(posted on my blog: davenichols.net)

Matt Ridley's Genome is an exploration of human chromosomes heavy in biological and physiological science. Ridley, a journalist and science writer, looks at each chromosome per chapter, using a gene or two found on each to discuss a different aspect of physiology or behavior as affected by the gene, its alleles, or its mutated variations. A strong effort for any reader interested in biology and genetics, Genome is a treat from the very beginning.

Ridley manages to pack a lot of details into the book despite concentrating each chapter on one or two specific genes on the featured chromosome. He themes each chapter on concepts such as Love, Instinct, Conflict, and Free Will, using research on a gene to show how these concepts are affected by genetics.

This book is comprehensive and contains a lot of cutting-edge science from the time of publication (1999), but it remains approachable to the popular science reader. The examples Ridley chooses are fantastic and offer the reader information about research into molecular biology, physiology, psychology, behavior, neurochemistry, anthropology, and many other subjects.

All in all, a wonderful book filled with still-relevant scientific information. Any biology or popular science reader should enjoy Ridley's pace and presentation, and there is a great deal to learn about how genes affect a wide range of concepts. Four and one-half stars. ( )

Ridley writes a very good introduction to genetics, developing some very sophisticated ideas in a readable format. Prion genes are discussed in the context of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. The issue of genetics of intelligence and language are discussed clearly, as are tracing genteic evolution, cancer genetics, and growth suppressor genes. The author is a science journalist, and thus has a clear eye for controversial or trendy topics, but the science is very good and the book is a pleasure to read ( )

As a genetics major in college, I've read many, many books on the subject, and this was by far my favorite. It's not dumbed down and all of its explanations are thorough and specific. However, it's still a really fun and amusing read. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in learning a little about genetics, especially the political and ethical aspects. ( )

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Also, how the book’s footnotes—collected at the back—are organized defies belief. The pages itself throughout the book display the respective subtitles for each chapter, like “Life,” “Species,” or “History.” In the footnote section, the numbers restart with each chapter, but the chapter sections are not introduced by the chapters’ subtitles, but by their headings, like “Chromosome 1,” “Chromosome 2,” etc. To add insult to uselessness, Ridley apologizes already in the introduction that the connections between the chapter headings (i. e., the chromosomes) and the subtitles (i. e., what he’ll actually be talking about) are not really working out and might be “a most misleading thing that I have done” (p.5). Quite well done, actually.

This book on genetics has as many chapters as humans have pairs of chromosomes. In each chapter the author chooses an interesting gene from the pair at hand and talks about it. I’ve learned lots of interesting information from this book, both about how genes work (the author explains how they get turned on and off by hormones and other chemicals in the person’s bloodstream) and just various fascinating facts about how human body and brain function. For instance, Ridley talks about a gene which allows young children to assimilate grammar without instruction, which gets turned off later on because apparently the ability to learn foreign languages easily has not been an important factor in the survival of our species. In another chapter he describes a gene that controls the production of a protein that regulates the blood flow in the brain. According to various studies, the more of this protein people have the more they’re likely to prefer a calm, leisurely-paced lifestyle. But when people have less of it, they like to keep busy and are more adventurous because activity and new experiences quicken the pulse and keep their brain adequately supplied with blood. On the extreme end of this are people who like living on the edge. This made me remember a book about Everest climbers by Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air): when he asked them why they kept doing this, more than one replied that they feel sleepy and lethargic when living a “normal” life. Perhaps, it has something to do with this particular gene. Ridley also explains why many people like eating sweet and/or fatty foods when upset – apparently, it triggers, through a chain of chemical events, the production of endorphins, the same chemical the human brain produces naturally when one is in a good mood, and so eating these foods directly lifts the mood, and it feels natural to a person! In another chapter the author writes that stress is the most harmful thing to a person’s health and that, according to research done both in the labs on control groups and in life (on civil servants in Great Britain and millions of employees of Bell Telephone Company in the US), what causes the most stress in people is being ordered around. Apparently, when a person feels important and in control, it boosts his mood and doesn’t allow him to really experience stress, no matter what the demands on him/her, whereas the opposite situation has the opposite effect. For instance, Ridley writes that a janitor is 4 times more likely to suffer from a heart attack than a government minister. And even if the minister is overweight, has high blood pressure or is a smoker, he’s still less likely to get a heart attack than a lean, low-blood-pressure, non-smoking janitor! The author also describes an experiment where two groups of people were given the same task, but the first group was given a free hand about how they were to do it, while the second group was given a set of detailed instructions, and the level of cortisol (a chemical equivalent with stress) in the bloodstream of the members of the 2nd group increased much more than that of the 1st group. I take from this that control freak bosses present the greatest danger to humanity, more than serial murderers, and should be rounded up and placed in positions where they don’t get to supervise anybody :). An interesting book. ( )