Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding how our genes work

by Kat Arney

The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make our eyes blue, our hair curly, and they control our risks of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism, and Alzheimer's. One thousand dollars will buy you your own genome readout, neatly stored on a USB stick. And advances in genetic medicine hold huge promise.

We've all heard of genes, but how do they actually work ? There are six feet of DNA inside every one of your cells; this encodes 20,000 or so genes, tangled into a mass of molecular spaghetti. This is the text of the cookbook of life, and hidden within these strands are the instructions that tell cells when and where to turn genes on or off.

In 1935, Ernest Hemingway was supposedly given Snow White, a six-toed cat who went on to father a line of similar offspring that still roam the writer's Florida estate. Scientists now know that the fault driving this profusion of digits lies in a tiny genetic control switch, miles away (in molecular terms) from the gene that "makes" toes. Researchers are discovering more about the myriad molecular switches that make sure genes are turned on at the right time and in the right place, and what happens when they don't work properly. This is allowing a four-dimensional picture of DNA to be built--a dynamic biological library, rather than static strings of code. Geneticist Kat Arney explores the intricacies of how, out of this seeming genetic chaos, life is created.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Audiobook, Medical

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2016

About the author

Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of science communications and media consultancy First Create The Media. She is the author of 'Rebel Cell: Cancer, evolution and the science of life' (BenBella Books, 2020), 'How to Code a Human' (Andre Deutsch, 2017, republished as 'The Compact Guide: DNA') and the critically acclaimed 'Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding how our genes work' (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2016).

Kat holds a bachelor's degree in natural sciences and a PhD in developmental genetics from Cambridge University, and has spent more than 15 years working in science journalism and communication. She was a key part of the science communications team at Cancer Research UK for more than a decade, co-founding the charity's award-winning Science Blog, and acting as a principal national and international media spokesperson.

Her writing has featured in Wired, BBC Online, the Daily Mail, the Times Educational Supplement, The Guardian Online, Nature, Mosaic, the New Scientist and more. Kat presents the popular Genetics Unzipped podcast for The Genetics Society and has fronted several BBC Radio 4 science documentaries, including the recent series 'Ingenious' looking at the stories behind our genes and comedy factual series 'Did the Victorians Ruin the World?' with her sister, comedian Helen Arney. She was a co-host of the Naked Scientists radio show and podcast, and presented the Naked Genetics podcast for many years.

Reviews

[Brian Clegg · Rating 4 out of 5]

'It's a book about cats, then?' No, it isn't - but the author Ernest Hemingway gets a mention because at Key West he had a penchant for cats with a genetic variation that gave them an extra toe. (Apparently this is a myth, as Hemingway didn't have cats in Key West, but it's a good story.) 'Ah, I've got it - the title is a pun. The author's called Kat and the title says Cats. It's a joke.' Nope. 'Okay, it's an attempt to duplicate the success of the rather similarly titled "In Search of Schrödinger's Cat"?' That certainly might be the reasoning behind the title, but it's actually about the bizarre complexity of molecular biology, the weird and wonderful mechanisms that make use of DNA and RNA to develop living organisms and to keep them healthy.

That 'bizarre complexity' part is no exaggeration. The real fascination of this book - and it truly is fascinating - lies in the Byzantine convolutions employed by living systems at the sub-cellular level. Kat Arney beautifully documents what is surely the ultimate counter to any suggestion that living organisms were designed, as they never seem to take a single, simple step to achieve something where seven complex back and forth interactions could achieve the same result. As a non-biologist I had previously been amazed by the sophistication of the molecular machinery in complex cells, but I had no idea just how messy and disorganised the whole interaction between DNA and RNA to produce proteins, switch genes on and off, splice bits of molecule here and there and generally get something remarkable out of apparent chaos is. Heath Robinson had nothing on biology - it's amazing that anything living survives.

Arney presents the information in an extremely chatty and informal style. It works well that much of the book is based around a series of interviews with leading scientists in the field, as it gives a chance for personalities to emerge in what is inevitably a description-heavy topic. In fact, if anything, the writing style was just a touch too informal for me - I suspect many will really enjoy Arney's pithy asides, but sometimes, comments like 'you may wish to ponder this tale the next time you're in close proximity to a penis. I know I will.' struck me as trying just a little bit too hard.

