Science and Inquiry discussion

For September 2019, we will be reading Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Interesting. No waiting list at the library for the e-book. Probably because it's 20 years old. Still looking forward to reading it.

I read this book last year, and here's the review I wrote for it ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ):

I recently read two other books on the human genome: Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene: An Intimate History and Sam Kean's The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code.

I expected there to be a bit of overlap between them, but I actually found them each to be very different. Mukherjee and Kean focus a lot on the history, while Ridley stays more on the science and less about the history. Kean is a great storyteller, while Mukherjee tries hard to make a grand philosophical message, which falls flat, in my opinion, compared to Ridley.

As for the science, much of it seemed outdated, this book being almost two decades old, and the field of human genetics so quickly changing. Most of the sources are academic papers or articles, and the popular books and textbooks referenced are mostly outdated. However, based what I learned in Muckerjee's book, most of the science in Ridley still seems valid.

I'll admit that the real reason I picked this one up was to read Ridley's political views, and in that, he does not fail. The thrust of Ridley's political philosophy is in complex systems control is not centralized but distributed - a view I fully subscribe to. And this is not only true for biology, but for economics and government too. Ridley makes this very clear and convincing in several places in the book. I'd really like to read his other book - The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge, where he expands on this greatly.

Ridley delves into other contentious political topics as well, such as media hysteria over Mad Cow Disease, eugenics, genetic screening, sex, evolutionary psychology, and luddism. Ridley has a unique, but extremely compelling views on all these topics, and that's where this book really shines. One of the points Ridley quite clearly makes in a couple of places is that your genes belong to you alone, and you alone have the right to decide who you want to share it with. However, you really have to wait for the last few chapters of the book for his to really get started.

Overall, this book is a great addition to the popular literature on genetics. Despite being almost two decades old, the science is still fresh, and the political angle is something you won't get from any other author is such compelling a manner.

I think this is a great book for discussion because it's not just about the science, but in addition, Ridley is not shy about taking opinionated stances on political and social issues. Any one of these issues is enough to have a lively debate (as political debates on the social medias tend to get...).

Joel wrote: "I read this book last year, and here's the review I wrote for it (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I recently read two other books on the human genome: [author:Siddhartha Mukherj..."

Oh good, glad you liked it. I will pick my reserved copy up tomorrow from the library! It has been on my to-read list for ages.
Curious about the political slant. After reading Pinker's book, I found his political expositions annoying and one-sided, although I have always been a fan of Pinker.

Nancy wrote: "I found his political expositions annoying and one-sided..."

The problem with Pinker is that he sometimes comes across as a bit smug, but don't get me wrong, I still like him a lot because he's so thoroughly thought out. He's sometimes irritating because he'll come so close to where you think he should go, but doesn't go all the way.

Ridley is not quite like that. He's a bit more playful. He's not quite as thoughtful as Pinker, but I find him much more original, which makes up for it.

I'm up to Chapter 6, and enjoying it. To my mind this book is worth reading if only for the Introduction. I've read a few books on genes and was always somewhat confused about what and where a gene actually is. Ridley explains it quite clearly, much better than anyone else I've read.

He's also got some quotable lines:

“Life is a slippery thing to define, but it consists of two very different skills: the ability to replicate, and the ability to create order.”

“Evolution has no pinnacle and there is no such thing as evolutionary progress.”

“Natural selection is simply the process by which life-forms change to suit the myriad opportunities afforded by the physical environment and by other life-forms.”

Betsy wrote: "I'm up to Chapter 6, and enjoying it. To my mind this book is worth reading if only for the Introduction. I've read a few books on genes and was always somewhat confused about what and where a gene..."

Me, too. I'm so glad to hear this. I'll be on vacation in a couple of weeks, and I'll be reading it then. Thanks, Betsy.

Betsy wrote: "I'm up to Chapter 6, and enjoying it. To my mind this book is worth reading if only for the Introduction. I've read a few books on genes and was always somewhat confused about what and where a gene..."

Indeed, he has some good quotes. Here's one I caught:

"...nature has never found human incomprehension a reason for changing her methods.”

This is a great book!

Candice

I enjoyed this book very much. The book is twenty years old now, and considerably out of date with all the recent scientific progress. Nevertheless, it is fascinating, and probably worth reading. Here is my review.

I was very impressed even though the book is old - ancient by the growth of knowledge in this field. Still, he stuck to what was known & I was hooked the entire time. As David pointed out in his review, I also thought his point that genes weren't put there to cause disease was fantastic.

Some of the diseases were really interesting. I had no idea they had zeroed in on Huntington's so well. The choice of whether or not to know was an interesting one as well as the ethics behind telling someone.

I gave the book a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I finally finished this book. (I got distracted by some fiction then my library loan ended and it was weeks before I could get it back.) I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend to any one interested in genetics, but especially to non-geneticists. It's an introductory sort of book that might bore or frustrate an expert. But I found it very illuminating. Here is my review.