known personages were brought alive to the page was more of a story than a dry recounting. Even so, I wasn't prepared for what was soon to come.

I became engrossed in Thanks goes to Netgalley and a wonderful author for a wonderfully told series of stories within the world of genetics.I was worried, briefly, by the insistence of bringing Aristotle's take on the genome, or the recapitulation of many of the grandfathers of the science, such as Mendel and Darwin, but the way that these otherwise well-known personages were brought alive to the page was more of a story than a dry recounting. Even so, I wasn't prepared for what was soon to come.I became engrossed in the history of American Eugenics, and even more so in Germany's frightful improvements, all of which painted the history of the science in quite a dark, and ignorant, light.Fortunately for all of us, Crick, Watson, and Ferdinand come out swinging and we can see this all as a heroic step forward... even considering the fact that Ferdinand never got to see her work truly recognized. From here on out, we've got truly wonderful tales of Beck and the birth of recombinant DNA, scientists self-policing, the rise of multinational bio-engineering firms, AIDS, gene therapies, genome mapping, and of course cloning and stem-cell blocking, and each and every one of these stories are bright and very readable.And what's more, it's always informative and it's always interesting. It even draws us in to the author's own deep and emotional familial history and his own drive to understand.I'll make no bones about it: I was moved.I've read more than a handful of books on genetics in the past, and while some were quite good and some were sometimes mesmerizingly boring, I think this one has got to be the most readable, grab you on the human level, and most in depth survey of the entire field that I've ever read. So many disparate characteristics managed to encode the proteins of the narrative, and no one could be happier than me to see such a healthy and shining phenotypical expression be borne from a popular book. It's classy and smart. Very smart. In fact, it's pretty much a must-have if you're a science-history buff bringing us up to the cutting-edge present and want a few questions for the future. :) ...more

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Jan 07, 2018 Darwin8u rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aere-perennius, science, 2018

"We seek constancy in heredity--and find its opposite: variation. Mutants are necessary to maintain the essence of our selves."
- Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene

description

I've owned Mukherjee's other book, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, for years and have consistently found rational reasons to not read it. So, I'm not sure what made me pick up this book first. Perhaps, it was a friend who prompted me. Perhaps, too, was my tendency to come late to authors and read them backwards (rNA?). ...more

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Sep 28, 2016 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley

I'm not going to lie, there were some pages of this book where all my mind saw was 'science science science science' etc etc over and over again instead of the actual words which apparently make sense to people cleverer than me.

Happily though, the vast majority of the book is written in a more engaging and approachable fashion. Nevertheless, it clearly represents a vast amount of research, spanning the field from Aristotle to the present day. It plots the path of ever increasing knowledge and m ...more

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Apr 14, 2016 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley

Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer's Prize winning book, "The Emperor of All Maladies"
scared the hell out of me right from the 'get go'....when I read that "1 in 4 people will get cancer in your lifetime".

Mukherjee dives right in again, ( wasting no time), in "The Gene".

We first learn that mental illness has been in Mukherjee's family for at least two generations. He shares personally with us about 4 different relatives: 2 cousins and two uncles -- ( from his father's side), whose minds were crumb Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer's Prize winning book, "The Emperor of All Maladies"scared the hell out of me right from the 'get go'....when I read that "1 in 4 people will get cancer in your lifetime". Mukherjee dives right in again, ( wasting no time), in "The Gene". We first learn that mental illness has been in Mukherjee's family for at least two generations. He shares personally with us about 4 different relatives: 2 cousins and two uncles -- ( from his father's side), whose minds were crumbling. --- Each with a little different story. It's clear Mukherjee isn't removed from his research in any shape or form. There was even a time when Mukherjee himself went through troubled period - as a teenager. He stopped talking to his parents for six months, refused to turn in school homework, and threw books in the trash. Filled with anxiety, his father took him to a doctor fearing his son was losing his mind ( fearing another Mukherjee bites the dust). Years later, when Mukherjee met Sarah, ( his wife today), he warned her about the heredity component that lurked behind his family history. In 2009, Swedish researchers published and enormous international study involving thousands of families and tens of thousands of men and women. It was discovered - with striking evidence that bipolar disease and schizophrenia shared strong genetic link. Questions that lingered in Mukherjee' mind at the start of his research was ...( looking at each his cousins and uncles), if the illnesses are genetic, why were some family members spared? (Mukherjee' father's sister had been spared)What 'triggers' had unveiled these predispositions? How much arose from 'nature'and how much was due to environmental 'nurture'. Also, was Mukherjee a carrier?What if he could know the precise nature of this genetic flaw? Would he test himself?Would he inform his daughters? If technologies were available -- who would control them and their safety? Part I is about "the missing" science of heredity ....discovering and rediscovering genes.. dated from 1865 to 1935. He talks about theories from Aristotle and Pythagoras....and what each of them had right and what they had wrong.Pythagoras's theory was that sperm carried all information to make a new human. Aristotle's theory was that heredity was carried in the form of messages to create materials ..( "it was the hand that carried the instructions to mold an embryo"). --In time, both theories were demolished. Mukherjee continues to describe how past prominent scientists, physicians, philosophers, historians, sociologists, anthropologist, biologists, linguists, theologist, etc. understood the function of the gene.....and how many of these educators fought furiously over the question of human origin. Charles Darwin, for example, gave rise to the most important synthesis in modern biology and the most powerful understanding of human heredity. --- yet here we are today in 2016-- and Mukherjee is all about the future - medical advances. I'm beginning to see why this book is important. Embryology, inherited genes, chromosomes, .....so much information to keep taking in. Genetic information could be mixed, matched and swapped. As a reader...about half way through the book -- it's easy to feel exhausted. I put the book down...Made some tea... and listened to to Siddhartha Mukherjee do a TED talk. His talk recharged my energy... I began to see the larger purpose of understanding what past experts believed - to learn about what their work contributed. It's only until really being able to see how we've been treating disease in the past -- can we begin to comprehend the re-organization of treating disease in the future. Mukherjee presented the idea that it's possible the gene will cure disease - rather than a pill. This is a challenging book to read--yet fascinating -- not as hard to understand as one might think...just hard to stay with all the research. I needed breaks. ( I read other fiction stories at the same time)....but this book is looks at all sides of genetics: genetic diversity, morality, ...( such as stem cell research -and eugenics)... -and what about predicting the future from genes. ..and alternating the destiny through genetic manipulation. Medical advances seem to be moving faster than the speed of light. 11 months ago, I had a complete ankle replacement (a somewhat new and complicated surgery). I'm out hiking the hilly trails once again. Given how thankful I am for a working walking foot, I read this book with a hopeful fresh spirit for our future in the area of medical advancements. Thank You Scribner Publishing, Netgalley, and Siddhartha Mukherjee ...more

