The Gene: An Intimate History

Interest in the power of the gene has heightened by the popularity of the numerous ancestry testing sites, like 23 & Me, which is the one I used to find out that I was 99% “Northwestern” European, which included Britain and Ireland (this would also include Scotland, which wasn’t a surprise) but the “Irish” ancestry was. The book provides a comprehensive history of the most intimate science of our time—the fundamentals of heredity. What better person to tell this story than the author of The Laws of Medicine and The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, which won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and was voted one of Time’s 100 best and most influential books since 1923. Mukherjee is a Rhodes Scholar, a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Oxford, not to mention Harvard Medical School. The author has embarked on a most ambitious quest to understand human heredity’s influence on lives, personalities, identities, fates and the choices we make as individuals. Through the story, the author’s own family members were present, plagued by mental illness. The book is divided into two parts. A vivid history of the development of genetics and then a meditation of the study of what it means for biology and medicine (not to mention human identity). He also explores the challenges and dangers of genetic modification. For years, “experts” proposed that male homosexuality was caused by the distorted dynamics of a family, “by the fatal combination of a smothering mother who was often ‘close-binding’ and (sexually) intimate, if not overtly seductive, to her son and by a detached, distant father.” All of this changed in July of 1993 with the discovery of the so-called gay gene, which incited one of the most vigorous public discussions about genes, identity, and choice in the history of genetics. Just one of the surprises I came across in this eye-opening book. The author also explores the future of this new, quickly developing science with the following quote from Gina Smith, author of The Genomics Age, “Probably no DNA science is at once as hopeful, controversial, hyped, and even as potentially dangerous as the discipline known as gene therapy.” He goes on to say, “It would rebound from the ugliness of the initial trials and learn the moral lessons implicit in the “cautionary tale of scientific overreach.” Over the years, we can expect to see more headway on how genes can identify and prevent serious diseases. As I was writing this review, I listened to a story on Public Radio about a new test made possible through research at “T-Gen” (Translational Genomics Research Institute) here in Phoenix of a breakthrough that would decrease the test turn-around time for Valley Fever from 21 to only one day, which would accelerate the healing process. As far as my own 23 & Me test, I added Ireland to the countries I needed to visit, which is fairly straightforward. Not so for one of my close Guatemalan friends whose test indicated over 80% of his family comes from the Iberian Peninsula, which includes Spain. This was not a surprise, but the 20% of Indian influence (Mayan Indian, in this case)) was a surprise and opened up some interesting questions and speculation. Although over 50% of the population is Mayan Indian, they are still ignored and considered second-class citizens to a degree making this revelation an embarrassment to some. This book is possibly one of the greatest detective stories ever told. And Mukherjee tells a dramatic story that is sweeping and transcendent. A perfect read for anyone who wants to better understand and appreciate the considerable impact that genomics will have on our personal lives as well as new trends in health care.

Although the Gene is iterated more toward people without science background, from my opinion, it is a great book to read with or without science background. The field of genetics is so broad and yet still need to be continuously studied. The heaviness and profoundness of information have been a huge obstacle that prevent people who usually are not familiar with science from even attempting to understand it. Mukherjee did an excellent work of compiling the enormous information and place it into historical context. As someone who has a science background, I’m not unfamiliar with all those jargons in the field of genetics. However, it was after I read the Gene that I realized without knowing the history of genetics my understanding of genetics was limited and incomplete. I have been purely learning genetics by itself and ignoring all the history associated with it. Part of it is because professors and textbooks rarely mention about those history; part of it is I naïvely thought science can be isolated from the society as its own entity, therefore I intentionally avoided to put genetics into the context of whole society. I was so glad and grateful to have read the Gene. I was also impressed by Mukherjee’s literature attainment, which make the whole reading experience a lot more fun and enjoyable. The storytelling style is able to attract people who are naturally intimidated by cold science facts; it also makes all those scientists come to live instead of just being those names people mention a lot. By doing this, Mukherjee opens a door for everybody to join the important conversation about our future, identity and heritage besides just scientists. All in all, the Gene is a book I would highly recommend to read.

