The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code

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The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 1,477 ratings · 345 reviews

From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA.

In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In THE VIOLINIST'S THUMB, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA.

There are genes to explain crazy cat...more

Hardcover, 401 pages

Published July 17th 2012 by Little, Brown and Company

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Jul 30, 2012 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science, favorites

The Violinist's Thumb tells the story of the genetic code through the stories of the scientists who made discoveries about the genetic code, people affected by genetic mutations, and others. And the book is fascinating. I don't really have any science background to speak of, but I was pretty well able to follow the descriptions of the scientific information.

How I found this book was through the author's blog on Slate found here, where he shared some of the stories from the book in a shortened fo...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Aaron rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

*A full executive-style summary of this book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/08/01...

In a sense the story of DNA has two strands. On the one hand, as the blueprint of all that lives and the mechanism of heredity, DNA tells the story of life (and the history of life), from the smallest, simplest microbe, to we human beings, who have managed to figure all of this out. Of course, there is still much about DNA that we don't know. But given that we didn't even know of its existence...more *A full executive-style summary of this book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/08/01...

In a sense the story of DNA has two strands. On the one hand, as the blueprint of all that lives and the mechanism of heredity, DNA tells the story of life (and the history of life), from the smallest, simplest microbe, to we human beings, who have managed to figure all of this out. Of course, there is still much about DNA that we don't know. But given that we didn't even know of its existence until a lowly Swiss physician and biologist named Friedrich Miescher stumbled upon it in the 1860's, you have to admit we've come a long way in such a short time. And this is just where the second strand of the story of DNA begins: the story of our unraveling the mystery. While perhaps not as grandiose as the story of life itself, this detective story is significant in its own right, for it has transformed how we understand all that lives--including ourselves. This is especially the case given that the latest chapters in this story have revealed not only our own genomic blueprint, but the (deeply daunting) fact that we have the power to change this blueprint and thus became the masters of our own future as a species. While each of the strands of the story of DNA could fill a book in their own right (if not several), the author Sam Kean has managed to weave the two together and fit them both in his new book `The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code'. Kean's project may seem like a particularly tall task, but he manages to pull it off by way of focusing in on only the main (and/or juiciest) moments and characters throughout.

Kean divides his tome into four parts. The first part explores the basics of DNA and heredity, and the earliest discoveries thereof. Here we are introduced to the aforementioned Miescher, as well as Gregor Mendel, who teased out the basic laws of heredity using his famed peas. We also learn of Thomas Hunt Morgan and his team of eccentric lab assistants who managed to marry Mendelism (genetics) with Darwinism (evolution by natural selection) to develop the theory of genetic evolution, which stands as the main pillar of modern biology. We also learn about genetic mutations and how these glitches are the key to evolution. Sadly, these glitches also have their downside, which we witness through the story of Tsutomu Yamaguchi, who had the terrible misfortune of being in the blast area of both of the nuclear bombs that the US dropped on Japan at the end of WWII.

Part II of the book explores DNA's role in the beginnings and evolution of life. In particular, Kean focuses on the major leaps in evolution, from the first microbes, to microbes with complex internal specialization, to multi-celled organisms with specialized cells (which includes all plants and animals), to mammals, to primates, to us. All of this may sound very technical, but Kean manages to keep the story lively with tales of northern seafarers encountering angry polar bears (and learning that biting into their innards can be just as deadly as them biting into yours), and Soviet scientists embarking on a project to create humanzees (yes, that's a cross between a human and a chimpanzee).

Part III of the book turns to human DNA in particular, and what sets us apart as a species. Here we learn how our DNA reveals that our species has passed through several genetic bottlenecks--meaning there have been numerous occasions where our numbers have dwindled to near-extinction levels, with the latest bottleneck occurring as little as 70,000 years ago. This has left us with far less genetic diversity than most other species, including our closest living relatives, the chimps (compared to whom we also have two less chromosomes). We also learn about some of the genes that have contributed to the evolution of our big brains--the one thing that separates us most as a species. Finally, we learn about the role that DNA plays in our peculiar attraction to art.

The fourth and final part of the book gets into the intricacies of the structure of DNA, and how our unraveling these intricacies (through the work of Watson and Crick, and the Human Genome Project) has allowed us to manipulate life forms. While these discoveries have opened up enormous opportunities, they have also led to some very poignant questions about just how we should be using this knowledge--especially when it comes to ourselves and our own species. As our knowledge of DNA increases (currently at a rate that exceeds Moore's Law) these questions will only become more pressing moving forward.