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May 11, 2016 Clif Hostetler rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

This book is a skillfully crafted combination of science history, character sketches, and personal encounters by the author's extended family with a history of mental illness. The end result maintains the interest of the reader in a subject that could have been a lot less interesting in the hands on another writer.

Most of the book is an account of the history of human advances in the understanding of how heritable characteristics are passed through multiple biological generations. Toward the end This book is a skillfully crafted combination of science history, character sketches, and personal encounters by the author's extended family with a history of mental illness. The end result maintains the interest of the reader in a subject that could have been a lot less interesting in the hands on another writer.Most of the book is an account of the history of human advances in the understanding of how heritable characteristics are passed through multiple biological generations. Toward the end of the book the author explores the more ambiguous contributions of nature, nurture and chance in the destiny of biological life. Also some speculation is made on the future possibilities of gene manipulation and repair.The author's discussion of the complexities of sexual identity was particularly poignant in light of recent political controversies in the USA regarding transexuals. This section of the book should be required reading for legislators who think that the determination of sex at birth is final.Below are some quotations that caught my eye. I've preceded each with my introductory comment:I feel sorry for Darwin in his efforts to defend his theory of survival of the fittest as the driving force in the evolution of species. He didn't understand the rules of genetics and thus didn't have the needed information to explain why unusual beneficial genetic traits were not lost through cross breeding. The following quotation describes how close Darwin came to finding the needed information. Instead the significance of Mendel's findings remained unnoticed for four decades.The following summary of the Nazi and Soviets genetic programs during WWII shows how things can go astray when genetics is made to fit political dogma.One positive contribution of the Nazis is that they totally discredited eugenics programs.The following quotation is addressing the differences between identical twins. I saved it because of the three adjectives modifying "events." I might need those words someday to explain why I'm surprised.Genetic markers have been identified that predict differing abilities to handle stress. The following is an interesting discussion of what could be done with that information.For many years geneticists couldn't find a way to perform targeted gene repair. The following is an interesting summary of the author's description of how yogurt engineers found a bacterium capable of defending itself from hostile viruses by a clever method that could also be borrowed by geneticists to target specific places on a gene and make repairs. The following short review is from PageADay Book Lover's Calendar for January 19, 2018:Siddhartha Mukherjee Won the Pulitzer Prize and legions of devoted readers with his biography of cancer, . He brings the same depth of knowledge and personal touch to the story of the human gene. Covering everything from how Aristotle and Darwin understood genetics to the rnodern phenomenon of mapping the genome, prepares readers to understand the ethical questions surrounding genetics today. Fascinating, accessible, and timely. by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner, 2016) ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 India M. Clamp rated it it was amazing

Shelves: virology

Not my first review of a masterpiece orchestrated by Siddhartha Mukherjee, as I am guilty to languishing (past a reasonable amount of time) in Pulitzer Prize winner “Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.” Our Mom and Dad give us something. Finding what the something is are drops of light in a “dunkelweld” begging the question do genes determine our identity? What part does Mom and Dad play?

What is a gene anyway? A gene is vibrating message to build a protein, which creates a protein. ...more

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Jun 24, 2020 Orhan Pelinkovic rated it it was amazing

Shelves: genetics, biology, history, human-evolution, science, biography

You don't have to like science to enjoy this book! If you do like science, you'll find it even more informative and entertaining. The book is written for a broader audience who enjoy history, biology, and for those who enjoy debating social, cultural, and ethical dilemmas.

In the book the author takes us in depth though the biological journey of the evolution of our knowledge and struggles with the study of the gene, all coiled around like the DNA strand with world histories most critical events ...more

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Feb 26, 2019 Lauren rated it it was amazing

Shelves: cloud-library, medicine, best-of-2019, science, audiobooks

Siddhartha Mukherjee's 2010 The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer is amongst my top nonfiction books of all time.

When he released THE GENE: An Intimate History in 2016, I had plans to get to it, but the 500+ pages on genetics and molecular biology was (just) a little daunting. I mean, I love biology, but I was imagining heredity charts of peas... of course, I just needed to remind myself how fantastic Mukherjee's writing is and trust in that fact.

I chose to listen to the audiobook o ...more

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Feb 27, 2017 Éimhear (A Little Haze) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-or-preordered, arcs-gifted-review-copies

'The Gene: an intimate history' is a most readable story about what it means to be human. It is a book that attempts to shine a light on the complex and often fraught history of understanding heredity. The book is laid out in a relatively easy to follow format with a writing style suited to those without a scientific background but with a keen interest in science.

