Genetics 101: From Chromosomes and the Double Helix to Cloning and DNA Tests, Everything You Need to Know about Genes

Adams 101

by Beth Skwarecki

A clear and straightforward explanation of genetics in this new edition of the popular 101 series.

Our genetic makeup determines so much about who we are, and what we pass on to our children—from eye color, to height, to health, and even our longevity. Genetics 101 breaks down the science of how genes are inherited and passed from parents to offspring, what DNA is and how it works, how your DNA affects your health, and how you can use your personal genomics to find out more about who you are and where you come from.

Whether you’re looking for a better scientific understanding of genetics, or looking into your own DNA, Genetics 101 is your go-to source to discover more about both yourself and your ancestry.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Genetics, Education, Medicine, Medical

256 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2018

Reviews

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fairly clear for such a complex topic. I read this as required reading in a university course and all I can say is that other texts would have been much more of a chore to read. The chapters were fairly short but at times some of the information felt out of order or disorganized. Personally, if you can choose to read this or watch informative educational YouTube videos I would opt for the videos.

Verbally it was very clear so people who thrive in learning through reading would most benefit but visuals like diagrams/images would have been incredibly helpful to convey topics. Especially as this attempts to simplify and convey information about genetics charts are often very effective.

Some things that really intrigued me were the discussion of CRISPR-Cas9 which led me to read more. This seems to be a quickly evolving field and maybe despite its interestingness should have been skipped over for a “101 course”. This raises the risk of the book being outdated quickly.

Initially, it was four stars but it’s more of a 3.25 stars now but I’ll leave it as a 4. The ratings of my texts for my classes are always on a different scale than normal and this content could have been presented in an exponentially worse way.

[Justin Mcdonough · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a scientist, I am always looking for the clearest way to describe topics like genetics to a broad audience. I read this book with the intention of honing this practice. I was impressed that the author could do this so well despite the complete absence of diagrams along the way.

[Dylan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, easy to understand and informative.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating 3.25 of 5. Was a good book. Being a 101 type of book as implied in the title I found myself in a little deep at times. For someone still at school recently taking some chemistry/biology classes they would probably get more than I did. The book is well written just a required more background than I have at this point.

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great simple explanation for young people or for adults who need to review basics. Simple and interesting!!

[Camry A'Keen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, definitely for invested science enthusiasts or scientists

[emrah · Rating 1 out of 5]

temel biyoloji bilgisi olmayan insanlar için yazmaya çalışmış. iyi bir lise biyoloji eğitimi almış birisi için vakit kaybı. öğreneceğiniz yeni şeyler olacaktır ama bu vakit kaybına değmez. Nitelik ve nicelik bakımından kötü. Tahammül etmekte zorlandım çoğu zaman. Çeviriyi değerlendiremedim fakat “kalıtyazım(transcription)”, “kalıtokuma(translation)” terimlerinin bu şekilde çevrilmelerini ilk kez gördüm. Bu konuya meraklı olanlar için yazılmış güzel kitaplar var ama o kitap bu değil.

[Kevin Tzara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, informative, but most importantly, accessible. This is an excellent book for a laymen to become more knowledgeable about genetics/biology. Some of the more abstruse ideas that may have gone over your head in biology class are explained here in clear and relatable terms. This is another great read from the 101 series.

[Fanie Oosthuysen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great basics book that covers a lot. Very easy to read and makes light of a large topic space that will affect all of our lives in the next 10 years more than any other technology you can imagine. Funny how a book published a little over a year ago already contains dated information in the field of human CRISPR. I love that fact and makes me super excited for the future of humanity.