The biggest problem here, which is not entirely helped by the format, is that in the end, amazing and fascinating though the mechanisms involved in manipulating DNA and RNA are, in the end we get page after page of descriptions of how molecules behave, and even the core fascination of the complexity, and the interesting people, can't always stop this feeling distinctly repetitive. The way the presentation is based on various interviews doesn't help here, because it means what is already a random and confusing story is not presented in a logical order based on the science, so the chance of getting blinded by the science is increased. I'd also pick up Arney on her own comment 'It's just as true in science as it is elsewhere in life that a picture is worth a thousand words' - so why aren't there any? There is not a single illustration in the book, and some of the things she describes cry out for a good diagram. If you aren't a biologist, it's easy to struggle to visualise what is being described.

Nonetheless, this a great addition to the rapidly growing field of books giving us an insight into just how complex biology is at the molecular level, and I feel privileged to have indirectly met these interesting people via Arney's interviews. While the material itself can get a touch samey, that goes with the territory - and otherwise it's a great piece of popular science.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot review this because I still do not understand it. Working to that end. Bought genetics for dummies - they need to find a book on DNA for morons. But I’m trying.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn’t expect to get that much out of this, since it explores the subject of genetics — I read a lot about genetics, after all, and have done one or two modules focusing on it. And it’s true that the tone is very light and journalistic, quippy and light and funny, but it also has an extensive section for further reading and covers some fascinating topics I didn’t know about. The section on epigenetics was particularly interesting; I’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm for epigenetics, of course, but this was a more measured and conservative interpretation.

It’s the kind of book that left me turning to my wife and saying, “hey, did you know…?” a lot, and looking up things online (like Minoo Rassoulzadegan’s white-gloved mice). There’s a lot of complications and new things coming out about genetics, and this proved to be an excellent survey of that.

The only thing I disliked was the way the interviews were presented — almost like a dialogue in a novel, but without new paragraphs for new speakers. It made it a little difficult to follow, and I’m not all that interested in what kind of shoes the scientist in question was wearing during the interview.

Reviewed for The Bibliophibian.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. You might be familiar with Kat Arney as a science podcaster and writer already. If you are, then you will know what to expect from her style. The book is conversational, informed and accessible. I had to re-read some of the passages where technical aspects in genomics are introduced but that's a reflection of my lack of familiarity with anything much beyond secondary-level science. That I learned from it is a reflection of Dr Arney's ability as a science communicator. She tells a series of stories about what genes are, how they do what they do and almost as importantly explores some of the controversies around epigenetics, and nature and nurture.

I can thoroughly recommend this to any lay reader who wants to dig into genetic research.

[Atila Iamarino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um ótimo livro bem atual sobre genética. Kat Arney trabalhou com epigenética e escreve sobre o assunto de forma completamente acessível, mas com muito cuidado e conhecimento por trás.

Uma série de descobertas e hipóteses recentes em genética, como epigenética e o que é/qual a extensão do junk-DNA, ainda são um pouco controversas e passam por muito exagero, tanto na imprensa quanto em artigos. E ela cobre todos os prós e contras, adotando uma postura mais conservadora (epigenética não é tudo, boa parte do DNA pode estar ativa sem ser usada), dando voz para quem questiona os exageros de forma bem legal. Além de fazer isso em uma linguagem leve e bem compreensiva que manteve o assunto interessante mesmo para mim, que já li bastante sobre.

[Alazzar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably didn't learn as much as I should have from this book, but that's not Kat Arney's fault: she did a great job of making the world of genetics accessible and interesting to everyday folk. She's funny and concise, which is really the best you can hope for from this sort of thing.

Unfortunately I'm dumb, and information tends to fall out of my brain at the same rate it's acquired.