First and foremost, this book is a tour de force of modern scientific prose writing. It's not quite on the literary level of, e.g., Cajal's memoirs, but it is strikingly more pleasant to read than any other contemporary public-oriented piece of scientific writing. The author masterfully combines a history of genetics, relevant personal anecdotes, and a seemingly unfathomable well of cultural and literary adjacencies into a literary product that stands far above its peers. Secondarily, the book is extraordinarily well researched, even compared, again, against contemporary scientific writing. While some of the subtler scientific points could be said to be presented in a misleading fashion, given the lack of theoretical granularity offered in what is a deliberately surface-level treatment, there are very few obvious mistakes or out-of-lane tricks of overconfidence, and what few there are can be put down to unconversance with quantum physics or trivial misattributions of apocrypha about infinite stacks of turtles. It really is a surprisingly tight piece of work. But...for its length and precision, it leaves VERY much to be desired by the expert reader. While one may be induced to recollect -- and in some cases, learn for the first time -- various names and dates in the long history of the development of the field of genetics, there is no actual science in this book of history that even rises to the level of a middle-school survey of the field. It is of course a deliberate choice of the author to present a history rather than a scientific primer, much less a theoretical review or in-depth scientific analysis, but the lack of *scientific* rigor in such a masterfully rigorous history was a bit disappointing to this reader. Generally, I would give a book with such little science as this a maximum of three stars. As it stands, I had trouble subtracting even one from the final score -- it really is that well written. Bravo, Dr Mukherjee.

As others have stated, the writing is both clear and elegant. Modern genetics is a hugely important topic, but the future of genetics technology is murky. Mukherjee deals nicely with the complexities although there are bound to be disagreements about his conclusions and musings. More to the point, understanding modern genetics is far from easy especially for those of us without the appropriate scientific background. Toward the end of the book when he discusses many of the modern technologies the going gets rough. However, I have a fairly good lay understanding of genetics, and have read many attempts to explain how all this works. It's just hard work. There were certainly places where I didn't completely follow although perhaps a second or third reading might have done the trick. At any rate this is by far the best introduction to modern genetics although something like Genetics for Dummies would make a nice companion for help in clarification. The latter is somewhat too simplified (and now dated), but it is useful for relatively non-technical explanations. The author nicely integrates discusses individual cases including those from his own family which makes for a more interesting reading. He also does a superb job of bringing the history to life by focusing on individual scientists and their contributions. It would have been fun to read more about the various personality conflicts and rivalries, but such gossip while interesting is hardly central to the story. The early part of the book dealing with early genetics through Watson and Crick is engaging, and in fact I could hardly put the book down during the first half when the technical issues are not so complicated. The latter half is certainly less of a page turner, but there's just no way to give a reasonable explanation in page-turning mode. This book is certainly too long and too detailed for the causal reader, but it's brilliant for those of us willing to invest some time. Even the parts I didn't fully understand were interesting if a bit opaque. Highly recommended so long as potential readers do not expect an easy go of it. The negative reviews are mostly about delivery failures and Kindle mishaps which are not relevant to the worth of the book. These are not issues likely to affect the majority of us and say nothing about the book itself. This is not the best place for complaining about such matters although, of course for some items consistent problems in manufacture and delivery are important to know. Not true here. And there are legitimate complaints about some material that might have been included but wasn't. However, the lack of such material is hardly reason to denigrate the whole book. I too missed material that I wish had been included, but the book is long and inevitable decisions must be made about what gets in and what doesn't. Missing material, which is not extensive in any case, is hardly reason to give the book really low ratings. It's important to have such lapses pointed out, but they have to be balanced against the many strengths of the book.

I read with great interest Siddhartha Mukherjee's recent book The Gene: An Intimate History. This work represents a masterful weaving together, intimately, of many different strands related to the gene. First and foremost is the technical strand. Here Mukherjee goes into detail, explaining in simple language many key concepts behind genes. What I most liked was the discussion of the Mitochondrial Eve and the dating of populations in terms of coalescent theory and the overview of apoptosis and master regulators and how the careful tracing of cell lineages gave rise to the unintuitive idea of cell death. I also liked the account of the development of positional cloning as just a mental lightning bolt relating to what random markers on the genome connect to. The next thread, of course, is the scientists themselves. Here we see them feuding and competing with each other. There is, of course, the famous tale of Watson and Crick versus Rosalind Franklin and how the former dynamic duo essentially stole the key concepts in "Photograph 51" from her. Then there are discussions of the rivalries of Morgan’s disciples, in particular Muller and Sturtevant, and the rivalry at the beginning of biotechnology between Boyer and Swanson in California versus Gilbert on the East Coast, racing to clone insulin and other genes. A third strand relates to the ethical and social implications of genetics. Unfortunately the field has had quite a checkered past with eugenics beginning almost as soon as genetics. The book describes how eugenics, in a sense, set the backdrop for Nazism and the horrors of the Second World War. What is interesting is the contrast of the Nazi focus on genetic determinism with the Soviet notion, backed by their scientist Lysenko, which is diametrically opposite, that an organism could be profoundly changed by its environment. The book then goes on to discuss how we are coming into a new era of eugenics, dubbed new-genics, based on positive choice, in terms of having the genetic offspring of one's choosing. The final strand of the book is in a sense the most intimate: the author often digresses on his own personal history in connection to genetics, discussing in particular his family battles with schizophrenia. It is sometimes hard to see how these anecdotes relate to the science, but they do add to readability. Overall the readability of this book is fantastic. On the one hand, it has lots of simple aphorisms that stick in one's head. One that comes to my mind most is how Mukherjee concisely characterized the key elements of 20th Century science as the byte, the atom and the gene, putting those three concepts together in a simple phrase. Another great illustration of the book’s readability is how the author contrasts the biochemist versus the geneticist, with the first focusing on concentrating something more and the second looking for informative differences to pick something out of the crowd. Overall I would highly recommend this book as it is a great way to soak up a lot of scientific knowledge while being exposed to other dimensions of genetics.