Given the remarkably wide range of his subject matter, Kean's work runs the risk of becoming as tangled and sprawling as a string of DNA. However, the author does manage to keep the sprawl to a minimum (for the most part). Also, the science does get a bit thorny at times (the odd visual would have helped), but again, Kean mostly succeeds in making some very complex science easy to understand; what's more, Kean's clever and very down to earth use of language adds some nice flavor to the dish. A full executive-style summary of the book is available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/08/01...
A podcast discussion of the book is also available. (less)

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Mar 20, 2013 Ed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Two books for the price of one is a good deal, but when both books are engaging, it's a great deal. Sam Kean's volume can conveniently be divided into a first half that’s an exposition of what we know about DNA and genetics, and a second half devoted to how this science has played out in prehistory, historical eras, and the lives of individuals.
A strong science background makes it easier to understand the first half of the book. Unfortunately, I don't have one. My last formal encounter with a...more Two books for the price of one is a good deal, but when both books are engaging, it's a great deal. Sam Kean's volume can conveniently be divided into a first half that’s an exposition of what we know about DNA and genetics, and a second half devoted to how this science has played out in prehistory, historical eras, and the lives of individuals.
A strong science background makes it easier to understand the first half of the book. Unfortunately, I don't have one. My last formal encounter with a science course occurred forty-eight years ago, when I took Astronomy. (Or maybe it was Astrology. It was the '60s. I don't remember), and I barely passed. In spite of this spectacular ignorance, Kean managed, by sheer verbal firepower, to actually teach me a little about DNA. I think he figured that the subject was difficult enough, so let's make the language clear and direct. He did good.
When Kean turns to explaining how this science can help us better understand the past, and even some specific personages, I picked up the pace. I have to be honest: when most scientists try to write history, they usually produce the raw material for a compost pile. Kean beats the odds. Some of what he writes about are the quirky footnotes to history that remind you that history is about real people. It’s Paganini’s DNA and resultant anatomy that provides the background for the title, “The Violinist’s Thumb.” (If he had decided to let Toulouse-Lautrec’s anatomy inspire the title, the book would have topped every best seller list.) Even when Kean delves into more serious topics like the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, he resists the temptation to lapse into jargon and confuse his reader.
Kean’s style respects his readers. For example, he explains how DNA, natural selection, and sexual selection all work together to create our “lust for art.” This can get pretty abstract, and I begin wondering if it’s the late hour or the second Jameson’s that’s fogging my cranium. Then Kean interjects this, “Now, if talents on a par with Matisse or Mozart seems a trifle elaborate for getting laid, you’re right;...” Whoa! I'm back in focus.
I have no idea how serious scientists regard this book, but for the layperson who is interested in learning more about modern research into DNA, one can hardly do better. (less)

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Feb 28, 2013 Elemillia Ucselub rated it 4 of 5 stars

A Gone Bookserk Perspective

I previously read Sam Kean's book The Disappearing Spoon. I love it! Now, I decided to read The Violinist's Thumb for the same reason I loved The Disappearing Spoon, and that's because I love Sam Kean's writing. He definitely has a talent for writing about science. There's something really special about the way he tells human stories, especially when it comes to science. I thoroughly enjoyed, both of his books, even though the second lacked a little bit in my expect...more A Gone Bookserk Perspective

I previously read Sam Kean's book The Disappearing Spoon. I love it! Now, I decided to read The Violinist's Thumb for the same reason I loved The Disappearing Spoon, and that's because I love Sam Kean's writing. He definitely has a talent for writing about science. There's something really special about the way he tells human stories, especially when it comes to science. I thoroughly enjoyed, both of his books, even though the second lacked a little bit in my expectations. Netherless, you have to read what I'm about to say about The Violinist's Thumb!

Same Kean definitely has the human touch when it comes to science writing. He focuses on human stories, rather than the science elements he's trying to talk about. The Disappearing Spoon was definitely like that. The Violinist's Thumb on the other hand was a bit dry. He has this tendency to go on tangential discussions, especially when he was talking about Zipf's Law... you will see when you read the book. Even still, I have to say it's still a great book, but it is a little drier than The Disappearing Spoon.

These are some of my favorite stories from the book. First and foremost, it's the story of how the title gained its existence, from the violinist Paganini whose thumb could bend at really bizarre angles due to a genetic condition he had. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is the one and only person who survived exposure to TWO nuclear blasts, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I'm curious to know if anything will happen to his future offspring in the third or fourth generation. And, wow, what about the explorers who got sick from eating polar bear livers due to their inability to process vitamin A. Now that's a story you have to read about.

The book is filled with little tid-bits you'll find interesting and often funny. Let's mention the little tid-bid that 1 gram of DNA is equivalent in information as 1 trillion CDs of information. A scientist I had already known about from before is Johannes Miescher actually discovered DNA in white blood cells from something so accessible it left an impression on me. In a a day and age where we have to get permission for everything we want to get an experiment on, Miescher studied the pus of freshly removed would dressings and came onto a revolutionary discovery. Now that's a scientist!

Sam Kean also talks a little bit about future projects: Clonning and Genome Splicing Project. That's something I'll let you all read about in the book. The reason I bring it up is because Sam Kean brings these two topics up for discussion, two topics we've seemed to stopped talking about more or less...

I love Sam Kean's writing, even if The Violinist's Thumb fell short of my expectations. The Disappearing Spoon is just really good!
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Dec 05, 2012 Kater Cheek rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sam Kean's first book THE DISAPPEARING SPOON was my favorite book I read last year, so I was very excited to read this one, hoping that it would be chock full of the same behind-the-scenes science stories that so delighted me the first time.

It's not a bad book. In fact, I'm hovering between "liked it" and "really liked it". It has a lot of amazing stories in it. The spurious theory that Stalin may have wanted to breed a half-human half-chimpanzee super-army? Nuns doing genetic research in full h...more Sam Kean's first book THE DISAPPEARING SPOON was my favorite book I read last year, so I was very excited to read this one, hoping that it would be chock full of the same behind-the-scenes science stories that so delighted me the first time.