Still, I did pick up a few interesting things along the way (which I'll surely forget by the time I'm done writing this review), and I imagine if I even just skimmed some of the chapters again I'd learn a lot more. It's a shame I don't really have the time for that, though, as my to-read list is piling up and the library keeps sending me things I've had on hold for a while. I just can't afford to review how genes work when X-Men: Inferno and the second half of The Great Book of Amber are waiting for me.

But to reiterate: if you want to learn about genes, this is the book for you. I really think it's good for a wide variety of people, be they novices to genetics or experts on the subject.

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are better books on epigenetics. However, this book does the best job of challenging what we think we know. If it was equally as good at explaining various epigenetic phenomena as it was at poking holes, it could have been great. Also, the organization and content included could have been much better.

[sillypunk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic read: http://blogendorff.ghost.io/book-revi...

[Simon Dobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterful telling of modern genetics.

Everything you know about genetics is wrong: what's how it feels, anyway. The simple story about mutation and inheritance is ... well, not wrong exactly, but woefully incomplete. I think part of the problem is that we lack the right analogies. Genetics is in no way a blueprint that's simply read when creating life, nor is it in any way constructed like engineering. Instead it operates at the boundary of chaos, with multiple redundant (and often conflicting) mechanisms finding an uneasy hoeostasis. Genes aren't elementary packets of information, nor does most of the genome consist of them: nor, indeed, is there any well-agreed notion of what a gene actually is. The basic mechanism of RNA reading DNA and then being used to create proteins comes with a set of baroque extensions, as does the supposedly clear notion of heritable characteristics being frozen in the DNA itself.

All in all it's amazing that any of it is understood at all – let alone well enough to perform modifications and other feats of modern biotechnology. Arney in many ways achieves the impossible in this book, not hiding the complexity of dumbing it down for a popular audience, but also never getting lost or adding to the inevitable confusion that all this complexity induces even in a scientifically literate reader. I learned a huge amount and had several confusions sorted out for me (to the extent that they are understood at all).

[Otherwyrld · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author gave an entertaining talk that I attended at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, but it's taken until now for my turn on the library waiting list. I was ready to dismiss this as "just another popular science book" in that it tries to take a very complex scientific concept - genes in this case- and reduce it to entertainment for the masses, but this would be disingenuous to say the least. This is because the author really doesn't pander to the general reader that much, which means that I was completely lost for large chunks of the book, and I would say that I am on the higher end of the scale in terms of scientific knowledge.

By the end of the book I can't confidently say that I understood any more about what genes actually are than I did before I started reading, but that's okay because most of the scientists who are actually leading this field don't understand it either. This is made clear by the format of the book, where the author interviews scientists who are conducting groundbreaking experiments in genetics. Along with useful little potted biographies of each scientist she interviews, the author attempts to put all of their work into context. In doing so, she gives the reader a snapshot of where we are today in this ever changing scientific field. Unlike the reductionist stories that are often trotted out when talking about genes and which does the complexity of the field few favours, what is actually shown here is that genetics is messy and quite distinctly fuzzy round the edges. Which is as it should be - life in the form of our genes is not so easily defined as a set of blueprints that people can easily switch on or off or move around and have a predictable outcome every time. There is no "gene for cancer" or any other disease, which is made abundantly clear in this book.

In the end, this book could become utterly outdated in five minutes or five years, or it could become an essential piece of reading material written at a key moment in the study of how our genes come to create us in all our messy glory. Either way, it's an understandably tough but essential read if you want to know about what is really going on behind the click bait headlines on websites. I wish I could give it four stars but it doesn't quite hit the mark for me. Give it a try though and you might get more out of it than I did.

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throw out what you thought you knew about genes, DNA, etc.

Several great things here.

First, the book explains in good detail things I've already known about how genes can code for proteins for various things, whether in combination with one, two or ten or more other genes.

Second, it explains in good detail what I've known about non-gene "control switch" areas of DNA, including how they usually act more like dimmer switches than on/off straight up/down switches.

Third, it revealed a lot I didn't know.

First, the DNA near the center of the nucleus is generally more "active." Arney talks about this, the relation to histones in positioning segments of DNA and more.

Second, coding areas on DNA evolve much more rapidly than genes themselves and are usually the primary driver of evolutionary change.

