It is interesting to me how, despite our best efforts, our preconceptions can totally shape our experiences. I was impressed when two biology majors in my school independently recommended this to book to me. Must be good, I thought. So, in the interest of honesty, I must disclose that my inflated expectations were probably the biggest contributor to my lackluster reaction. I had high hopes, and Ridley only partially delivered.
tt
In popular science, an easy way to divide books is by the occupation of the writer: scientist or journalist? Dawkins represents, to me, the high point of the scientist end; he does not pepper his books with interesting anecdotes and trivia, but concentrates on real theories and real dilemmas in science. He succeeds in making the reader feel like an insider rather than an outsider. On the other end of the spectrum is Bill Bryson’s wonderful Short History of Nearly Everything, which is overflowing with anecdotes and trivia; read that book, and you’ll be spewing interesting stories and facts to your friends for months. Where Dawkins is focused on the theoretical, Bryson concentrates on the human side of things. Bryson doesn’t pretend to be any kind of expert; rather, his journalistic background has honed his appreciation for the fascinating backstory, the compelling character, the revealing tidbit. He brings the scientists to life, and focuses on their personalities and circumstances. The reader is not left feeling like an insider to the world of science, but a very appreciative outsider.
tt
Ridley walks an uncomfortable medium in this book, and the result is decidedly mediocre. He has clearly spent a great deal of time familiarizing himself with the subject, and it shows; nevertheless, he is no expert. Ridley’s appreciation for the subject matter is not for its theoretical beauty, but for its social significance. He is exclusively interested, apparently, in humans (an unscientific prejudice!). This book combines research findings about the human genome with little biographies of scientists and narratives of their research. By the end, the reader feels neither like an insider nor an appreciative outsider. Rather, the reader feels like she has just read several science sections of the New York Times back to back.
tt
I’m really finding it difficult to say anything concrete about Ridley; it’s far easier to say what he is not. His writing is neither incompetent nor exceptional; the reader is never struck by a malformed sentence, nor do any sentences stick in the mind after the book is put down. His understanding of the material is neither superficial nor deep; the reader is given some discussions of the logic of the theories, but as quick sketches rather than detailed diagrams. His feeling for a good anecdote is neither substandard nor superb; he presents many interesting stories, but none so shocking, hilarious, or dramatic as could be found in, say, Bryson. In sum, this is an eminently mediocre book.
tt
To reiterate my above warning, I think my underwhelmed impression is due as much to my overblown expectations as to the quality of the book. By no means is this a bad book, and I’m sure it could be read by many with great interest; yet I expected a detailed exploration of the field of genetics, and instead got a series of stories about particular discoveries, which didn’t end up adding into a thorough picture of the field. Ridley perhaps stands in a much-needed middle ground between ‘deep’ scientists and ‘superficial’ journalists; but it is a middle-ground that I found fairly uninteresting.

يتكلم عن الجينوم البشري في 22 فصل، وبكل فصل يختار جين معين ويحكي قصته.

A really great introduction to genetics. One of my friends, who studied chemistry in college, recommended the book to me. The book is divided into 23 chapters, representing the 23 different sets of chromosomes in the human body. The concept fascinated me, and I thought that if the author had enough of a sense of humor to write a book this way, why not give it a try?

I'm not going to pretend that I understood 100% of the book, but the parts I did understand, I appreciated. While the writer does provide an introduction on how genes and DNA work, for most people who don't have a background in genetics, the amount of material will be overwhelming. My best advice is to skim to get the general idea and continue on. The principles will be repeated as you progress along the book, and this time they'll stick because they are illustrated using real life occurrences (for example, I now have a clearer understanding of how stress biologically affects our bodies). The concepts are intricate, but Matt Ridley does a great job breaking things down into digestible portions.

Despite the title, each chapter does not go into a detailed account of the function of each set of chromosomes. Good thing, too, since each chromosome serves a variety of different functions. Instead, each chapter is divided up into themes. For example, the chapter Fate, which I found the most fascinating, sought to prove that a good portion of our lives is written in our genetic code. Ridley uses Huntington’s Disease to prove this point: he explains how Huntington’s is caused, why it happens in some people and not in others, and describes in detail how a repeating sequence of CAGs can determine at what age you start to show symptoms. What I appreciated the most, though, was that Ridley also pushes further to describe the ramifications of the disease—should doctors tell a patient that they have the disease and that they will develop symptoms at a certain age? Should patients inquire about whether or not they have the incurable, unavoidable disease?

The book, while informative and intellectually stimulating, encourages us to ask very difficult questions that result from such issues. Rather than the detached scientist studying life through a microscope, Ridley actively engages with life, challenging and observing and questioning. Instead of the coldly yet carefully studied discourse on genetics it could have been, the book joins human life and genetics together in a compassionate way.