It's not a bad book. In fact, I'm hovering between "liked it" and "really liked it". It has a lot of amazing stories in it. The spurious theory that Stalin may have wanted to breed a half-human half-chimpanzee super-army? Nuns doing genetic research in full habits? Neanderthal genomes mixed in with modern European descendants? It's not just great stuff for reading, it's also great stuff for telling your friends when you need small talk.

And yet, I didn't enjoy this as much as the first book. I found it was taking me a long time to finish it, even though I brought it with me on a vacation. That's a sign that I haven't been super-excited about reading it. For one thing, while THE DISAPPEARING SPOON didn't presuppose a deep understanding of chemistry (that I recall) there was more than one section in THE VIOLINIST'S THUMB that I couldn't understand because I didn't know enough of the science behind it.

The first half of this book felt a little slow. The main draw of the first book were the fascinating end notes, and I was horribly disappointed when the first few chapters' end notes read like...well, like normal end notes instead of Terry Pratchett-quality end notes. They got better after a time, and by the time I got to the section where the sailors looking for the Northwest passage died from eating polar bear liver, I had determined to plunge on.

The latter half of the book definitely picked up. Kean writes about the human genome splicing project and all the drama behind it. I loved the stories of inbred royals and the perils of having children by your first cousin when your family is already sickly. Especially fascinating was the section on the connection between microbes and human genes, and the way Kean manages to segue into cat-hoarding and cross-breeding wasps.

I recommend this book for people who liked THE DISAPPEARING SPOON, which is to say, science fans who like lots of fascinating historical anecdotes, the dirty backstage gossip behind the shining spectacle of genealogy.(less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Maxine McLister rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pretty much all of us know that DNA is what makes us, well, us. But few of us non-scientists really understand what that means. Through a bit of hard science, a little history, just a touch of humour, and some fascinating anecdotes, author San Kean sets out to rectify this in his marvelous book, The Violinist's Thumb.

Kean explains in simple and rather poetic terms, for example, the difference between DNA and genes. "DNA", he tells us, "is a thing - a chemical which sticks to your fingers" while...more Pretty much all of us know that DNA is what makes us, well, us. But few of us non-scientists really understand what that means. Through a bit of hard science, a little history, just a touch of humour, and some fascinating anecdotes, author San Kean sets out to rectify this in his marvelous book, The Violinist's Thumb.

Kean explains in simple and rather poetic terms, for example, the difference between DNA and genes. "DNA", he tells us, "is a thing - a chemical which sticks to your fingers" while genes are "like a story, with DNA as the language the story is written in". And DNA does much more than colour our eyes blue or our hair black. As Kean points out, if it weren't for DNA, we would lack the imagination to even wonder about these things never mind try to discover why they are what they are. DNA is really the story of us, the story of our place in the universe, and, if it seems a little sad to think we are really just the sum of our genetic makeup, there is a whole lot more to the story than just our biology. It is, in fact, our DNA which makes us not only human but humane.

In some wonderful anecdotes, Kean (whose own DNA has made him a born story teller) tells us about the unluckiest lucky man in the world, a Japanese man who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, only to head home to his family who lived in, you guessed it, Nagasaki. Yet, despite surviving two nuclear bombs, he went on to live a long and fruitful life. He also introduces us, thanks to DNA, to the mother of us all, the real Eve, who was a tiny woman who lived a hundred thousand years ago. And Kean also explains why, thanks to DNA, you should never eat the liver of a polar bear unless you are a seal.

The Violinist's Thumb has to be the most fun I have ever had reading a book about science. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the thumb in the title belonged to Paganini, an 18th century violinist so talented many thought he had sold his soul to the devil. Turns out it was something which seems on the surface, somewhat less poetic but certainly more surprising and decidedly human - Paganini's incredible skill was due not to Satan but to a genetic disorder which would eventually shorten his life but which allowed him to bend his fingers and thumbs in amazing ways. When Shakespeare said "fault lies not in our stars...but in ourselves", he was more right than he could have possibly imagined even given his wonderful DNA.(less)

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Sep 20, 2012 Harry Lane rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Science can be complicated. The work of scientists can be esoteric. Advances are often not recognized as such immediately, and dueling theories have to compete for validation. In short, it can be very messy in terms of plot and character. It takes an exceptional writer to wade into such murky waters on any given scientific subject, and deliver a readable and entertaining account. Sam Kean has done the job in this book. He attempts an overview of the science of genetics, beginning with Mendel's s...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Sharon Holford rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mr. Kean writes with enthusiasm and wit. He keeps you interested while you learn a lot of interesting stuff most people don't care or think about. Genes and chromosomes and DNA and how they made us who we are over hundreds of thousands of years. One of my favorite chapters is "The Musical score of DNA - what kinds of information does DNA store? He talks of Lewis Carroll and Alice's adventures in wonderland. The Mock Turtle is bemoaning "different branches of arithmetic - ambition (addition), di...more

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Sep 14, 2012 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kean manages to cram enough information into this book to satisfy the armchair historian, biologist, or trivia aficionado, while somehow keeping it readable and entertaining.