Third, epigenetics, while not all wet, probably needs more skepticism than it's gotten at times. She gives some detailed insight into this, and the exceptions to it.

Fourth, after splashing cold water on epigenetics, she brings to a boil something I wasn't aware of — micro-RNA. Apparently this has at least as much effect on inheritance as the biggest touters of epigenetics have claimed for it in the past. For example, sperm cells appear to have micro-RNA, and are NOT, therefore, just a load of DNA and that's it.

Also note that there are multiple different types of micro-RNA.

Fifth, although these discoveries aren't quite "Lamarckianism," nonetheless (and she barely touches on prions, speaking of) they put "genes" in a whole new context.

In short, the Human Genome Project and similar likely won't be in that much better position to tell us that much more about "you" and "me" twenty years from now than it is today.

[Cath Ennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really a 4.5 (we need half stars!), because I think it could have really used a few illustrations to help describe some of the basic concepts.

This was a really fun tour of some of the big ideas in modern genetics. The book's structured around a series of interviews with scientists, which makes for a rather unconventional order of topics (e.g. Mendel's only mentioned towards the very end). I was already familiar with much of the subject matter and rather enjoyed all the jumping around, but it's possible that a more linear progression through the topics might work better for people with less starting knowledge of genetics. It worked for me, though, as did the quirky humour! Kat also did a great job of communicating the extent of scientists' uncertainty about all aspects of genetics - there's a LOT that we still don't know. Hoping for a second edition in ten years or so!

[Lynne]

I learned a lot about genetics from reading this book, but it was slow reading. It has to be an area the reader really want to explore further to continue reading the book. The book is basically a series of interviews by the author with top science researchers in the field. Each chapter centers around a different recently researched subtopic in the field of genetics. Although the author tries to explain the concepts with many analogies, the topic is a difficult one to understand for those without much of a background in biology. I am not rating this book because I feel the readers' reactions would differ greatly depending on background knowledge in biology and level of interest in genetics.

[Snoakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating overview of the amazing complexity of our DNA and genes. I don't have a biology background at all, and although I wouldn't claim to have understood every word, Kat Arney's style makes it an entertaining and interesting read. I still don't have the remotest understanding of it how it works, but that's part of the point of the book - to destroy the myth perpetuated by the media that there's a gene for every illness / character trait / sexual preference / shoe size and to highlight the mind-blowing intricacy of it all. Even the cleverest minds in the field are barely scratching the surface of the human genome.

[Heather Pagano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kat Arney did a fantastic job explaining difficult concepts in genetics using everyday metaphors. Biology is not my field, but with concentration and Arney's engaging writing style, I learned so much. Genetics is way more complicated than I imagined. Life is not a designed machine to be schematized with tidy correspondences between a certain gene and a specific trait. In evolved life we're dealing with redundancies, faults, wobbles, jumps, junk, touchy on and off switches, and lots of crazy stuff no one understands yet. Learning what we know, and what we don't know, gives a deeper appreciation for the wonder and mystery of being alive.

[Uyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the book it is clair, funny, easy to read and soo educative.. kat arney have done a great job while interviewing most prominent researchers in the genetic field. i have learn alot.. i've read some chapters again and again.and probably will do it some more. especially epigenetic critics were perfectly illustrated.. this rna thing (!) and its variations pull my attention deeply as i advanced through the pages... please read it if you are curious about how genes and genetic inheritance work... one of the perfect books about genetics for general audience

[timv · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a lot of respect for this author – she tries to tease apart all the incredibly complex dynamics of our DNA interactions and make it understandable to a reader who is looking to understand this sort of thing. nicely written with a sense of humor also. warning – this is not an easy read. Due to the nature of the subject, it cannot be an easy read. It is dealing with a very complex subject and that's kind of the point of the whole book anyway.

[Tom Hail · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very interesting and entertaining. I've always wanted an accessible explanation of how DNA and genes work and make us tick. Science stories mixed with science facts. I am actually listening to the Audible version and she is quite easy to listen to with her accent and attempts to mimic her interviewees.