Definitely recommended, and not just for the science-y people.

Matt Ridley is able to break down extremely difficult concepts into terms the average reader can understand. This book was fascinating as it took every human genome and added real life in clear, lucid examples. This is a remarkable work and it will make anyone who reads it smarter. It is also highly entertaining, not an easy feat.

I wish I had read this book 19 years ago, when it was first published. Now, it is out of date. In fact, the Bibliography and Notes section mentions that the book was already out of date, as new knowledge is growing at a very fast rate. Nevertheless, the book is fascinating, even if modern genetic technologies are not even mentioned--as they were not yet invented at the time of publication!

We often read that 98% of our genetic letters are in common with chimpanzees, and 97% with gorillas. But, I was amazed to read that humans share exactly the same number and types of bones with chimpanzees, the same chemicals in our brains. We have the same types of immune, digestive, vascular, lymph, and nervous systems. So, it must be the remaining 2% of our gene structures that differentiate humans from chimpanzees.

All sorts of nature-vs.-nurture issues are addressed in this book. The book contains a remarkable table of IQ correlations. For identical twins reared together, the correlation is 86%. For twins reared apart, 76%. For biological siblings, 47%. For adopted children living together, the correlation is 0%. These statistics say a lot about the relative importance of nature vs. nurture. And, remarkably, as one ages from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, the importance of heritability of IQ increases!

Evolution by natural selection is about the "competition between genes, using individual and occasionally societies as their temporary vehicles.... The body's survival is secondary to the goal of getting another generation started." Genes act as if they have selfish goals, an idea first proposed and made popular by Richard Dawkins in his famous book, The Selfish Gene.

I learned from this book that men and women are most attracted to body odors of people of the opposite sex who are most different from them genetically, in terms of MHC genes that govern resistance to parasite intruders, by the immune system. Also, I learned how genes can be expressed due to the release of cortisol and other hormones during periods of stress. For example, people living near the Three Mile Island nuclear plant at the time of the accident had more cancers than expected. But, these cancers were not due to radiation exposure, as there was none, but due to heightened cortisol levels, which which reduced the effectiveness of the immune system.

Genes need to be switched on in order to work. External events and free-willed behavior can switch on genes. Genes are not omnipotent; they are at the mercy of our behavior. Another remarkable fact is that the status of a person's job is a better predictor of the likelihood of a heart attack, than obesity or high blood pressure. Someone in a low-grade job is four times more likely to have a heart attack than a high-grade job. The reason is that low-grade jobs lead to the lack of control over one's fate, leading to an increase in stress hormones, followed by a rise in blood pressure and heart rate. This may explain why unemployment and welfare dependency help to make people ill. It is not understood why we and all animals have evolved in such a way that stress suppresses our immune systems.

The most important lesson from the book is repeated over and over again, "Genes are not there to cause diseases." Gene mutations can lead to disease, and sometimes there is a balancing effect between resistance to one disease at the expense of being susceptible to another disease.

This is an excellent book, very readable, and quite engaging. The author gets into some technical detail at times, without getting too bogged down in jargon. I recommend this book for anyone interested in genetics. My only reservation about it, is the fact that it is already quite out of date due to the rate of increasing knowledge about genetics.

I find the notions of genetics and inheritance both fascinating and sad. The inevitable genetic engineering and rewriting the genome to enhance humans are mind-blowing and horrifying ideas. Analogous to 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells, the book has 23 chapters. In each chapter, Ridely picks an appealing gene from the corresponding chromosome and discusses it. Sometimes he tells the story of how the gene was discovered. Sometimes he explains the role the gene plays in our life, or its necessity, or how it evolved through natural selection, or how and why it causes a disease. However, my favorite parts of the book were the side stories about the people who were somehow related to the discovery of the genes or affected by a disease caused by the genes.

Not only a witty science book, also sheer poetry! Brilliant!

كتاب يتحدث عن الجينات، كل فصل يتناول جينا له دور كبير و مؤثر على مختلف نواحي حياتنا، اسلوب الكاتب رائع و يقدم الكثير من المعلومات بطريقة سهلة و ممتعة.

3.5 stars. First and foremost, I started this as a audiobook. Probably, not the best choice to not read this kind of book but once I started it, the text was engaging, the narration was at a good pace to keep up and I was astounded at the material that once I read in the most basic and uninteresting form in my high school text books. The book starts with text book material giving a brief introduction about DNA, Gene and Chromosomes and the book is divided into 22 chapters with stories, myths and case studies of different chromosomes. The author touches upon several aspects of eugenics, genetic theory, free-will and determinism and I am amazed how he managed to compress such a large information in the book. So, again as I was listening to the book, I had no idea on references that he was making to but I saw that in the text version he has provided index.