It's a rather monumental task, combining the history of science with the latest discoveries. He's pretty good about explaining without talking down. I think he assumed most of his readers would be like me--took bio in high school and have vaguely kept up with discoveries announced in the press, but have to shamefacedly admit...more Kean manages to cram enough information into this book to satisfy the armchair historian, biologist, or trivia aficionado, while somehow keeping it readable and entertaining.

It's a rather monumental task, combining the history of science with the latest discoveries. He's pretty good about explaining without talking down. I think he assumed most of his readers would be like me--took bio in high school and have vaguely kept up with discoveries announced in the press, but have to shamefacedly admit that while we've heard of RNA, we can't really quite remember exactly what it does. He defines terms as he goes, assuming that you don't really remember or know a lot of this but that you're intelligent enough to keep up. I think I did, for the most part. There were so paragraphs that I'd definitely need to go back and reread, possibly with a reference, to fully understand, but he generally picks you again on the other side with enough of a layman's description that even if you didn't quite follow how all the proteins come together, you can still understand the overall implications by the end. And he does it without making you feel like a dolt, which is nice. Did I understand everything fully? No. Will I retain what I did get? Probably some of it, probably not all. But I think my overall understanding of where we stand at the moment is drastically improved.

And all along, he illustrates the science with history. Stories about the scientists who made the discoveries, about famous cases from Paganini to Einstein, about weird discoveries in our own genome. (Did you know that an enormous amount of our DNA appears to have been stolen from bacteria and viruses? The placenta looks like it was reverse-engineered from the traits that retroviruses use to hide from immune systems. Without incorporating retrovirus DNA into our own, we never could have developed live birth.) He usually develops a sense of tension by introducing a story at the beginning of a chapter and leaving it at a cliffhanger to explain the science going on behind the case. He'll touch base with the chapter's story two or three times, using it to illustrate various facets of a discovery, before finally resolving the original story by the end of the chapter. It's a remarkably effective technique of breaking up the long explanations.

Overall, it's a fascinating look about what we know about what makes our bodies work, and how we learned it.(less)

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Aug 14, 2012 Scott Collins rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Entertaining, balanced and nicely written romp through the history of genetics, filled with fascinating characters such as Ilya Ivanov, the Russian scientist who tried to breed humanzees by impregnating chimps with human sperm (and vice versa, which almost happened until African officials thought better of offering up their women for such an experiment). Some of the science can be a little befuddling without a firm rooting in biology (time to bone up those DNA bases from Life Science 101!), but...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Tony rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

THE VIOLINIST’S THUMB and other lost tales of love, war, and genius, as written by our genetic code. (2012). Sam Kean. *****.
Aside from the title, this is an excellent survey of what is known about DNA and the genetic code to date, using clear expository writing along with vignettes about the people involved known only to ‘insiders.’ The author’s previous book, “The Disappearing Spoon,” showed that he knew how to write and to hold the reader’s interest. He also seemed to have the uncanny abilit...more

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Jul 28, 2012 Ellie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

DNA. It’s in all of us but did you know it tells a story? Both of the human race and its own story of discovery. The Violinist’s Thumb is not only an introduction to the science of DNA but a trip through history from Mendel to the Human Genome Project and Neanderthals to crazy cat people.

My knowledge of DNA comes from high school biology, Jurassic Park and numerous crime shows and books, so I’m by no means in a position to understand high-brow scientific tomes. Instead, Sam Kean manages to enter...more DNA. It’s in all of us but did you know it tells a story? Both of the human race and its own story of discovery. The Violinist’s Thumb is not only an introduction to the science of DNA but a trip through history from Mendel to the Human Genome Project and Neanderthals to crazy cat people.

My knowledge of DNA comes from high school biology, Jurassic Park and numerous crime shows and books, so I’m by no means in a position to understand high-brow scientific tomes. Instead, Sam Kean manages to entertain and educate. The conversational tone dips into more technical territory now and then but just as you think it’s about to go over your head, it returns to an amusing anecdote. I fell I have a better understanding of how DNA works and how it’s shaped us as humans.

I learned so many fascinating facts. That there could be a biological reason that otherwise sane people turn into crazy cat hoarders; toxoplasma gondii (a parasite caught from cats) will release dopamine into the brain when the infected individual smells cat pee. So cats make them happy. The case study here, were a couple that held the world record for most cats in one home; 689! I could go on all day about the things I picked up but I need to leave some for you to discover yourself.

What is often left out of scientific history, are the people behind the discoveries. We may know all about Mendel’s peas but not that his research was destroyed because of his politics and not his science (I’m pretty sure his fellow monks were appreciative of his pea improvement). It’s also quite common for geneticists to try and explain historical figures through their genes, what does Einstein’s brain say about his genius? And there was a wonderful section about Toulouse-Lautrec, whilst his family’s inbreeding was tragic, his disadvantages probably led to his art. Just as a genetic condition blessed and blighted the title’s inspiration, virtuoso violinist, Niccolò Paganini.

