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December 2015 - Violinist's Thumb
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By Betsy , co-mod · 32 posts · 87 views
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November 2015 - Being Mortal
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By Betsy , co-mod · 55 posts · 111 views
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What Members Thought
The author's parents were named Gene and Jean. That's right: Gene and Jean Kean. What else could their son do but write a book about genetics? And a fun book it is, with some fascinating stories.
There is enough DNA in a human body to stretch from Pluto to the sun and back. There's enough DNA on earth to stretch across the known universe many, many times.
Fruit fly genes have fun names, such as groucho, smurf, fear of intimacy, lost in space, smellblind, faint sausage, tribble (from the Star Tre ...more
There is enough DNA in a human body to stretch from Pluto to the sun and back. There's enough DNA on earth to stretch across the known universe many, many times.
Fruit fly genes have fun names, such as groucho, smurf, fear of intimacy, lost in space, smellblind, faint sausage, tribble (from the Star Tre ...more
I read quite a number of biology books and am often put off by the old gene jocks who focus on DNA, to the exclusion of epigenetic and other environmental factors that challenge the old and tired narrative of the gene centered theory of evolution. When I saw the title of this book, I felt pretty sure I wasn't going to like it, but many of my friends gave it high ratings. So, I thought I would give it a shot. Loved it!
Just as he did with Disappearing Spoon, Kean brought a fresh perspective to an ...more
Just as he did with Disappearing Spoon, Kean brought a fresh perspective to an ...more
The early chapters were basically an infodump, full of lots of hard-to-remember DNA-related jargon, but after that things picked up a lot and I finally got interested. The subject is more technical than his previous book was, but in the later chapters, the pages were flying past and I was glad I had persisted. Sam Kean's style is just as lively and full of entertaining anecdotes in the footnotes as it was in The Disappearing Spoon, and I look forward to reading his future books.
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This is a wonderful book on the history of DNA and genetics. As he did in his previous book, The Disappearing Spoon, Sam Kean finds fascinating stories of the scientist who have given us an understanding of DNA and genetics. From the monk, Mendel and his peas through Watson and Crick and their discovery of the Double Helix to the controversial Craig Venter and publication of his genome, the personalities come alive. He also uses stories to help understand how DNA makes us unique. His stories inc
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Sam Kean delivers again with an amazing book on DNA. How did we discover it? Who's who in the biology world and how did it all come together? The Human Genome Project almost didn't come together and is one of the best soap opera stories ever!
Kean knows his stuff and eloquently delivers DNA to me, the layreader. That's how you convey science to the public, facts combined with applicable and fascinating stories. ...more
Kean knows his stuff and eloquently delivers DNA to me, the layreader. That's how you convey science to the public, facts combined with applicable and fascinating stories. ...more
I felt like this book fell short of the greatness that I enjoyed in Sam Kean's other book The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. This book was pretty good, and had some interesting insights, but just didn't capture my attention. I felt like a lot of the first half of the book was either very basic stuff that I already knew, or useless side details. There were definitely som interesting parts, but they j
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I kind of preferred the authors earlier work The Disappearing Spoon. This book was chock full of good stories but I wasn't as huge of a fan as the way he linked them together in this one. Still a very good read.
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