Képregén - Genetika a vízözöntől a transzpozonig

The Cartoon Guides

by Larry Gonick, Mark Wheelis, Janos Marton (Translator)

Biológiai tankönyvet tartasz a kezedben, gyanútlan olvasó! Legalábbis tankönyvecskét, ha a többit már földhöz vágtad, ehhez talán lesz még türelmed, de ha mindet bevágtad, akkor se vesd meg egy mókás kedvű genetikus és egy tudós karikaturista szerény favicceit. Ha érettségire (felvételire, kollokviumra) készülsz biológiából, használhatod ezt a rendhagyó képregényt kávé helyett: napok alatt megtérül az ára, ha pedig érdek nélkül érdeklődsz az átöröklés, a nemesítés, a szaporodás, a génműködés vagy a génsebészet biológiai alapjai iránt, akkor külön üdvözlettel kíván a könyvhöz kellemes fejtágulást a Gondolat.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Comics, Graphic Novels, Genetics, Childrens

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Larry Gonick (born 1946) is a cartoonist best known for The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form, which he has been publishing in installments since 1977. He has also written The Cartoon History of the United States, and he has adapted the format for a series of co-written guidebooks on other subjects, beginning with The Cartoon Guide to Genetics in 1983. The diversity of his interests, and the success with which his books have met, have together earned Gonick the distinction of being "the most well-known and respected of cartoonists who have applied their craft to unravelling the mysteries of science" (Drug Discovery Today, March 2005).

Reviews

[Mohammed Abbas · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب رائع يشرح مسائل علمية معقدة باسلوب بسيط، وإن كانت بعض المعلومات بحاجة إلى تحديث

[Farhana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had been looking for this book for a while. Another best addition to my this year's nonfiction graphic books. The book is so well-written, well-sketched, well-organized, comprehensive, and cohesive. I love its way of teaching along with some fun yet retaining the full essence of the original concepts. Cheers to this big 5 star book!

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

ألا ليت الزمان يعود يوما

ليه محدش كان بيشرح علوم بأسلوب مبسط زي كده وأنا في ابتدائي وإعدادي؟

الكتاب رائع ومبسط وسهل حتي على واحد مش عارف حاجة في العلوم بالمرة
والميزة فيه الانتقال من نقطة لأخرى بشكل سلس

محاولات العلماء واكتشافاتهم كانت جديدة تماما بالنسبة لي
وخصوصا محاولاتهم لعلاج مرض الثلاسيميا

ولكن حقا إلى أين تأخذنا الهندسة الوراثية؟

[Abeer]

كتاب رائع جدا، بيبسط كورس "وراثة 101" اللي بيتاخد في سنة اولى في الكليات العلمية، في صورة كاريكاتير خفيف الدم جدا، ليكون في مستوى القارئ الغير متخصص بالمرة، و لتسلية و تثبيت معلومات المتخصص.

نسختي مفقودة للاسف، و ابحث عن نسخة اخرى :)

[Rex Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry Gonick, author of the wonderful Cartoon Guide to the Universe, has found his niche with educational comics and this book is a great example of it. He’s tackled many subjects and I found this to be thoroughly researched and presented in an easy to understand manner. And a bibliography is provided if you want to delve deeper into the subject- which I did not.

This is as much a history of genetic research as it is about the basics of the subject. He begins with primitive man, moving on to the early philosophers such as Aristotle, before arriving at the real breakthrough moment with the research of Gregor Mendel- the Catholic monk, gardener and scientist.

The book is a good primer and the basics of genetics- DNA, amino acids, proteins etc.- are not going to change. When I was a middle school English teacher I used to stock up my classroom library with his books: The Cartoon Guide to the Universe, to the Modern World, Statistics, Biology and so on. And they were always well received by my students, often being one of the first ones stolen from classroom.

What I disagree with in this text is that he promotes the “theory” that “primitive man”, whether he means homo sapiens or an ancestor species is unclear, could not differentiate between sex and procreation. After reading his source material, this is about as spurious a theory as I’ve ever read. Evidence is nearly nonexistent and conjecture abounds. It’s almost conspiracy level leaps the author takes to piece this together.

The other problem with the book is that often the information is out of date or, most common, there are discoveries and breakthroughs not recorded by the text. The version I have is from 1991 so there is a gap of 16 years of information. For instance it states that it was believed by scientists to be over 200,000 genes, but it is now known to be only around 20 to 30,000 of them.

Still as a beginning delve into the subject, this would be a good place to start and, apart from what I mentioned earlier, the bibliography is solid. Offering a person a good point to keep learning if they are so inclined.

[Katra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always wanted to have a grasp of genetics but was frankly afraid to poke my nose in the intimidating books on the subject. The cartoon approach was inviting and amazingly packed with a great deal of information. I'm certainly not ready to start splicing genes at this point, but the fact that I now know basically what that entails gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I would definitely recommend this book as an introduction to the subject.

[Nigel McFarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hairy tomatoes, a human strawberry and some very cute enzymes. A hilarious yet comprehensive introduction to genetics. Essential entertainment for anyone interested in biology.