What makes this very readable for the non-scientist is how the author relates the history of the gene, determining the human genome a 'The Gene: an intimate history' is a most readable story about what it means to be human. It is a book that attempts to shine a light on the complex and often fraught history of understanding heredity. The book is laid out in a relatively easy to follow format with a writing style suited to those without a scientific background but with a keen interest in science. What makes this very readable for the non-scientist is how the author relates the history of the gene, determining the human genome and the advancements in gene therapy with his own family story of mental illness. He also carefully chooses case studies which humanise the face of genetic research and helps to pose questions about ethics and scientific responsibilities while demonstrating the positive advances made by the scientific community. The book starts off with the workings of Gregor Mendel. Anyone with secondary level/high school biology will no doubt be familiar with Mendelian genetics and will recall their days of first creating punnet squares in science class!! The book follows on from these early days through to the dawn of the eugenics era and how it so easily and chillingly turned into genocide with the rise of Nazism. A frequent motif throughout the book is focusing on the scientists behind the research and some of their actions which can best be described as being soap opera worthy!! It is this type of storytelling that provides the lay reader with moments of respite from the more technically heavy detail. People will no doubt be familiar with the testy relationship between the founding fathers of DNA structure, Watson and Crick, and Rosalind Franklin whose work was instrumental in their determination of said structure. More recent soap opera worthy stories surround the Human Genome Project with private enterprise facing off against publicly funded research. As this is a book describing the history of the gene there is a lot of science terminology. It is unavoidable. In my opinion I think it was handled as expertly as possible and I felt that there were sufficient explanations of the scientific processes behind the ever advancing technologies. I should however point out that my background is in scientific research and therefore none of the processes and themes described therein were new to me, but as I read I firmly kept the perspective of a non-scientist in mind with regards to my review of the book. The chronological style of the book helped to layer up the information learned piece by piece and I felt this was so skilfully done that I wished I had read this book as a young undergraduate coming to grips with simple genetics. I think it would have made excellent supplemental reading in my early undergraduate studies because of this, and the pop-culture style of the book, which would have made a refreshing change from some of my more stilted text books. And therefore, I would highly recommend this book as reading to any science student requiring an understanding of genetics within their first year of their degree course. I was however, somewhat disappointed with the coverage and explanations given to the topic of epigenetics. This was the weakest aspect of the book and needed to be further explored to provide a more complete view of current genetics in my opinion. However, this book still felt very relevant. It was more or less completed in the spring of 2015 and the author had stayed relatively up to date with his references. The last section of the book was excellently laid out and I thought gave the facts of current gene therapies and gene targeting with minimal bias. Other buzz-worthy topics mentioned in the book which will no doubt be of interest to many include discussions regarding gender and sexual identity, IVF treatments, genetic screening (breast cancer, CF, Huntington's) and targeted gene therapies to name but a few. Overall this was a very enjoyable read and while it won't be an easy read for anyone without a scientific background I would still heartily recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about genes and heredity and who especially wants to inform themselves about controversial topics such as genetic screening, stem cell research and the tangible possibilities of future manipulation of our genome. The book ends with a warning for the future about the responsibility of scientists and society at large when it comes to the negative possibilities of genetic intervention. ...more

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Sep 28, 2017 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: medical, 2017-read, science, history, audible-uk

I began this book knowing practically nothing about genes and chromosomes. My ability to follow it from start to finish without any serious problems is amazing! The author is clear, and he captivates a reader’s interest all the way through.

Mukherjee, a cancer physician and researcher, begins with the history of genetics, moves forward to our capabilities today and what lies ahead in the future. He makes the science relevant to modern-day readers. He relates how genetics has impacted on his own I began this book knowing practically nothing about genes and chromosomes. My ability to follow it from start to finish without any serious problems is amazing! . Mukherjee, a cancer physician and researcher, begins with the history of genetics, moves forward to our capabilities today and what lies ahead in the future. He makes the science relevant to modern-day readers. He relates how genetics has impacted on his own family troubled by schizophrenia, and he does this in such a way that science on a general level also becomes personal. He discusses the origin of human species and our dispersion over the globe, and then what this says about the similarities and differences between races. He shows how historical developments, such as eugenics and Hitler's racial policies, revolve around our ability to shape humankind. Each topic that he shifts to is made relevant to people today and ties the reader's interest. Who isn’t drawn in by twin studies? Who isn’t curious to know what very possibly lies ahead in the future? I appreciate that even philosophical aspects are touched upon. The author neither simplifies the complexities of the science nor does he make the topic incomprehensible for a layman. For me there was a good balance of specific scientific details and clarifying summations. Both how history has shaped our current knowledge and what most probably lies ahead is explored. While I did not understand in detail every step of all the research projects, I could follow the gist of what was being said. There were points where I felt the sentences could possibly have been clearer and where I had to seek further information on the web, but this was not often. Having read the book, I am by no means now an expert, but I feel I have a better comprehension and a solid base to stand on.The audiobook was very well narrated by Dennis Boutsikaris. He spoke clearly and usually at not too rapid a speed. Keep in mind, I classify myself as a beginner; others reading this may know much more than myself. Such listeners can increase the speed!I was very hesitant to pick up this book. The reading experience turned out to be much better than I had expected, basically because it kept my interest from start to finish and I learned a lot. ...more

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May 15, 2016 Alex rated it really liked it

Shelves: biology, science, 2016

The dude who wrote Emperor of all Maladies is back with a prequel and it's good!