[Terry Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy in a giveaway on goodreads.com

While it might be a little daunting to some without lab or chemistry knowledge, it is very informative. If you ever had an interest in DNA infrastructure and how it works, here it is.

Well worth the read.

[Tani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have yet to develop a method of rating for nonfiction books, probably because I just don't read them frequently enough. For fiction, it's easy enough to say that my rating is based on enjoyment, but I'll be honest and admit that I'm just not cultured enough to enjoy reading nonfiction in the same way. I think it's an important thing to do on a lot of levels, both to keep myself learning and growing and to be an informed citizen of the world, but I can't say that I love it. And it's hard to separate out whether my apathy is due to the subject, the author, or the presentation.

Anyway, I think that in this particular case, the author has picked a really hard topic. As a non-scientist, it's always kind of hard to read science books because the stark reality is that a lot of science boils down to a simple shrug. We've made a lot of progress in recent years, but we've still only scratched the surface of what's really going on. Kat Arney is honest about that, while still presenting what we do know in a readable format, which I appreciated. I thought that her explanations were clear and relatively precise, and any lack of comprehension on my part was due to my attention wandering. My nonfiction focus is just not there, I admit.

I do think I learned some things, but not as much as I had hoped when I started reading. Part of that is due to the uncertainty of everything we do know, and part of that was due to the specificity of some of the examples. They're fascinating in the moment, but I doubt they'll stick in my head. Of course, the obvious answer to that dilemma is simply to read more about genetics, but I'm not that committed to the subject. I did think that this was a good overview of the subject, though, and I recommend it for anyone who'd like a broad look at the field.

[Celia Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

what I enjoyed: reading A-G-C-T, and being able to recall all the cramming and studying I had to do for my undergrad; and knowing what was being discussed. It was a real delight realizing that I had not lost my understandings of the basics, and I appreciated getting a context for where, the little that I do comprehend, actually exists.

It was interesting to read about the experiments and the advancements being made in the world of genetics; but also, the topic is sort of a labrynth. There were two sections that I had to re-read, and moments where an illustration would have helped.

The read brought back memories of the Matt Ridley Book: Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. I recall getting caught up in the potentials and the ideas discussed in that book, and being enthralled with the notion of a race to get to the end of the mapping. This read updated me where Ridley's book left off. Between advancements in technology, and the controversy of sharing one's genetic information, there are a lot of areas this book visits, and invites the reader to consider.

would I recommend this read? --> Only if you are really interested in this topic.
would I recommend the Ridley book? Yes. But only if you are interested in the topic of genome mapping circa 2006.

Audiobook seekers beware! According to the reviews the author provides impressions (does the voices, complete with regional accents) of the personalities interviewed for the book

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The information in this book was fantastic. I had what could generously be called an average high school education in biology and genetics, so I found the level of accessibility of this book perfect, and at the same time rewarding me with the real science that has been going on in the past few years, open questions, heated debates and murky results included. I didn't fully get everything, because it's easy to lose track of all the new terms and concepts, but that shouldn't stop anyone from reading this.
This book shows you how much more amazing the "building blocks of life" really are compared to what they teach you in school. My understanding of genetics and biology has been completely revolutionized.

The only thing I didn't like were these lengthy narratives about the author's various encounters with different scientists, but I get that it breaks up the text and make it a lighter read.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

As when I read a couple of books by Carlo Rovelli, about the nature of time, space, gravity, and all that good stuff, I came away with the impression that I really understood about 5% of what I was reading. Fascinating, nonetheless! If I can summarize, the takeaway seems to be that genetics is ferociously complicated, whether you're dealing with fruit-flies or humans, and cause and effect are not always related in the way they first appear. Every new discovery in genetics is greeted with great media fanfare, partly as a result of egotistic scientists, but mainly because of the old maxim that "good news is no news" - it has to be "incredible", "earth-shattering" and "revolutionary". The reality is that tens of thousands of dedicated scientists will run millions of experiments over generations and we will still have an incomplete understanding of the processes that sustain and sometimes afflict our bodies.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an accessible book, the writer has a good mix of humour and non-technical language. I learned loads of new things from this book about how genes work. The overall theme was one of uncertainty whereby the author made it clear that genetics is far from the rigid certainty it is portrayed to be. Instead she points out the fuzziness of genes and RNAs and how they work in the body. In particular, I liked the discussion of how RNA can be passed on in germ cells and then affect gene expression in the next generation. The chapter on epigenetics was also quite interesting. Although this book is not the most-detailed book on genetics it did help me clarify many genetics ideas and wasn't too taxing on the brain.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely would not recommend this book to someone who is a total novice to genetics. I would say if you have the kind of knowledge that you could get from an introductory genetics course, then this book will make sense and build on that knowledge. But if you don't have that base, I could see this book being very confusing and I would start somewhere else.