My only grumble was a couple of errors that should have been picked up by an editor. We cannot possibly be 8% not human and only 2% human; that just doesn’t add up. I know that the author meant 8% virus DNA and 2% unique to human DNA, but it wasn’t worded that way and for a scientist, maths should be important. There was another similar thing, where he stated “virtually all animals” and then excluded all mammals in the same sentence. Virtually all would imply mammals to most of us, would it not? There may have been other slip-ups but these were surrounded in paragraphs that included things I wanted to quote and realised they didn’t make sense when I looked more closely. The fact that I still think this a five star read, shows you how much I got out of it.(less)

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Jul 23, 2012 Jorge rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science, evolution

The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean

"The Violinist's Thumb" is a book about stories involving DNA and using DNA to solve historical mysteries. Best-selling author of the wonderful "The Disappearing Spoon", science-writer Sam Kean is at it again but this time he tackles genetics. This 416-page book is broken out into the following four parts: Part I. A, C, G, T, and You: How to Read a Genetic Score, Part II. Our Animal Pa...more

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Jun 22, 2012 Beatnik Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...

The Violinist's Thumb is about DNA. It's about how our genes affect our abilities and outcomes, and about the people along the way who have been instrumental (eh? like a violin? eh?) in discovering or demonstrating genetics at work.
The title comes from Niccolo Paganini, a violinist so talented that the church refused to bury him for decades after his death because of rumours that he had made a pact with the devil in order to play as he did. Turns out, he...more http://www.cozylittlebookjournal.com/...

The Violinist's Thumb is about DNA. It's about how our genes affect our abilities and outcomes, and about the people along the way who have been instrumental (eh? like a violin? eh?) in discovering or demonstrating genetics at work.
The title comes from Niccolo Paganini, a violinist so talented that the church refused to bury him for decades after his death because of rumours that he had made a pact with the devil in order to play as he did. Turns out, he just had a genetic disorder that allowed him to bend his fingers and thumbs at bizarre, unnatural angles, a condition which also certainly shortened his life.
The Violinist's Thumb is, well, a bit "science-y" in places. It's been a long time since I've had to keep track of terms like genetic coding, DNA and RNA strands, double helix and chromosonal markers (Is that last one even right? I should know this. I JUST read a book about DNA!) Some of it took me back to high school and university biology classes, and some of it caused me to glaze over a bit (much like The Calculus Diaries). But the heavy duty big brain required to follow the technical aspects of the book is more than mitigated by the wealth of interesting anecdotes throughout the book. Sam Kean tells us about Gregor Mendel's nervous breakdowns, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's famously stunted growth, and Tsutomu Yamaguchi--"the most unlucky man of the twentieth century"--who, after being caught by the atomic blast in Hiroshima got on a train and went to Nagasaki, just in time for the second bomb to drop.
Sam Kean has also hidden a little reward for his readers within the book, much like a marked chromosone in someone's DNA. It's an acrostic, or an encoded message composed of the first letter of several lines or paragraphs of text. He invites readers to email him when they've found it (or if they haven't found it and want help!). Normally I LOVE puzzles like this, but since I've been reading the EPUB edition, I'm not sure if the first letters of the lines in my copy are the same as those in the printed edition. Every time I adjust the font, the lines change! I hate to give up on a puzzle, though, so I might have to get my hands on a print edition. Well played, Kean, well played.

Disclaimer: I received a digital galley of this book free from the publisher from NetGalley.com. I was not obliged to write a favourable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
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Mar 16, 2013 Holly rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads

This got off to a bad start for me, when on page 33 Kean equated Darwinian natural selection and "survival of the fittest." (Herbert Spencer and/or "social Darwinism" were never mentioned.) Then, in an incendiary chapter on cats and toxoplasmosis ("toxo") he never explains that a cat who has lived indoors all its life cannot carry/transmit the disease. Then .... what else? The tone was too cutesy and much of the material was too simplistic - glossing over opposing viewpoints, or assuming the rea...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Lydia Presley rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, non-fiction, science

I'm going to be honest and tell you the entire reason I picked up The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean is not because I'm interested in biology or DNA or anything to do with science really - it's because the name Paganini drew me in.

I've never been the type of girl to understand science. The closest I came was a low C in Biology 14 years ago when I attended the University of Wyoming. Ever since then I've operated under the assumption that magic sparkles course through my veins, that storks bring ba...more

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Apr 20, 2013 T. Edmund rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hadn't experienced Kean's work before reading The Violinist's Thumb. At first his slightly oddball humour and focus on the personal dramas of his subject's put me off. Then I realised that between the one-liners and gossip-columnesque recounting of scientist's lives was a mass of hard information. Complex information that typically the most bright struggle with, passed out in the easiest to understand genetics I've encountered.

By recounting the history of the subject, through the personal and...more

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Mar 01, 2013 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We've come a long way from pea plants. On first spotting "The Violinist's Thumb" on the library shelf, I thought it was a book of short stories. Realizing it was a book on genetics, I was intrigued enough to check it out. I'm glad I did. A science book for non-scientists, Kean traces the history of genetics from Mendel's early experiments with pea plants to the complex sequencing of the human genome. As basic as they may seem, I came away from the book with the following impressions:

1. The body...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Brian Clegg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was a great fan of Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon, so it was excellent to see a followup in The Violinist’s Thumb. The violinist in question was Paganini who had a genetic disorder that enabled him to bend his thumb back far beyond the usual limit. And this is an indirect hint about the subject of the book – DNA and our genetic code.

