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The Gene: An Intimate History
The Gene: An Intimate History
The Gene: An Intimate History
Audiobook19 hours

The Gene: An Intimate History

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

4.5/5

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About this audiobook

2017 Audie Award Finalist for Non-Fiction

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).

“Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns

“Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

“Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.

“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).

Editor's Note

Fascinating science…

Mukherjee is the author of the Nobel Prize-winning “The Emperor of All Maladies,” a study of cancer that brought science from multiple disciplines into a readable and humane work of scholarship. “The Gene” achieves the same goals, making the study of genetics comprehensible to dilettantes and scientists alike.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 17, 2016
ISBN9781508211396
Author

Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History, a #1 New York Times bestseller; The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction; and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013. Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. In 2023, he was elected as a new member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has published articles in many journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters. Visit his website at: SiddharthaMukherjee.com.

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Reviews for The Gene

Rating: 4.403198813131314 out of 5 stars
4.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Truly intimate and historical story of genes and humankind. Recommending!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A keeper! A reference I will keep going back to!! The author does a phenomenal job charting the course of history to get us to where we are today where we can intentionally edit portions of our own makeup and hence alter who we are. Highly recommend.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Mukherjee is always thoughful and humane, his writing elegant and direct. He is very good at assembling histories and weaving them into personal stories of the people involved. The result is both beautiful and comprehensible.

    His book on cancer is also incredibly good, though horrifying.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee (the author of The Emperor of All Maladies) is well-written and very informative - apparently it is also used in some schools as a textbook. I can see why. He wraps his personal story (schizophrenia among his family members) around a tour de force history of our understanding of genetics. He goes from the ancient Greeks through Mendel and Darwin and the scary eugenics period in this country and Hitler's Germany, to the present day and what may lie ahead. I loved his description of the work of Crick and Watson and others to discover the elegant double helix of DNA, with Crick and Watson's first metal sculpture of it still available to be seen in London.There are some sections where he gives more than this reader needed - particularly in the latter part of the book where he explains missteps in detail before success is obtained. No doubt those sections would be of particular interest to a student, but briefer would've been fine with me.Mukherjee is thoughtful about bigger issues, as well as being a skilled author. Here's a couple of quotes that stood out for me. The first quote is from artist Edward Munch, and comes in the author's discussion of how schizophrenia and other mental diseases sometimes are linked to exceptional creativity:{My troubles} are part of me and my art. They are indistinguishable from me, and treatment would destroy my art. I want to keep those sufferings.In a eugenics discussion, Mukherjee points out this sorry story:"Readers from India and China might note, with some shame and sobriety, that the largest 'negative eugenics' program in human history was not the systematic extermination of the Jews in Nazi Germany or Austria in the 1930s. That ghastly distinction falls on India and China, where more than 10 million female children are missing from adulthood because of infanticide, abortion and neglect."It's not a book like I Contain Multitudes, which is so attractively written that I'm sure it's read by many with only a marginal interest in microbes. My guess is that mainly fans of the subject matter or the author, or both, will read this one. They'll get plenty to enjoy and think about, including the ethical issues raised by our increasing ability to modify genes and potentially select for desirable traits.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The writer beautifully builds its argument and story. The examples about patients and persons are so compelling to listen to. Superbly read, masterpiece of history!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Comprehensive history of the thought behind the development of gene theories and the creation of experiments to test them out. While written for the layman, it neither compromises the emphasis on the scientific nor ignores the surrounding circumstances which affect the research. This is not a dry scientific account of progress nor is it a glib adventure story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    it can get really technical but I found out to be challenging and extremely interesting. learning about our self as individuals and as species should be with meticulous attention... It's the only way to have a trustworthy intuition about the future... I enjoy it very much... thumbs up!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm unique yet similar, I'm similar yet unique. Mutation is how nature expresses variety. These are some takeaways from this book. Excellent storytelling, traces all the relevant history, tells a personal story. Pretty detailed, I'm happy that I read this and also informed about complex things such as stem cells.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Only couple hours in but extremely good book. I read about 100 a year. I strongly recommend this one for your overall knowledge of science. It's fascinating and very well written. I'm surprised by how well it's written.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this audio book. It was full of great mini biographies that tracked the development of genomics from start to recent innovation. The stories of individual contributions to science were inspirational. I highly recommend this text to anyone with a high school level of biology or more.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wonderful and content rich telling of historical scientific development in one of the most important topics of humanity. Not only baked with an uncanny ease of high-quality story telling, but also iced with the topping of clever wit and irony.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you asked me 3 weeks ago if I was going to love a book on the history of genetics I would have looked at you like you were crazy...

