Thursday, January 28, 2021

The gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee

What a nice book is the fifth item on this recommendation list. See my home page for the previous entries.
In his masterpiece Siddhartha Mukherjee traces the history of genetics, from the Moravian monk Gregor Mendel’s experiments on pea crops to 21st century scientists’ human genome mapping. It is like a crash course in history of biology, minus all the complicated organic chemistry details, plus a bit of suspence, insights, drama and family history.

I don’t think one can really understand what’s going on in these first decades of the third millennia without a basic knowledge of biology and genetics. There are plenty of excellent free online courses on the subject, but if you are not keen on that or just want a very accessible introductory overview, this book is a great place to start.

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