In Search of the Double Helix

by John Gribbin

Molecular biology is one of the great modern sciences. Headline-making developments in cloning, genetic engineering and the fight against disease all stem from the breakthrough in the 1950s and 60s of the identification of the molecule of life, DNA. This book sets out to tell the entire story of evolution: from Darwin to DNA and beyond, giving full credit to the role of quantum physics in our modern understanding of life itself, including human life.

[Taken from Amazon.co.uk]

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology, Popular Science, History, Physics, Genetics

369 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

John R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His writings include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change, global warming, the origins of the universe, and biographies of famous scientists. He also writes science fiction.

Reviews

[Michael Huang]

[rec. from “A fortunate universe”]

[Vismay]

Refresher of all that I had studied in school, and a lot that I hadn't (which forms the second part of the book). It is quite fascinating how DNA actually goes about in making proteins, and how using these two - we can map when in time humans actually diverged from chimpanzees and gorillas.
Quite interesting indeed!!!

[Luis Munoz]

Gribbin es uno de los más acuciosos divulgadores de ciencia, puede introducirse con mucho detalle en temas bastante complejos y a veces seguirlo resulta difícil (como en este libro), pero se agradece un texto que condensa evolución, física, biología y bioquímica, lo que brinda un panorama bastante amplio y sólido alrededor de lo que significa la vida como fenómeno físico. Difícil de leer (por lo menos la sección media del libro) pero el esfuerzo valdrá la pena.

[Rebekkila]

Very interesting, I just studied a lot of this stuff in school.