The Gene: An Intimate History

Content warning for violence, abuse, medical descriptions, death, psychosis and other mental illnesses, and related topics. I was excited to read this book, but unfortunately, I was only really engaged for about a third of the book. There is a ton of information in this book, and I think some of that was hard for me. It read like a textbook in places. When the synopsis says that this is the story of the gene, it's not an exaggeration: every singl...read more

This book is part history of the development of genetics, part explanation of the working of genes, and part explanation of how genetics influences or causes certain diseases or traits. There is also a discussion of current capabilities in gene-editing and its ethical implications, though this feels too brief especially as it leans on a familiarity with the movie Gattica, which I have not seen. I regularly read science news and listen to science ...read more