    This book starts at the very beginning of the field with Darwin and Mendel and works its way all the way to present day with the creation of the human genome project and gene therapy.

    This was a such a fun book to read/listen to because even though it was extremely well researched and heavily detailed, it didn’t feel that way at all (aka dense and dry). There were actually a lot of moments which had sarcasm and humor throughout.

    I would highly recommend for anyone interested in genetics, eugenics and racism, gender identity and more!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There aren't many great books about the history of science. But in this history of the field of genetics the author even manages to make counting peas electrifying. Genetics can lead to wiping out a certain form of cancer but it can also lead to the Holocaust. It's hard to be balanced when writing about eugenics. And yet this book stays away from the extremes while covering the most dramatic and controversial moments of the history of genetics.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Beautifully written. Great coverage of both the history of genetics and also the how-it-works part, combined with interesting stories about his own family and thoughtful discussions about the moral issues involved.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is for those interested in the science and history of genetics. The history portions are rather broad brush, but cover the appropriate basics, going back to Mendel and Darwin, and coming forward to the mapping of the human genome. The science portions form the core of the book. The science is rigorous and detailed. Mukherjee explores the rapid expansion in knowledge of genetic science, ethical implications, some of the ways these discoveries have been misused, and his personal family history of mental illness.

    This book is timely. The techniques described in this book are being used to create COVID-19 vaccines (though the book itself pre-dates the current pandemic), including messenger RNA. I wanted to read it to understand further the science behind these genetic advances.

    Mukherjee provides examples of where genetic science has gone awry in the past, such as in the misguided eugenics movement. The author also highlights success stories, and the encouraging results from trials in the use of gene therapy to assist those suffering from specific medical conditions.

    It is a good discussion starter. It provides much food for thought. Since biotechnology has become part of the medical landscape, I think it is a good idea to be informed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Genetics is a field of biomedical research that is both in motion and influential over our daily lives. It promises to help millions afflicted with horrific disease, yet it could be poised to change (or unravel?) human life as we seek to write our own destinies in DNA. Real action in this field has only occurred in the last 200 years, starting with Gregor Mendel and accelerating in the early twentieth century. Mukherjee, an oncologist (cancer doctor) with ample writing talents, authors this field’s history in engaging fashion. Importantly, he carefully deals not just with the science but with the human bioethical concerns.Throughout my adult life, I’ve been aware of the history of genetics and have picked up this or that along the way. Thus, I have heard of most of the broad outline that Mukherjee has to offer. However, in each stage of this story, he contributes nuanced nuggets that shape the story, nuggets new to me. His writing talents about the history of medicine and science are well-acknowledged as he has won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 history of cancer. He simply extends that formidable skill into describing one of the most happening fields in contemporary research.Because of his excellence in writing and research, I don’t have much to offer in terms of critique. His ethical perspectives are well-balanced and circumspect (even though this is not primarily a bioethical text). He even provides personal stories of his family which bring underlying passions to life. He touches all the bases of a good scientific history to maximize impact while maintaining a detached approach to matters of opinion. Therefore, it’s no surprise that it has won numerous, prestigious awards (though, lamentably, not another Pulitzer).Obviously, professionals in fields directly touched by genetics can benefit most from reading this: geneticists, historians of science, oncologists, and microbiologists. But this book’s horizons certainly extend to the general public. Investors, cultural critics, influencers, and fans of science (among many others) can all get a scoop on how history is unfolding or a primer about a hot but difficult cultural topic. Students – whether aspiring scientists in high school or college students seeking sophistication – are obvious target audiences. Overall, this provides an excellent treatment for anyone interested in whether and how we can write human destiny, either through small cures or possibly stunningly large, potentially scary rewrites.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting, but too easy to put down for awhile and then pick back up.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There is lots of interesting stuff in this packed book - and that ends up being its downfall. There is just so much that I often found myself skimming. The topics are far ranging and thought provoking. Unfortunately, the personal storyline is never really given any kind of conclusion, which is disappointing. But there is a wealth of information about genes and both the discovery and history of cellular blueprints as well as all the ethical considerations that have arisen as science has developed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A general discussion of the history of genetics for the layman.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Genes are not only the key to life, but holds the details of our history and our future too. In this book, Mukherjee takes us on a journey to uncover the origins of this master code and the story of discovering and deciphering it. It is a story that spans world history, but begins with a monk in an Augustinian monastery who discovers a unit of heredity in his study of peas. Mendel may not have been one of the first to be fascinated but the ideas of heredity, and he certainly wasn’t going to be the last. Darwin was one of the next with his discovery of evolution and the way that certain traits established themselves in the populations of finches on each of the Galapagos Islands.