Dr. Mukherjee’s earlier book, The Emperor of All Maladies, a book on cancer, is on my list of all-time top ten books. His new book is also at or close to the same level: It is a six star book on a scale of one to five. Dr. Mukherjee writes beautifully and with extraordinary clarity on very difficult technical subjects, moving effortlessly from complex, detailed biochemical processes to enormous ethical issues affecting our very future as a species. This book is a masterful story of the history of genetics, starting from Mendel and Darwin right up to the latest gene modification processes; it is the clearest and most comprehensive account that I have read. But it is much more because Dr. Mukherjee introduces us to human dramas involving both researchers and patients. He also sets out the moral issues of our growing power to change the genomes not only of living people and embryos but also of descendants who have yet to be conceived. Woven through the book is the personal story of Dr. Mukherjee’s family, which has a history of schizophrenia. Two of Dr. Mukherjee’s uncles and one of his first cousins suffered the devastating effects of schizophrenia and he lives with the possibility that he, too, may someday be struck down and/or have passed the disruptive genes on to his children. This is not a lightweight book but I found it easy to read, thanks to the elegance of the writing, and totally gripping. As Dr. Mukherjee makes clear, we stand on the brink of a genetic future that has great promise and also great peril. This is an important book and deserves to be widely read.

This should be considered a must-read book for anyone who wants a good understanding of biology, evolution, medicine, and many important aspects of the human condition. Mukherjee is very accessible, but also rigorous. I think if I had been able to read this book when I was still a young woman in high school, it would have motivated me to persevere and overcome the obstacles of crappy teachers and to stick with "real" science (as opposed to switching to the pseudo-science of economics). Perhaps more importantly, it helped me process a recent revelation - that my beloved Dad (deceased years ago) was not my biological father. He managed to conceive my oldest sister before enlisting in the navy for WWII and being sent to New Guinea. Between the tropical diseases and cures possibly worse than the diseases, he was rendered sterile. He and my mom (as we eventually learned) were lucky to be enrolled in some of the first, very low-key experimental efforts in artificial insemination at the University of Michigan. After that, my middle sister and I were born. They never breathed a word of it. They laughed and shrugged when people commented about the lack of similarity in our family and the jokes about the milk-man and post-man. We didn't figure it out until years after they had both died, when my insatiable curiosity impelled me to try DNA testing. So we only recently learned that my sisters were only half-sisters, that my middle-sister and I were not related to any of our cousins on our Dad's side, and that far from being a total WASP (which I had viewed with chagrin at best and revolt at worst my whole adult life) my biological father is/was Ashkenazi. Most of my Jewish friends (and my own husband, whose father was Jewish) were tickled and said they always thought I "must be" so. Indeed, it felt a vindication of all my impulses to disassociate myself from WASP culture, my tendencies toward being argumentative and sarcastic and restless and fidgety (all at odds with the rest of my family). So this book helped me understand the strength (but also the limits) of genetic influences, and the complex interactions between genes and environment. I felt enriched after I had finished it.

If you had ever wondered how genes work (or for that matter of fact, what are differences between genes, genome, genotype, DNA), this is a wonderful book to read. The author brings the readers through the history of genetic discovery, research and ultimately in its applications and potential usage to come. The narrative written here is engaging enough to thrust the reader directly into the dawn of discovery with Darwin and Mandel, through to the dark era of Eugenics during the turn of the 20th century, into the labs of the countless researchers as they try to unlock the meaning behind genetics and finally into the current era where scientific progress is being tapered heavily by political and moral dimensions. Overall a highly balanced book that gives readers a comprehensive history and science of genetics. At all times, concepts are explained in an easy to follow manner. Without losing a beat, the book also looks into the various moral conundrum that the technology brings with it. "Just because we can do it, should we?" We are at the cusp of a scientific revolution where we already have the capabilities and resources to "design" an enhanced human being. But what we term as "enhanced" is merely a deviation from the normal. Would we lose our humanity if we select only traits that we seem to be desirable? What costs will that bring to the human race if we snuff out schizophrenia (which is a genetic mutation) but lose Beethovens or Mozarts? This book is ambitious and it asks questions like these along the way as it tells its stories. A brilliant tour de force!