Although, I hate to say that the book is slightly old for the time but is a good introduction to basic eugenics and genetic theory and how it's important in our day to day life behavior, bits and pieces on nurture and nature and at the end completely going into a chapter of free will and determinism. The book definitely diverges at the end, I was certainly not looking for the author to get entirely philosophical but nevertheless overall I felt the book was interesting for a novice like me who's looking for introductory material to refer to for understanding genetics.

I first read this about 20 years ago, and I was enthralled. This led to extensive additional reading on the topics of genetics and evolution in the intervening period, and I wondered if I could read this book again years later and still enjoy it. Yep, still a great book, even if parts are a bit dated!!

يُعتبَر اكتشاف الجين بخريطته المتكونة من ٢٣ جين هو اعظم اكتشاف في القرن العشرين. مات ردلي ابدع بإسلوب علمي بتفصيل هذا الاكتشاف بثلاثة وعشرين فصلا (بعدد شريط الكروموسومات) عن ماهية الجينات وكيف هي تعمل.

لمن يود فهم الجينات كاملة انصحه بقراءة كتاب علم المفس التطوري قبل هذا الكتاب، او بعده اذا كان لديه معرفة مسبقة عن الجينات، لكن بكلتا الحالاين يجب ان يُقرأ علم النفس التطوري لفهم والجينات بصورة كاملة وواضحة.

وأنا غارق في بحر هذا الكتاب, وجدتني لا شعوريا استحضر هذه الأبيات الحكيمة المنسوبة للإمام علي- عليه السلام:


دواؤك فيك وما تشعر *** وداؤك منك وما تُبصر
وتحسب أنّك جرم صغير*** وفيك انطوى العالم الأكبر
وأنت الكتاب المبين الذي*** بأحرفه يظهر المُضمَر

العجيب في الأمر أن المؤلف استخدم نفس التشبيه-الكتاب- للإشارة إلى الجينوم



لغير المتخصصين, مثلي, الكتاب يفتح بابا من المعرفة لم أكن أعلم أنه أصلا موجود

قد يكون مستغربا تقييم الثلاث نجمات, ولكنها الترجمة, وما أدراك ما الترجمة؟! روعة الكتاب تعتمد على أسلوب المؤلف البارع في توصيل المعلومة بأسلوب قصصي مشوق. وأعتقد أن المترجم لم يتمكن من ترجمة الأسلوب

فيما عدا ذلك, فالكتاب كنز, وسأسعى للحصول على نسخته الإنجليزية


يتحدث المؤلف عن أحد أهم إنجازات العلم في التاريخ, اكتشاف خريطة الجينوم البشري, الذي كان يعتقد أنه سيجيب على جميع الأسئلة المتعلقة بالإنسان, ولكن اتضح بعد حين أن الاكتشاف لم يقم إلا بتفجير فيضا من الأسئلة الجديدة

الكتاب مقسم إلى 23 فصلا, وفي كل فصل يختار جينا من الجينات من كل زوج من الكروموسومات ويحكي عن قصة اكتشافه والأبحاث المتعلقة به ورؤيته لمستقبل جين هذا الزوج من الكروموسومات

بالطبع, المؤلف لن يكتب عن كل الجينات, فجسم الإنسان - حسب المذكور في الكتاب - يحتوي على 60 إلى 80 ألف جين. وما يذكره هو مجرد نماذج لتلك الجينات

اضطرني الكتاب إلى مشاهدة العديد من الفيديوهات على اليوتيوب عن الجينوم/ الدنا/ الرنا/والكثير من الشخصيات المذكورة في الكتاب. الكتاب لم يكن نزهة, ولكنه كان ممتعا...تماما كالذهاب إلى النادي


بعض الفصول استوقفتني كالوقاية والعلاج, وأخرى مررت عليها مرور الكرام لجهلي وتعقيدها, أما الفصل الأكثر إثارة وسوداوية فكان بلا منازع فصل اليوجينيا

كثير من الناس ينظر إلى الجانب المشرق من العلم والجانب المظلم من الدين, فيمجد الأول ويزدري الثاني؛ أدعو أصحاب هذه العقلية أن يقرأوا هذه الفصل بتمعن ويعلموا أن العلم والدين بلا أخلاق يتحولان إلى وحش كاسر بلا رحمة. عادة ما تكون السياسة هي المسؤولة عن هذا التحول...أو بالأحرى الاستبداد السياسي - كما هو الحال مع سياسات اليوجينيا المرعبة في ألمانيا والسويد والولايات المتحدة والنرويج وفنلندا أوائل القرن الماضي


كتاب رائع, ولكنه يحتاج إلى أساسيات قوية...أتمنى لكم رحلة ممتعة