It starts with some history - a little Darwin and a lot of Mendel, the monk who spent his whole life geeking out over pea plants, and who I remember as being the most boring part of a very boring 9th grade biology class. (Why is high school so awful at making science interesting? It's so interesting!) And some other, lesser-known characters. This is what Mukherjee did in Emperor of Maladies, too: the history of resea The dude who wrote is back with and it's good!It starts with some history - a little Darwin and a lot of Mendel, the monk who spent his whole life geeking out over pea plants, and who I remember as being the most boring part of a very boring 9th grade biology class. (Why is high school so awful at making science interesting? It's ) And some other, lesser-known characters. This is what Mukherjee did in Emperor of Maladies, too: the history of research into a thing. He's good at making it interesting - and he reads a lot of books, so you never know when all of a sudden he's gonna cite That's a great bonus for those of us who are book nerds first, science nerds later.Then it goes into actual DNA stuff with Watson & Crick etc., and here we get into the realm of "There's really no way for me to intuitively grasp any of this," so it's a little tough going for me but I get it a little, I guess. And in the last third, we talk about all the stuff you're really curious about with genes:- If we're all getting DNA tests when we're pregnant, are we actually engaging in a vague sort of opt-in eugenics? (Yes!)- Remember that book WTF was that? (It was bullshit!)- Is there a gay gene or what? (Sortof!) - What personality traits are genetically influenced? (Studies of identical twins separated at birth find that they tend to agree on sexual preference, religion and politics. That's )I raised an eyebrow a little when Mukherjee discussed kids with Downs Syndrome: he ascribes to them a genetic tendency toward sweetness, and my wife (who works with disabled children) adamantly denies that's a thing. She says Downs Syndrome kids are just kids; it's condescending and even damaging to insist they're naturally sweet, and also laughably incorrect if you've spent much time with Downs Syndrome kids. Science so now we're reminded that it's dangerous to pick any one person as one's authority on any one thing. Mukherjee is well-intentioned but what else is he wrong about? So, y'know, warning: no one's got all the answers.Mukherjee has many of them, though, and this is a fun-to-read and informative book. ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Udeni rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sorry, people. I couldn't finish this book. Billed as a prequel to the brilliant Emperor of Maladies, this was just too confusing and frustrating a book for me. My major difficulty with Mukherjee's approach is that the book is a history of genetics which never properly explains what a gene is. So the reader follows the scientists down blind alleys and back out again while getting dizzy from the increasingly long list of names and biological terms. I ended up trying to sketch out a diagram of how ...more

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Aug 15, 2017 Max rated it it was amazing

Shelves: biology

Mukherjee makes science history interesting, accessible and relevant. We learn about genetics and how a steady stream of brilliant and driven scientists uncovered the code that defines us all. Recent discoveries have given us the ability to change that code. Mukherjee presents the moral conundrums implicit in our new knowledge. The moral dilemma has a history too that is as important as that of the discoveries.

Mukherjee begins with Darwin and Mendel. Mendel’s 1856-63 studies of heritable traits Mukherjee makes science history interesting, accessible and relevant. We learn about genetics and how a steady stream of brilliant and driven scientists uncovered the code that defines us all. Recent discoveries have given us the ability to change that code. Mukherjee presents the moral conundrums implicit in our new knowledge. The moral dilemma has a history too that is as important as that of the discoveries. Mukherjee begins with Darwin and Mendel. Mendel’s 1856-63 studies of heritable traits in peas would go unnoticed, but Darwin’s 1859 drew immediate response. Many considered it blasphemy but in 1883, a year after Darwin’s death, his cousin Francis Galton grasped at a new idea coining the term “eugenics”. He called it “the science of improving stock to give the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing over the less suitable”. Evolutionary theory was barely out of the starting gate and its perversion was racing ahead of it.Galton died in 1911, the year the American Charles Davenport published which became a widely used college text and primary reference for the movement. Many states enacted laws authorizing sterilization to eliminate “defective strains.” Mukherjee dedicates his book to Carrie Buck who in 1924 in Virginia was classified as “feebleminded” by doctors and ordered by a judge to the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and the Feebleminded where her mother had been sent four years earlier. Carrie had been raped and was pregnant. To protect the perpetrator she had been characterized as promiscuous. Virginia wanted to sterilize her and launched a test case that went to the US Supreme Court in 1927. Against the backdrop of widespread fear of immigrants arriving from Southern and Eastern Europe the Court ordered her sterilized. Writing for the 8-1 majority the eminent Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, ”society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind”. While America took the early lead, Germany would bring the eugenics movement to its gruesome conclusion.In 1900 Mendel’s work was rediscovered and the search for heritable traits was on. From 1905 to 1925 Thomas Morgan and his associates tracked these traits in fruit flies in their Fly Room at Columbia University. They learned much about how genes worked but still did not know what genes were. In 1928 English bacteriologist Frederick Griffith showed that genes could be passed from one bacteria strain to another. In 1944 in New York molecular biologist Oswald Avery used Frederick Griffith’s work to pinpoint DNA as the genetic material. Next came a dramatic race among scientists won by James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. In 1953 they identified DNA’s molecular structure, the famous double-helix. In 1959 Jacques Monad, Arthur Pardee and Francois Jacob published a paper showing how DNA operated through RNA to code proteins that in turn regulated DNA allowing each cell to carry out its own function.In 1972 Paul Berg created DNA chimera combining genes from viruses and bacteria. This was not without risk. What if a new pathogen for which humans had no defense was unleashed? Soon after Herb Boyer and Stanley Cohen developed the ability to transfer genes from bacteria into mammalian cells and clone them. Frederick Sanger began to sequence them. In 1976 Herb Boyer was approached by venture capitalist Robert Swanson to exploit this new technology. He suggested they call the new company HerBob, but they settled on Genentech. By 1978 Genentech was making insulin, by 1982 human growth hormone and in 1983 an important blood clotting factor that meant hemophiliacs would not have to rely on AIDS infected blood transfusions. It continues to this day to produce a steady stream of important biological therapies. In 1992 Craig Venter left NIH’s Human Genome Project to set up his own company, The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), dedicated to gene sequencing. In 1995 TIGR was the first to sequence all the genes of a living species, a bacterium. In 1998 Venter left TIGR to form a new gene sequencing company, Celera, derived from the word “accelerate”. Venter intended to beat NIH to be the first to sequence the human genome. That year NIH’s Worm Genome Project completely sequenced the first multicellular animal. Not to be outdone, Celera completely sequenced the fruit fly a year later. In 2000, President Clinton, afraid of the political fallout if the expensive NIH project was beaten by a private startup, engineered a truce. In 2000 Clinton called Venter and Francis Collins who headed NIH’s Human Genome Project to the White House to announce (a little prematurely) that both groups had sequenced the human genome. Both completed their projects and published their results in February 2001.A new era in genetics was underway. Human lineage could be analyzed, ancestry determined and forensics vastly improved. Completely new avenues to diagnose disease, determine its cause and treat it were opened up. Gene therapy got off to an unfortunate start with the highly publicized death of Paul Gelsinger in 1999. But far better and more powerful techniques were coming. In 2012 Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier published their findings about CRISPER. This bacterial defense system could be used to precisely splice genes. Human embryonic stem (ES) cells and human embryos could now be readily modified. After modification pluripotent ES cells could be converted back to embryos. The opportunities and risks are mindboggling.I am struck by the timeliness of reading this in August 2017. In April the FDA approved 23andMe selling home testing for health related genes. Do you have a gene that increases your risk of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s? Now you can find out, but how will you handle the information? In June an FDA advisory committee recommended approval of a gene therapy, CAR-T, which holds much promise in the fight against cancer. If as expected the FDA approves in September, it will be the first gene therapy approved. We can expect subsequent approvals for gene tests and gene therapies to grow rapidly. In July a disease carrying gene was successfully replaced in a human embryo. Designer babies can’t be far in the future. Changes that have long been anticipated are upon us. Is our moral compass up to the responsibility science has placed upon us? Reading Mukherjee’s book one gets a sense of the furious and ever quickening pace at which genetic technology has advanced. Profound capabilities will be readily available to change what we are. Genes define our mental attributes as well as physical features. What will we make of ourselves? It’s scary when we consider how well humans have managed our world and society. This is a 500 page book and much is left out in this review, particularly about how genes work which is explained well for a general audience. But the distinguishing feature of this book is to put forward the risks and moral hazards in balance with the great opportunity and benefit genetics holds. Everyone concerned about our future should pick this one up. ...more

