Jacob's Ladder: the History of the Human Genome

Science News, July 24, 2004

JACOB'S LADDER: The History of the Human Genome HENRY GEE

Gee, a senior biology editor for Nature, considers how the map of the human genome will be used to help answer some of the biggest questions about life, among them how life got started, how evolution unfolds, and how genetic defects cause disease. Gee provides a primer on the origins of genomic science, tutoring readers on such topics as reproductive biology and biotechnology. Along the way, he traces the historical development of genetics from the prescientific times of Aristotle through the molecular breakthroughs of James Watson and Francis Crick in the 1950s. Readers become versed in DNA as a molecule and learn how genes interact with one another to create unique individuals. Gee considers how the network of genes in each organism contains a record of all life that came before it over billions of years. He ends the book with a discussion about how we are likely to harness this newfound capacity to manipulate genes and what the ramifications could be for creating and repairing life. Originally published in the United Kingdom. Norton, 2004, 272 p., hardcover, $25.95.