[Öykü Coşkun · Rating 4 out of 5]

daha bilmediğim şeyler söyler, daha ilgi çekici olur sanmıştım

[Clifton Conklin · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️ - the author here describes things as if they were a highschooler that obtained all their information from tiktok. The author further loses the point by making dimwhitted remarks that restrain me from truly understanding the book.I dislike the way the author communicate the information however the overall perspective and presentation of it is alright. I am not a person who’m likes to read books at all but i found myself not entirely bored when reading. This is the reason of why i believe that a three star rating for the book is entirely fair and just for my perspective. I believe that maybe if the author was to change how they described each process then it could have obtained a much higher score.

The book Genetics 101 by, Beth Skwarecki, describes the functions and purpose of the motorly functions entailed in living organisms. Although there isn't any clear characters, or setting, It speaks of many discoveries made by many people over the course of hundreds of years, taking place all across the world. An important person detailed within the excerpt is Gregor Mandel, it's commonly said he is the one who discovered the concept of alleles, and was critical to the progression in knowledge of genetics.. One underlying theme of the book, previously enlisted throughout the depictions in the book, is DNA is what results in successful creation. “When the cell is ready to begin replicating the DNA, a licensing protein binds to each of these origins.” (skwarecki 85). The author describes processes step by step, with each previous one being essential to the next process, this organization is essential to a clear understanding of how multicellular organisms function. Under further investigation recently scientists have figured out how we perceive the world can relate to our genetics. This means that you may react differently to happy inducing scenarios then your best friends. This also means that other emotions like anger and sadness can be perceived differently causing different reactions entirely. So when the world changes around us, depending on how we perceive it we can all react differently.

[Sana Niazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good beginner level book.

Broad topics which are covered are: DNA structure, its composition and transcription and translation process by which the DNA code is read.

Phenotype and Genotype is covered which many people are already familiar with if one knows how the blood type works: AA shows as A, AO shows as A, OO shows as O and so on.

Human DNA is discussed at a very basic level: chromosomes, XX and XY chromosomes, meosis, mitosis and how genes are inherited from parents and family tree.

Other topics touched are retrovirus, viral and bacterial DNA, how healthy human cells are attacked by disease causing bacteria, antibiotics and how they work against bacteria, how bacteria can develops resistance to antibiotics and pass that to other bacteria, plasmids, use of plasmids for gene manipulation and gene editing technique: CRISPR-Cas9 to name the interesting ones.

[Silly Goose · Rating 5 out of 5]

atheists: mRNA just happens to move toward DNA, transcript, and move out of the nucleus towards rRNA where it can be translated. this coincidence happens billions of times in your body every second and it's all because one day the world decided to exist ☝️🤓

me, an intellectual: the motion in which your DNA is replicated is reminiscent of two knitting needles at work, this is a direct callback to Psalm 139:13 (something written millennia before DNA was discovered, mind you). your makings are no coincidence, but rather the work of a loving and all-powerful God, who put specificity and art into even the smallest of details, knowing it would only be recognized in the 1960s. The rocks and stars praise God, and you, a beautiful and emotionally-deep human being should too. Your existence is no coincidence, and I am so grateful for that. 😌❤️

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could’ve taken one day to finish, but Skwarecki’s dry writing style is terrible. This book advertises itself as a “crash course” and portrays itself to be introductory, yet it is not. The book takes ideas and concepts, and rolls through the book without adequately elaborating on them and why they’re important. This book felt like reading a dictionary book for genetics, as opposed to educating me on the subject. I read the terms and definitions, but the way the book is written, it makes true memorization difficult for me as it isn’t written with enough context and concepts are left unpeeled. Would not recommend.

[Greg Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent overview

You have heard the descriptive phrase characterizing a subject or a book about a subject as being "a mile wide and an inch deep." This book is more than an inch deep... more like a meter déep. It does a good job describing the basic science and addresses a lot things you can run into such as genetic testing, ethics, forensics and more. I'm still waiting for a good graphical explanation of PCR though.

[Sanaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

يقدم هذا الكتاب شرحًا مبسطًا وشاملًا لعلم الجينات، حيث يستعرض أساسيات الوراثة، بدءًا من بنية الحمض النووي
(DNA)
والكروموسومات ووظائف الجينات، وصولًا إلى الطفرات الجينية والهندسة الوراثية. كما يسلط الضوء على موضوعات حديثة مثل تقنيات الاستنساخ، واختبارات الحمض النووي، ودور الجينات في الصحة والأمراض
يمكن استخدام هذا الكتاب كدليل اذا كنت ترغب في التعرف على علم الجينات بأسلوب واضح دون الحاجة إلى خلفية علمية متخصصة

[Ceren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okumam bayaa uzun sürdü ama her bölümde farklı bir şey anlatıldığından bence normal bir süre. Biyolojiye sarmış bir liseli olduğumdan ve bu konular hakkında daha fazla bilgi sahibi olmak istediğimden okudum. Başlangıç açısından gayet akıcı olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Bir sürü terimle sizi yormuyor. Merakımı daha da arttıran bir kitap oldu kesinlikle. İleride belki istediğim moleküler biyoloji ve genetik bölümünü okurum ve random bir gün bu yorumumu görürüm kim bilir🤷🏼‍♀️

[Adam Roll · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book in the 101 series, it was dense, difficult, and excellent. I don't need to know most of what was in this book, and I doubt my retention will be great, but I like having overviews of science to compare to my healthy science fiction habit, just for comparison. If you wonder what is possible this is a good place to see the contemporary state of affairs.

[América · Rating 4 out of 5]

Realmente me gustó el contenido, habla de muchos temas de una manera resumida y en un lenguaje muy ameno, sin embargo no tenía imágenes y si las tuviera, el libro sería perfecto. Por el diseño de la portada imaginaba que iba a tener muchas ilustraciones pero no, lo cual es una lástima porque eso nos ayudaría a entender mejor alguna información. De igual manera le doy 4/5

[Kya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bro the author of this lowkey needs to write all of my school’s textbooks lmao. It’s laid out so well and easily that you know what you need to know, have a good image of how dna works, and just genuinely learn in the fastest way possible. Honestly 10/10 like damn

[Serban Balamaci · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's surprisingly well explained although it doesn't get too much into detail with every subject and covers very large array of topics. Perfect precursor to getting you prepared for the next book that might zoom into details down to chemistry level.

[Antony and Christina Mott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable, well-written, great primer or refresher: well done Beth!

Great refresher for anyone (like me) who last studied genetics in college and wants to catch up, especially CRISPR which wasn’t around when I did genetics.

[Dilek · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Dna, tel gibi bir moleküldür.

Gen yapısı, mitokondri Dna'sının anneden geldiği, genetik hastalıkların aktarımı anlatılıyor. Gen bankası ve gizliliği,yeni teknolojilerle ilgili genel bilgi veriliyor.

[Sıla Dilşa Deniz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kompleks mekanizmalar basit ve anlaşılır bir dil ile sunulmuş. İçerisinde güncelliğini halen koruyan bilimsel çalışmalara yer verilmiş. Kitabın çevirisi kötü. Mümkünse orijinal dilinde okunmasını tavsiye ederim.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice little review

[Tiến Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can more understand how the gen work, there are still some difficulty information to understand but basically it is very good book to start for learning about Gen

[Bon Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was good. I enjoyed learning about genes and how they work

[Sinem · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt like im reading a textbook but its even more boring than that.

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent refresher of basic genetics, with some interesting new information that I wasn't already aware of. Unfortunately I wasn't a fan of the book's formatting and struggled to get engaged.

[Sura Siri · Rating 4 out of 5]

ถึงอ่านแล้วจะงงๆนิดหน่อยตามประสาคนไม่ชอบเรียนชีววิทยา แต่ก็พอทำความเข้าใจกับเรื่องพันธุศาสตร์ได้บ้าง ในช่วงครึ่งเล่มหลังอ่านแล้วเป็นเรื่องใกล้ตัวมากๆ อ่านแล้วสามารถทำเข้าใจได้