That said, it was not a hard read. Arney writes in a conversational style, but still manages to explain most concepts in a way that I could understand. There were only a few times where I had a hard time understanding what she was trying to say. I sometimes could not understand who was speaking, because she would put an entire conversation in one paragraph. Other than that, it's a quick and informative read.

[Camio.Dontchaknow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest, most of this went whistling pleasantly over my head. But the main take away seems to be... genes is complicated. And no one working in the field seems to agree on anything until they've argued it back and forth for 50 years. News articles have had me asuming genetics is physical chemical whirings and clunkings so it's should be a straight forward look and record situation. Once you've found A you can say it does B. But there's so much more subtlety and unseen interaction and influence that it all just seems like a great big bowl of magic squirming genetic spaghetti. I think I need to read around the subject a bit more. It's not a very scientific conclusion, but I'm sticking with it.

[Catherine Buchan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read about this book I thought the author had taken on an impossible task. How to explain to the layman why the expected breakthroughs in medicine following the human genome project have not, with a few exceptions, been delivered. To answer that question Arney conducts a series of discussions with some of the leading scientists in the field of genomics.

She delivers the answers without losing the lay person and some of the examples she uses to put across very complex ideas are inspired. Her lightly amusing style is engaging and I feel she achieves that almost imposible goal. Clearly an expert in the field herself, she has a great ability to explain the science in a simple but enthralling manner.

A great read for both the layman and scientist.

[Audrey Driscoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book covers a lot of ground and some complex subjects. The author has made effective use of informal language and personal anecdotes to lighten things up. Nevertheless, it requires attentive reading to get the most out of it. As intended, it has given me a background of facts to keep in mind when reading or hearing about genetics in the media. In addition, I'm left with a picture of how scientists in the field do their work. Despite the title, cats aren't mentioned all that often, but mice certainly are. Every chapter reminded me of the role of mice and other animals in scientific research. Altogether a worthwhile read.

[Em · Rating 2 out of 5]

'Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work' by Kat Arney - 2/5 ⭐

Book club read for July! Kat Arney has a really fantastic way of writing, but unfortunately struggles to find a good person to write this for. She's attempting to explain genetic science, epigenetics, and DNA analysis, and I'm sure that what she's saying makes perfect sense, but I couldn't understand it very well. It feels too complex for somene who just has their Biology GCSE, and vastly simplified for geneticists (and there's one at book club who agreed). I feel that she could have tailored it better to a beginner audience with more diagrams, perhaps. Or some diagrams. Any diagrams at all would have been great.

My favourite parts were when she was interviewing other scientists, and she delighted in their quirks and mannerisms. You can tell that, at her heart, she is a journalist.

Some interesting learning were: The Sonic Hedgehog gene, learning that lactose intolerance is in fact not a mutation (those of us who can eat dairy normally are the genetic weirdos!), and that a lot of reactions that happen in our cells are actually completely random and chaotic on a mollecular level. It's very fun that biology is also physics when it's small enough.

This was my first non-fiction book this year!

[Serban Balamaci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Found the book because of the podcast which I like.
There is information in the book that is new in the sense that is not usually found in other genetics books, it's not a re-heating of the same meal. It's complementing information found in other books, like The Gene: An Intimate History.
It conveys the feeling of how little we actually know and how a long way we still have to go. The information presented seems very recent not outdated.