[Corey · Rating 2 out of 5]

More simplistic than I had hoped and some of the illustrations are a bit iffy

[Drmkk · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting approach. However, jokes were not that funny and it is a little dated at this point.

[Tom Fornoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book based on the recommendation of a University of Texas professor who uses it to teach genetics. While I'm not very interested in genetics, I enjoyed this as another example of how comics can inform and educate through text-and-image storytelling. I've recently started dabbling, creating my own personal and autobiographical comics as a means of creative expression and way to connect with people I care about.

[Douglas Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the cartoon aspect of the book which made the understanding easier. But even so being a non-scientist, non-biologist, non-geneticist there are still huge gaps in my understanding. They covered the overall history of genetics mentioning the major scientists, which I appreciated. But I still had many questions about how these scientists know the things they discovered. Especially all the biochemical interactions with the DNA, RNA and enzymes. How did they discover that these biochemical structures behaved the way they described?

So I enjoyed it overall and while I did gain a better grasp of genetics overall, it was still quite a bit over my head even though it had cartoons and cartoon humor sprinkled throughout. And finally, I was hoping for a more current book since I believe genetics has made strides and breakthroughs since the 1985 publication of this book.
The authors have written other cartoon books about a variety of subjects.

[Aleisha Zolman · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a bit better than the the cartoon guide to chemistry. maybe i know more about it so that it makes it so, but it was definitely less formula driven. a good review for me in some areas, enough knowledge of key experiments and people and concepts to take a test to certify in Biology. I hope.

[Vera Maharani · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is awesome.

Ever think biology sucks? And genetics...what the hell is that?

I find this book funny and helps me a lot to learn genetics. Yes, the 'simpler' one like Mendellian genetics to the 'more complicated' one like molecular genetics! I first read it back in junior high and I could understand it well, even back then. Every so-called 'hard' subjects should be cartooned!

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Larry Gonick is truly one of the finest educational comic book creator. He makes subjects so fun to read , even a layman can enjoy complex stuffs with humor and fascinating art. Although I could not understand many of the stuffs (my habit of leaving) I came to know about a lot of new things in tthe field of genetics as a layman.

[Lio Lio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extra Simplified Introduction to Genetics For Specialists and non-specialists, I recommend It For Every one :).

[Pietro Poggi-Corradini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot, but I'm afraid it won't stick. I will likely have to return to it again in the future.

[Anthony Faber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of the history and some of the workings of genetics. A good introduction to the subject.

[Mythreyi Ramesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best introductions (and overviews) one can get of Genetics. Since from when I was in school, I liked Genetics (maybe because it was the only Maths part in the Biology we studied).

It started with the basics which most, including me, are familiar with. But it then ventured into a new territory that I had never explored before, namely, "What is it that a gene does and how does it do it?".

The illustrations are going to stick to my head and I loved the whole machinery (if I can use such a mechanised word for something much more beautiful) of making proteins.

This is a book everyone can benefit from and I recommend it to anyone who's willing to see a little bit more into what makes a gorilla a gorilla and a banana a banana.*

*sorry, but this example just had to be lifted off from the book :P

[Anna Mock · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was informative and funny. It was entertaining to read even though it covers some pretty technical stuff. I wouldn't use this book in place of a biology textbook, but would use it as a supplement. Some of the concepts were hard for me to follow in this book, whereas in other textbooks, their diagrams were much more clear. So combining the two - reading the textbooks sections, studying the diagrams, and then using this book as a refresher to supplement maybe a couple weeks later - sounds like an effective way to solidify the concepts.

[Khalisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sebagai buku edukasi, Kartun Genetika memberikan penggambaran yang detail, informatif, dan cukup menarik. Tidak ada plot besar untuk narasi fiksi. Full hanya mengenai kurikulum yang diselipkan contoh ilustrasi. Ini yang menjadi preferensi di tiap orang. Bagiku, ini masih sulit dipahami orang awam sepertiku 😅

[Zinat · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the first books I read after taking on Computational Biology as my thesis topic. This book is wonderful for brushing off your rusty biology knowledge. The amazing graphics make even biology an interesting read.

[Debra Golden · Rating 3 out of 5]

My science background is lacking, but I had friends who got their PhD's in Genetics, so why not read this?
I did know a lil bit, but it gets really into the proteins and such, so i powered.
It's engaging and humorous and still raises serious questions.

[Fernanda Espino · Rating 3 out of 5]

leí uno que se llama “vida y reproducción” del mismo autor pero no lo encontré acá :( me gustó porque explico justo todo lo que vi en el semestre de manera rápida y sencilla, aparte tiene muchos dibujos los cuales hicieron más agradable la lectura

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’ve been using this book along with the kids’ science for years. It’s a super fun way to explore biology and genetics, but I’m finding that the format doesn’t work for everybody.

[Lucas Apsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most fascinating, hilarious, and informative book I have ever read.

[Dominique Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little dated by now, but still a fun read and a good reference
/refresher.

[Emerson John Tiu Ng · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice book to understand Genetics

[Nazmul Hasan]

you

[Keren Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book

[Kristin Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good review of the basics with lots of illustration.