This is, without doubt, a very good book. A quote from New Scientist on the front compares Sam Kean’s writing to that of Bill Bryson – I think this delusional,...more I was a great fan of Sam Kean’s The Disappearing Spoon, so it was excellent to see a followup in The Violinist’s Thumb. The violinist in question was Paganini who had a genetic disorder that enabled him to bend his thumb back far beyond the usual limit. And this is an indirect hint about the subject of the book – DNA and our genetic code.

This is, without doubt, a very good book. A quote from New Scientist on the front compares Sam Kean’s writing to that of Bill Bryson – I think this delusional, and possibly a little unfair on Kean. I’d say he is, as a pure writer, better than Bryson, but lacks Bryson’s superb comic touch. Kean attempts humour, but it certainly isn’t up to Bryson – the comparison just doesn’t make sense. The good news is that once again Kean has brought an aspect of science alive with a ton of excellent anecdotes about the individuals involved, in this case in everything from studying the fruit flies that form the fingerprint on the cover of the book to cracking our genetic code in the Human Genome Project.

Along the with, if, like me, you aren’t a biologist you will certainly learn plenty. It might seem trivial but the best thing I went away with was the realisation that in DNA’s base pairs it’s easy to remember that A goes with T and C with G, because the curved letters go together and the straight ones similarly. However, I simply didn’t enjoy it as much as Disappearing Spoon. That book was a page turner that I couldn’t wait to get back to – this was a bit of plough through experience.

This is mostly not Kean’s fault (except for the fact the book is too long, but that might have been imposed on him). It’s the subject. It simply doesn’t have the variety that arose from looking at different elements – here you are on the same single subject throughout. And sometimes, because of this, the entertaining side stories weren’t helpful because I lost track of the theme they interrupted. I also found that because it is a single topic, I really wanted a lot more depth, but Kean continues to skip on, focussing on storytelling not content, telling us things without really explaining them. On a technical issue I would also say that Kean leaves epigenetics too late and should have integrated it more into the rest – as it stands its importance really doesn’t come across.

Overall it’s an excellent book – highly readable and with lots of great stories. It’s just that Kean’s style isn’t quite as suited to this topic as it was to the elements, and so this title is rather overshadowed by its predecessor.

Review first published on www.popularscience.co.uk and reproduced with permission(less)

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Jul 28, 2012 Paul McNeil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, nonfiction

I majored in biology in college, with an emphasis on molecular biology, so I've spent many hours reading about DNA and learning about how it works. I've even worked in a lab with genetically modified mice, and isolated RNA sequences. However, in school, things like DNA are usually treated in a pretty abstract way, and it's easy to forget the human side of "human DNA." This book does give some educational overview, but its real strength is the stories it tells.

After years in the world of the huma...more

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Oct 15, 2012 Scarlett Sims rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, leisure, real, science

I'm a big fan of pop-science books, and the cover design on this was so beautiful I was immediately attracted to it. I haven't read The Disappearing Spoon (by the same author), but I am certainly tempted to now as I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It consists of basic information about DNA and genetics, as told through examples of real people. My favorite thing about this author is his incredibly casual, conversational writing style. He uses the phrases "crotchal region" and "if you're into the wh...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Kathleen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Where was Sam Kean when I was struggling through the doldrums of high school science class? Kean has a talent for taking complex scientific topics, and making them easy to understand. Even so, Kean doesn't patronize the reader - he seems to assume we're not complete idiots, but rather simply not well-versed in even basic scientific principles. Most impressive is that Kean makes the most nitty gritty details fascinating. Well, they were already fascinating, but he explains why.

In this book, Kean...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Jared Mackinnon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As much as I enjoy Mr.Kean's books they always take me a long time to get through. I blame this on the end of chapter 'notes and errata' placed in the back of the book that have you jumping around. He used this same layout in 'The Disappearing Spoon' and it drove me nuts there as well as here. Otherwise this book is a great Science/History mix filled with stirring anecdotes that help you swallow the hard biology pills of DNA understanding.

I enjoy writing things down when I'm reading to help me...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Kam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Of all the sciences, my strongest bias lies with biology. Physics and chemistry are both very interesting, to be sure, but biology has always fascinated me more than either of the former. It's difficult to explain precisely why, but I suppose it's because biology has always seemed less "math-heavy" than physics or chemistry - or at least, it felt that way to me while I was studying the subjects at school. It also seemed like biology was more "real" and less "theoretical" than either physics or c...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Digna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

Highly entertaining, yet shockingly true.

Being a lover of science I was drawn to this book and not only by my interest in the genetic code. Reason is The Violinist’s Thumb reminds me of a scientific version of Ripley’s Believe it or Not, so shockingly true. Sam Kean takes the reader on a trip through DNA land. From the start you get to meet those famous and not so famous, yet monumental people who took those first initiatives in working with genes and the sequencing of DNA. Knowing very little...more Highly entertaining, yet shockingly true.