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Oct 04, 2017 Andrej Karpathy rated it really liked it

This book offers a comprehensive and engaging overview of genetics. It includes the history of the field, anecdotes of its development, a well-paced technical explanation of the high level aspects, and quite a lot of discussion on the associated moral dilemmas that we are faced with as we understand how we can use this technology to change our own species.

Unfortunately, the book does not delve into some of the aspects of modern genetics that I find most interesting, such as gene drive. These are ...more

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Jul 16, 2018 Caterina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: indian-author, nature-science, health-illness-healing, favorites, american-author

4.5/5 But what is ”natural”? I wonder. On one hand: variation, mutation, change, inconstancy, divisibility, flux. And on the other, constancy, permanence, indivisibility, fidelity. Bhed. Abhed. It should hardly surprise us that DNA, the molecule of contradictions, encodes an organism of contradictions. . . . Our genome has negotiated a fragile balance between counterpoised forces, pairing strand with opposing strand, mixing past and future, pitting memory against desire. It is the most human of 4.5/5 is Bhed. Abhed. — An anonymous musical composition inspired by a classical Sanskrit poemThis wondrous journey through the history of genetics and genomics left me surprisingly hopeful and somehow less fearful of the future despite the potential risks of genomic technologies and the enormous changes Mukherjee foresees on the horizon, where “what can be divided and what cannot” is yet unknown. With a gentle, compassionate voice, an open mind, and a sense of humor (he’s unable to resist a groan-worthy literary pun) you would definitely want this man as your personal physician. Looking soberly at the risks and atrocities past, present, and (potential) future, he nevertheless exudes a calm and infectious sense of wonder, acceptance of life’s infinitely creative diversity, and careful hope for benefit to humankind.Aesthetic appreciation was no small part of my delight, not only in the writing but in the thrill of learning about the gene and the genome, the literal stuff of life. One semester in college I took a course in Ancient Greek Philosophy together with one in Modern Physics (relativity, quantum theory, etc.) delighting in the juxtaposition of the ancient and modern minds, each seeking the secrets of the universe in their own time. This time around, unplanned, I experienced similar juxtapositions of ancient and modern “seekers” by reading in parallel an imaginative analysis of the biblical origin story: by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. To my surprise and delight, both authors crammed their books with literary references. Shakespeare, Kafka, and especially Wallace Stevens were quoted in both tomes. And what a treat for my poetic imagination. Genesis. sis. DNA, the “script” of every living being on earth, begins to look to me like an unfurling scroll. On it are written the instructions for our creation in combinations of four letters: A, C, G and T. They could just as well be four musical notes playing the unique song of each individual being. (Surely some composers have taken inspiration from this?) Or the four letters in the traditional Hebrew Divine Name, creating infinite marvelous variations in its own image and likeness. And today I read in the news that some poet is genetically altering a bacteria to encode his own poetry into its genome. (“Translated” somehow into the four-letter code, I guess.)I found the storytelling in compelling for the most part. With a delicate touch Mukherjee interwove his own family’s troubled medical history with tales of the scientists and their discoveries, from the unlikely father of genetics, the gentle monk Gregor Mendel and his almost unimaginably rigorous analyses and documentation of tens of thousands of meticulously cross-bred pea plants grown in his monastery garden (after his superior had nixed his similar attempts to cross-breed mice in his monastic cell) — to the recent discoveries by Jennifer Doudma and Emmanuelle Charpentier of CRISPR/Cas9 technologies that allow precise gene editing based on what bacteria naturally do to combat viruses. (This gave me a deeper understanding of current news stories.) A medical doctor, Mukherjee focused on the human medicine perspective — he doesn’t say much about genetically modified organisms in other contexts such as agriculture. As in my recent journey through the history of geological science with John McPhee’s series, there was no shortage of scientists behaving badly. For example, Mendel’s unique, groundbreaking work was suppressed (and plagiarized in part) by an envious scientist to whom Mendel had sent his paper — setting back science for 35 years until Mendel’s research was “discovered” after his death and widely published. And then there were the atrocities committed in the name of human improvement (sometimes) — from forced sterilizations of people on the basis of poverty or race in the United States, to the “final solution” of the Nazis and the “medical” experiments of Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. Could things like this be repeated? Maybe. Terrible things are happening now, Mukherjee contends: in his birth country of India and in China, tens of millions of girls are selectively aborted or removed from the human race by infanticide or exposure. As a caution to the world, Siddhartha Mukherjee dedicated this book to Carrie Buck, the first woman to be forcibly sterilized. Getting further into controversial territory, I was, perhaps naively, surprised and dismayed to learn that the current state of genetic medicine is as primitive as it is, consisting primarily of identifying genetic abnormalities in utero and offering the option of terminating the pregnancy. Ostensibly this is done only by choice, and only for only the most extreme medical conditions that would cause great suffering, but as Mukherjee pointed out, reality is a different story. He also points out the slippery quality of the concept of "great suffering": -- what is it, and who decides? Another major current application of genetic medicine is through in-vitro fertilization, when embryos can be genetically tested and selected or not selected for implantation. Mukherjee discusses some of the ethical concerns with these approaches. What about actually curing genetic diseases? So far, the dangers and technical difficulties of making targeted genetic changes, including fatal screw-ups by overeager experimenters, have held back progress, but Mukherjee believes we are on the cusp of seeing this change, although he cautions that this approach may only apply to conditions that are traceable to a single gene or a simple combination of a few genes -- and we do not know whether changing those genes will also change other, desirable characteristics. We do not know what can be divided and what cannot.Mukherjee tries to speak evenhandedly and sensitively about the dilemmas of genetic “abnormalities” — or, more neutrally, genetic "variations" — which can sometimes also be gifts. For instance the common co-occurrence of genius and mental illness (as occurred in his family) can be traced to genetics and isn’t just the stuff of legends and movies. And most of the time, genes only indicate a potential that may or may not be realized. One special case that is more genetically clear-cut than most, but ethically less so, is Down syndrome. Even this seemingly straightforward chromosomal variation can result in a wide range of outcomes for people born with this condition -- some people born with Down syndrome can have relatively healthy, relatively independent lives. Mukherjee also points out (at least twice) the sweet, almost angelic disposition of people with Down’s syndrome, implying how much would be lost if they were all eliminated from the human race as "undesirable". (Having worked and lived for two summers with Down syndrome youth, I agree.) On the other hand, Mukherjee is sensitive to women who may have reason to make another choice. He mentions the case of a woman who, after having a child with Down syndrome who suffered greatly from medical conditions, underwent many painful surgeries, and died young, decides to abort a subsequent Down fetus. (I couldn’t help but contrast Mukherjee’s sensitive perspective to Richard Dawkins who has said that a woman would be immoral not to abort a fetus with Down syndrome. I find that horrible, and so much for women’s autonomy, some men can’t resist telling us what to do even without a religion to blame it on.)In short, I recommend this book to those interested in a human-focused book on the science of genetics and genomics in pretty close to its current state. I will definitely read Mukherjee’s cancer book now, and I’m also looking forward to reading a new (2018) book with an epigenetic focus: by Carl Zimmer (also new to me). Since finishing this book I've also listened to several extended interviews of Dr. Mukherjee on YouTube about this book and his early book on cancer; my overall impression is of a humble, thoughtful man who cares deeply for us humans. ...more

