Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

Books from Nobel laureates in molecular biology have a tradition of being surprising. James Watson was catty, gossipy, and amusingly egotistical, and Francis Crick went haring off in all kinds of interesting directions, like a true polymath. It's a primer in developmental biology, written for the layperson! An invaluable resource.

The book is slim at 145 pages, but covers all of basic genetics and development. In order to do this, the prose is exceptionally spare and no-nonsense, and the show more emphasis is always on explaining things simply and clearly, with no digressions and no unnecessary detail. For instance, recombination gets two paragraphs; the Hedgehog/Wingless genes, one paragraph and a diagram; Hox genes get a whole page. Jargon is avoided, unless it has been first introduced and explained. You should be able to finish this book and then be able to sound convincingly like a developmental biologist in a conversation, I think; it's a kind of Berlitz course in the discipline. The emphasis in all of the explanations is clarity, so despite its comprehensive nature and breakneck pace, it won't make you stop and try to
puzzle out what she's talking about—it's all plainly laid out for you.

Junior Cain (cainbookreviews.blogspot.com show less