Being a lover of science I was drawn to this book and not only by my interest in the genetic code. Reason is The Violinist’s Thumb reminds me of a scientific version of Ripley’s Believe it or Not, so shockingly true. Sam Kean takes the reader on a trip through DNA land. From the start you get to meet those famous and not so famous, yet monumental people who took those first initiatives in working with genes and the sequencing of DNA. Knowing very little about DNA I did find some codes Sam listed in regards to DNA sequencing to be slightly confusing. But those were few and far between and Sam succeeds to keep genetics as interesting as possible throughout this book. For example I found the chapter on Einstein and what actually happened to his brain very entertaining. While I was quite surprised that a nun by the name of Sister Mary Michael Stimson was a researcher throughout the 1940′s in the study of DNA, and how before turning to genes, Sister Stimson even helped create the well know hemorrhoidal cream “Preparation H.”

Some interesting knowledge I came away with included how human genes make up less than 2% of the current total human DNA. Even more intereting yet in a creepy way is how humans have descended from viruses. This enlightenment came to be during the “Human Gnome Project.” Where at that time about 200 hundred biologists learned that a mighty big chunk of our gnome consists of virus genes. If that is not enough to creep you out how about the parasite Toxoplasma Gondii. You know that parasite that can be found in any cat lovers litter box. Toxo has been popular in the news scene lately. However what CNN fails to tell you is how scientists have discovered that two of its eight thousand genes have adapted to building dopamine. Humans infected by Toxoplasma grow cysts in their brains. Those infected with it find it difficult to part with their cats as the scent of cat urine provides a turn on and addiction. Which makes complete sense when you take into account the behavior of a cat hoarders.

It’s no secret that humans have been genetically engineering animals and more so plants since the beginning of agriculture which spans thousands of years through our past. But who could forget the birth of Dolly the first sheep clone in 1997. Who knew that Dolly actually went on to birth six little lambs of her own naturally, I sure didn’t. In all I found the book mighty fascinating and if it wasn’t for the few times Sam seemed to forget people like me with no genetic background would be reading this book, I would have given him another sparkly star.

Information on DNA coding brought back memories for me. I remembered when I had first heard about the HGP (Human Gnome Project), and how DNA sequencing might be used in the future to help those with medical conditions and illnesses. Later not long after news that the Human Gnome had been decoded the scientific community seemed to have gone silent. Part of the reason could be that we humans do not have as many genes as once thought, just slighting less than 26, 000. While sequencing has help scientist in many ways the irony is that because of the small amount of genes humans contain it has made it even more difficult for science work with.
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Jun 29, 2012 Brenda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

What I learned from reading Sam Kean’s The Violinist’s Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code (Little, Brown and Company, 2012):

I should never eat polar bear liver—unless I want my skin to peel off from foot to head.

My cats’ presence soothes me because the Toxoplasma gondii parasites they carry manufacture dopamine, which has a feel-good effect on the human brain.

Whales and dolphins have hair (what Kean calls “a comb-over”).

A Russian scientist (Il’ya...more What I learned from reading Sam Kean’s The Violinist’s Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code (Little, Brown and Company, 2012):

I should never eat polar bear liver—unless I want my skin to peel off from foot to head.

My cats’ presence soothes me because the Toxoplasma gondii parasites they carry manufacture dopamine, which has a feel-good effect on the human brain.

Whales and dolphins have hair (what Kean calls “a comb-over”).

A Russian scientist (Il’ya Ivanovich Ivanov) recruited women to copulate with an orangutan named Tarzan. The scientist hoped to create a “humanzee.”

Doctors enjoy diagnosing fictional characters: “Ebenezer Scrooge with OCD, Sherlock Holmes with autism, and Darth Vader with borderline personality disorder” (271).

Fruit fly genes are cleverly and creatively named.

Examples include: “groucho, smurf, fear of intimacy, lost in space, smellblind, faint sausage, tribble ([after] the multiplying fuzzballs on Star Trek), and tiggywinkle (after Mrs. Tiggy-winkle, a character from Beatrix Potter). The armadillo gene, when mutated, gives fruit flies a plated exoskeleton. The turnip gene makes flies stupid. Tudor leaves males (as with Henry VIII) childless. Cleopatra can kill flies when it interacts with another gene, asp. Cheap date leaves flies exceptionally tipsy after a sip of alcohol. Fruit fly sex especially seems to inspire clever names. Ken and Barbie mutants have no genetalia. Male coitus interruptus mutants spend just ten minutes having sex (the norm is twenty), while stuck mutants cannot physically disengage after coitus. As for females, dissatistfaction mutants never have sex at all—they spend all their energy shooing suitors away by snapping their wings. And thankfully, this whimsy with names has inspired the occasional zinger in other areas of genetics. A gene that gives mammals extra nipples earned the name scaramanga, after the James Bond villain with too many. A gene that removes blood cells from circulation in fish became the tasteful vlad tepes, after Vlad the Impaler, the historical inspiration for Dracula. The backronym for the ‘POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic’ gene in mice—pokemon—nearly provoked a lawsuit, since the pokemon gene (now known, sigh, as zbtb7) contributes to the spread of cancer, and the lawyers for the Pokémon media empire didn’t want their cute little pocket monsters confused with tumors.” (50-51)

I quote extensively here to demonstrate the humor that might not be expected in a book on scientific history. When I taught at an engineering university, students frequently informed me that engineers weren’t supposed to be “creative.” Kean certainly refutes that belief so far as genetic engineers and researchers are concerned.