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Dec 07, 2019 Bharath rated it really liked it

‘The Gene’ is a very informative book, and a book I believe which everyone should read, as it packs vital information on what we really are. That said, this is a big book, and is very dense in several sections.

Siddhartha Mukherjee traces the history of how we have gained better understanding of our genes since over a century. He starts with his family, many of his relatives on his father’s side suffering from mental illnesses. This is interspersed with some random musings on the impact of the p ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Alice Lippart rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science, read-in-2019

Very interesting and educational, but a bit of an effort to get through.

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May 15, 2016 Greg Brozeit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science

At the same time I reached the midway point of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Gene: An Intimate History, the satellite Juno entered the atmosphere of Jupiter. But that feat pales, in my view, to the story about genetic journeys that are taking place within our individual, biological selves, especially since “genes provide the context to understand development and fate” of every human life. As I finished the book today, the New York Times reported that a clinical trial using a promising type of genet At the same time I reached the midway point of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s , the satellite Juno entered the atmosphere of Jupiter. But that feat pales, in my view, to the story about genetic journeys that are taking place within our individual, biological selves, especially since “ provide the context to understand development and fate” of every human life. As I finished the book today, the reported that a clinical trial using a promising type of genetically engineered cells—made, coincidentally, by a company called Juno—had to be halted after three patients died because of swelling in the brain. It is a sobering reminder of, despite its promise, how far we still have to go to understand and harness the promise of genes to lessen the burdens of disability and disease.It’s hard not be overly enthusiastic about how the manipulation of genetics might make things like birth defects, cognitive issues, mental illness, and diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and hemophilia things of the past, especially considering Mukherjee’s masterful, precise overview of the history of scientific progress to understand how the gene works. Yet his combined gifts of scientific expertise and literary brilliance—which he also demonstrated vividly in —provide a dose of reality of how difficult the steps from theory to practice will be. There is an overriding sense, however—like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the Promised Land—that we just might get there if we keep trying.In writing about the evolving history of the gene from Pythagoras to Darwin to Mendel and their intellectual progeny through today, Mukherjee has taken what is usually a dry subject with the prose of a gifted novelist. He interweaves the story of the gene with his own family’s history of mental illness, leaving unsaid his fears of genetic predisposition that might one day affect him, his children or other loved ones. From a lay perspective, it is most interesting that the basic knowledge of the gene is built on studies of things like fruit flies, worms and yeast. (Keep that in mind the next time you hear a member of Congress complaining about “wasteful” spending on research he or she cannot comprehend.) By understanding the basic mechanisms of genes, which are within chromosomes and synthesize DNA to RNA to proteins in these smaller, “simpler” organisms, researchers could better understand how these processes work in humans. Two fly geneticists, for example, “understood that mutations [in genes] are just variations...that convey…essential and profound truth[s]. A mutation…is a statistical entity, not a pathological or moral one.” In other words, when we impose our personal, social, or political views on things like race, a person’s disability or disease, or anything caused by genetic variation, for that matter, it tells us more about our subjective humanity than it does about objective reality.This explains why he doesn’t shy away from the history of the misuse and deliberate misinterpretation of genetics for purposes of political ideology or social engineering. In taking on subjects like eugenics, the monstrous “racial” policies of Nazi Germany, Murray and Herrnstein’s book , and then brings them together through the telling of the story of Carrie (to whom this book is dedicated) and Emma Buck, a daughter and mother who were forced to undergo state-sanctioned sterilization in the name of an evil policy built on a combination of junk science and misguided notions of morality.In telling this story, Mukherjee intertwines contextual definitions with simple rhetoric. Genes are much more complex than carriers and purveyors of heredity; to evolve, genes express things like variation, adaptation and mutation, the latter which he sums up as, “A chicken…was merely an egg’s way of making a better egg.” An essential concept is the genome, i.e., “all genetic information within an organism.” The interplay between genes within any organism’s genome is what makes up the stuff of life. It is an uneven, pragmatic process, or has Mukherjee explains more clearly, “Beautiful laws were often killed by ugly facts.”The ugliest of facts is: even when genes and genomes are distilled to their most simple elements, answers on how to manipulate them is elusive. Scientists must understand the interplay of a variety of factors. “A genotype is an organism’s genetic composition. It can refer to one gene, a configuration of a gene, or even an entire genome. A phenotype, in contrast, refers to an organism’s physical or biological attributes and characteristics—the color of