After reading a number of other popular science/psychology books this summer, I found myself appreciating Kean’s organization. The content of each chapter seemed necessary—and I appreciated the coherence of his arrangement of anecdotes. I only occasionally had trouble following passages (the one on genetic algorithms, for example). Usually, I felt very focused—and never thought, “Oh, no, it’s another random case study,” a common enough reaction when I’m wending my way through best selling works of nonfiction. I recommend this book to my creative writing peers—both poets and fiction writers as I think they will find Kean’s approach to be both informative and inspirational.
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Mar 22, 2013 Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only - I repeat the only - silver lining to being taught jack squat when I was in school is that books like these take boring school textbookesque information and refashion it beautifully with context. Of course a Mendellian genetic chart is historic and interesting, but the intrigues! The political squabbling! The politics! The infighting! The skirt-chasing! Aha! Therein lies the good stuff! This book is littered throughout with such drama, and it makes for excellent reading. There was a ma...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Wayne McCoy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

A highly interesting and very accessible look at the world of DNA and genes, this book begins with how early science discovered what we know about it today. Controversies such as cloning and dna splicing are discussed along the way.

The title refers to Niccolo Paganini, a virtuoso violinist who could splay his fingers in unnatural directions. This was the result of a genetic disorder, and not a pact with the devil (as was believed during his life). This is just one of the many people you will mee...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: published-2012, nonfiction, sciences, fraudio, history, winter-20122013, medical-eew

fraudio
pub 2012
science> genetics
non fiction

Read by Henry Laver

Blurb: (From New York Times): best-selling author Sam Kean come more incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA.

In The Disappearing Spoon, best-selling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In The Violinist's Thumb, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, an...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Justin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arc

Science!

Kean’s newest nonfiction book traces the history of DNA, from humankind’s earliest attempts to understand how life develops through to the implications of working with the recently unzipped human genome. There’s plenty of hard science that introduces the structure and inner workings of chromosomes, but the book is definitely written for the layperson.

Much like Mary Roach’s works, The Violinist’s Thumb is divided into thematic chapters that are composed of related vignettes that range fro...more Science!

Kean’s newest nonfiction book traces the history of DNA, from humankind’s earliest attempts to understand how life develops through to the implications of working with the recently unzipped human genome. There’s plenty of hard science that introduces the structure and inner workings of chromosomes, but the book is definitely written for the layperson.

Much like Mary Roach’s works, The Violinist’s Thumb is divided into thematic chapters that are composed of related vignettes that range from fascinating and tragic to offbeat and absurd. These vignettes tend to connect to and reference each other, due to the generally linear progression of scientific breakthroughs related to DNA. While the book doesn’t qualify as narrative nonfiction, I got a clear sense of a solid beginning, plenty of harrowing adventures in the middle, and an ambiguously open ending.

The stories in each section range far and wide in their subject matter, from mystery illnesses and scientific scandals to frog sex and microscopic sculptures. In short, it delivered everything I want from science nonfiction: plenty of offbeat curiosities and humorous asides to give context to complex, genuinely interesting scientific information. Kean writes simply and offers plenty of casual (and occasional acerbic) editorials, which occasionally come off as one-liners but still keep the more data-driven sections from seeming too much like a textbook.

There is enough simplification and use of weasel words to annoy readers who are already well-versed in the subject matter, but it’s absolutely perfect for someone like me: eternally interested in science, but not all that adept with the lingo or basic theory. After finishing this book, I’ve been casually perusing articles and videos on molecular biology, which says almost everything I need to about it. Thankfully, Kean includes a meaty reference list with plenty of suggestions for what to read next on the subject. As mentioned above, a few of the chapters may be a little hard to follow for people without a science background, but this is a must-read for anybody who has even a passing interest in what DNA is, how it works, and how our understanding of it has evolved and affected almost everything we do. There is more than enough compelling human drama in these pages to offset the strings of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts.(less)

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About Sam Kean

Sam Kean is a writer in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Mental Floss, Slate, The Believer, Air & Space, Science, and The New Scientist. He is currently working as a reporter at Science magazine and as a 2009 Middlebury Environmental Journalism fellow.

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Sam Kean gets called Sean at least once a month. He grew up in South Dak...more

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The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements

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Quotes from The Violinist's Thumb:...

“S-A-T-O-R
A-R-E-P-O
T-E-N-E-T
O-P-E-R-A
R-O-T-A-S

The palindrome means something like “The farmer Arepo works with his plow,” with rotas, literally “wheels,” referring to the back-and-forth motion that plows make as they till. This “magic square” has delighted enigmatologists for centuries ... The magic square also reportedly kept away the devil, who traditionally (so said the church) got confused when he read palindromes.” — 2 people liked it

“You're not supposed to interject feelings into science, but part of the reason it's so fascinating that we're 8 percent (or more) fossilized virus is that it's so creepy that we're 8 percent (or more) fossilized virus.” — 1 person liked it

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