any eye, the shape of a wing, or resistance to hot or cold temperatures.” Or as he puts it more simply: “genotype + environment + + = phenotype.” Some genetic information about disease can be distilled down to one gene defect as in diseases like chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), hemophilia or Huntington’s disease. “But most common human diseases do not arise from single-gene mutations. These are not genetic illnesses as much as genomic illnesses: multiple genes spread differently throughout the human genome, determine the risk for the illness.” The next most important steps to address these issues will be to sequence genomes; to figure out what genetic information is transmitted in particular places at particular times. “Cancer,” for example, is “a genome that becomes pathologically obsessed with replicating itself” and, depending on the type, it can require multiple—perhaps tens or hundreds of distinct operations at the genetic level—approaches to alter blood cells have them match up with the disease causing mutations within each individual’s body, something that Juno’s clinical trial tried unsuccessfully to do. Yet, Mukherjee’s opus leads me to believe that when we understand why these trials have failed, the news will be much bigger than interplanetary exploration and much, much more significant to our lives.Mukherjee is a trained oncologist. These folks are usually very dry and hyper-focused; they aren’t well-read outside of their fields nor do they know much about art, poetry or history. But Mukherjee is different. He can write with an eloquent simplicity that makes complex issues completely clear to someone like me who was never crazy about science. First he writes what is arguably one the best nonfiction books ever written, , and then he follows it up with an eloquent masterpiece on a subject that is much more complex to explain. He is incredibly gifted. Much like , he should be considered one of the great medical minds of our or any generation if only because of his gift of being able to convey such complex, relevant ideas to lay persons everywhere. ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Britta Böhler rated it really liked it

Shelves: kindle-scribd, 2017, non-fiction, science-nature

What a fantastic read!
4.5*

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Jun 15, 2016 Brian Clegg rated it really liked it · review of another edition

When this title arrived, before I opened the pack I thought there were two books inside, and my stomach sank a bit at the thought of ploughing through a 600 page wrist-buster. Apart from anything else, very long popular science books are often loaded with affectation, and this impression was not helped by the toe-curling praise of a previous title ('The notion of "popular science" doesn't come close to describing this achievement. It is literature.' Ick.) Not to mention the tedious, very persona When this title arrived, before I opened the pack I thought there were two books inside, and my stomach sank a bit at the thought of ploughing through a 600 page wrist-buster. Apart from anything else, very long popular science books are often loaded with affectation, and this impression was not helped by the toe-curling praise of a previous title ('The notion of "popular science" doesn't come close to describing this achievement. It is literature.' Ick.) Not to mention the tedious, very personal prologue.Thankfully, though, the writing settles down once Siddhartha Mukherjee gets on to the actual content, though the style remains a little flowery. There are minor quibbles of detail (friars, for example, are described as monks) but what follows is a detailed and well-told story of the development of genetics, from Darwin and Mendel's early work to the modern medical implications and dangers of making changes at a genetic level. In fact the potential negatives of genetic theory come in early and are repeatedly stressed. Starting with eugenics and the Nazis, that sense of threat never goes away - the reader gets the impression that at times that Mukherjee would probably rather we had never found about genes. This is the most original and strongest aspect of the book.You will either love or be irritated by the regular return to the author's family story - I'm in the second camp as it really has very little to do with science or history of science, but I appreciate it will help those who find the idea of reading a purely science-based book scary.The history of science side isn't bad, though Darwin is given a distinctly old-fashioned lone genius treatment. We are told 'The essence of Darwin's disruptive genius was his ability to think about nature not as a fact - but as a process' - but in reality this viewpoint was very much in the air as shown by Wallace's letter, independently duplicating many of Darwin's ideas, which panicked Darwin into publication. I am not doing down Darwin's contributions, which were huge - but the change of viewpoint we are told about was by no means unique to him.I was also disappointed by the lack of coverage of epigenetics, the idea that genes don't have quite the sole central importance that was once thought, as what is more important is the combination of the genes and the various external factors that turn them on and off. In effect we've moved on from the gene being the lone controller to a major part of a much more complex (and hence harder to explain) system.This has had a major impact in the field, but perhaps because of the book's title, Mukherjee hardly gives the concept any coverage.Overall there is plenty of material here both on the development of genetic theory and medicine and on the moral implications of such work. For me, Matt Ridley's Genome was a better backgrounder if you don't also want the medical content, and either book needs to be read alongside Nessa Carey's The Epigenetic Revolution. But there is no doubt that if you like the blockbuster approach to science reading - perhaps as something to get you through some long holiday flights - this is an excellent example of the genre. ...more

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Nov 30, 2016 Liza Fireman rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-from-shelf, ebook

This book is a combination of science, history, and stories. It is so well written and very engaging, but it does includes many details (and reads like a textbook for some of the time). I am not writing this to discourage anyone from reading this, just to set the expectations if you decide to approach this book. Since I studied some extended biology in the past it was easy for me to dive into the RNA and the amino acid described at length, so just FYI. The author did an amazing job spicing up th ...more

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Apr 15, 2017 Rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: family-memoirs, science-tech, wellcome-prize-shortlist, newbury-library, skimmed, read-via-netgalley, reviewed-for-blog

The Emperor of All Maladies, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011, is among my most memorable reads of the past decade. So it was a disappointment to find that I could never really engage with Mukherjee’s second full-length work. There’s no denying this book’s impressive scope: it’s a comprehensive survey of the past 150 years of genetics research, but it also stretches back to antiquity to see the different ways people have imagined that heredity works. It’s a no-holds-barred science and social h , which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011, is among my most memorable reads of the past decade. So it was a disappointment to find that I could never really engage with Mukherjee’s second full-length work. There’s no denying this book’s impressive scope: it’s a comprehensive survey of the past 150 years of genetics research, but it also stretches back to antiquity to see the different ways people have imagined that heredity works. It’s a no-holds-barred science and social history text, both chronological and thematic in approach, and it also surprises with its breadth of literary reference (as in the epigraphs from and ). However, my favorite snippets were those that constitute a mini family memoir of the schizophrenia that runs through the author’s India-based family.Part of the problem was that a lot of the early material concerning Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin is very familiar to me. High school genetics material has stayed fresh in my mind even though so many other subjects have faded, and I’ve done a lot of reading on Darwin for my Victorian Literature MA and on my own time. Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, then provides a segue into the dark side of genetics: eugenics. A lot of space is given to Nazism, but Mukherjee also hits closer to home with the case of Carrie Buck, a “feeble-minded” woman whose enforced sterilization the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in 1927.Other important figures in the history of genetics include Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries, Hermann Muller, Oswald Avery, Linus Pauling, and the famous English team that discovered the structure of DNA, Watson, Crick & Franklin. Parts Three and Four, which chronicle the advances in genetics that fell between the 1970s and early 2000s, struck me as particularly dull, whereas Part Five held my interest much more strongly in that it brings things up to date with the developments of the last 15 years, including epigenetics, genetic testing for breast cancer and schizophrenia, stem cell therapy and the search for a “gay gene.”The book did leave me with a strong sense that our knowledge of genes – the least divisible unit of information about life – affects our understanding of the human identity and future:However, at nearly 500 very dense, small-print pages, this book will, I fear, struggle to find a broad readership. Is it for science majors and graduate students? They’re likely to have their own university-approved textbooks. Is it an introduction for the general layman? Without a keen interest in science and a determination to learn the last word about genetics, readers are unlikely to persist with such a tome. I have a greater than average interest in genetic diseases, yet couldn’t manage more than a desultory skim. Unlike , I can’t see this becoming a modern classic of popular science writing. For me it’s this year’s : an achievement I can objectively admire but not personally warm to.Originally published on my blog, . ...more

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Apr 01, 2021 Kevin Lopez (on sabbatical) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history-of-science, science-biology-and-chemistry

“ Here, in the estuarine plains of criss-crossing information, history, society, and culture collide and intersect with genetics, like tides. Some waves cancel each other, while others reinforce each other. No force is particularly strong—but their combined effect produces the unique and rippled landscape that we call an individual’s identity. ”

“ Normalcy is the antithesis of evolution. ”

“The Gene: An Intimate History” by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a comprehensive, relentlessly informative and “”“”“The Gene: An Intimate History” by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a comprehensive, relentlessly informative and entertaining history of the gene, and of all the myriad domains that it touches upon: the essence of family, heredity, fate, creativity, individuality, humanity, and life itself—indeed, of the very nature and meaning of being alive, of being born, of dying, and of all the untold generations that will succeed us and inherit our legacy. “”Throughout this book, Mukherjee systematically traces the vastly differing theories and conceptualizations of the genesis and reproduction of life across the past 2,500 years of human thought—a lineage of lineage, if you will—from Pythagoras and Aristotle in antiquity to Darwin and Mendel in the mid-19th century; from Francis Galton and the insidious spread of the eugenics movement in the early-20th century to its grisly apotheosis during the Holocaust; from Watson, Crick, Wilkins and Franklin’s discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA to the first successful gene-cloning experiment; from the Human Genome Project in the 1990s to present-day bioethical debates over the uses of stem cells and cutting-edge gene-editing technologies like CRISPR. Throughout, Mukherjee moves fluidly from dispassionate scientific observer to introspective participant, offering personal reflections on his family’s history of mental illness, all the while continuing to inform, instruct and explicate, clearly elucidating not only the science and the resultant technologies, but also all of the thorny moral, political, philosophical, and societal implications of what is undoubtedly the most potentially transformative and transcendent—not to say destructive and dangerous—idea of our time: the gene. The very key to life itself.“”“The Gene” is a fascinating tour through the history, people, and ideas that revolutionized our notion of what it means to be human, to live, and which are, even now, illuminating the pathway to a better understanding of ourselves and our fellow living beings. Five out of five stars. ...more

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About Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee

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Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at Columbia University Medical Center. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and The New ...more