    As science advanced during the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th century, cells started to give up their secrets to the scientists that were studying them. Each discovery added to the knowledge of how each of us carries traits and characteristics from our parents. This dream of making the perfect human from good parents became the spectre that is eugenics, culminating in the horrors with the Nazi obsession with creating the perfect Aryan race and eliminating those that were deemed to be sub-human. Post world war two we knew more about the way that RNA and DNA worked, but no one could work out just how it did it. The brilliant X-ray images of DNA that Rosalind Franklin took gave Francis Crick and James Watson the insight to work out the construction of the beautiful double helix that is DNA. He describes the quest to map the entire human genome, a feat achieved by scientists working across the globe, who just beat a private company who had designs on patenting it.

    He is eminently qualified to write this, as he is the assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University. He brings us up to date with the latest research and discoveries in genetic research as well as posing the questions that we need to ask and answer as we learn how to change and write to the human genome. To cover all that we have found out about the gene, the book needs to be broad in scope. It is fairly detailed and occasionally baffling and incomprehensible to a non-scientist like myself, but thankfully not very often. Woven through the book too is the story of Mukherjee’s family and their reoccurring history of mental illness as it moved through the generations; it adds a nice personal touch to the book, showing just how our genes can affect us all. If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wonderfully lucid science-writing. I think the first four sections are the strongest- when the author gets closer to the present-day and tries to draw conclusions, the ratio of information to text goes down considerably.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A fascinating view into the history, present and future of genetics, from the author of the equally fascinating book on cancer, "The Emperor of all Maladies". The audiobook version is also done very well. Recommended!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I think I have a pretty good understanding of genetics, DNA, and cell biology. Mukherjee makes it into a great and thought provoking story. After a well done recapitulation of the history of the developing science of human understanding of inheritance he goes on to discuss the developing science of generic engineering and the ethical and philosophical dilemmas it embodies. He personalized the discussion by telling the story of mental illness in his family. While solving the ethical dilemmas isn't a scientific problem his understanding of the science informs his analysis of the issues. An enjoyable read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A challenging read for me, given its length and unfamiliar subject material. Yet, I’m glad that I persevered as it gave me a better understanding of these important scientific advances that will impact the next wave of human development. Mukherjee has done an admirable job of explaining the evolution of genetics up to today for a lay person, and while I could wish it was shorter, I didn’t have a problem with the repetition of key points as it helps the lay reader connect/ recall the points.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I loved, really loved Mukherjee's "The Emperor of All Maladies," on cancer. It was well written and informative. This book was neither. It was such a disappointment. It is extremely uninformative. If you've had high-school biology (outside of Kansas?), you know all about the basics of genetics, e.g., Mendel's work with pea plants, Morgan's work with fruit flies. Mukherjee does a good job covering it again, but there is little value added; it is all old hat. Mukherjee does a much worse job covering more recent scientific developments, not adding more than you'd get from reading Scientific American articles (which I'd say are a step down from, e.g., Carl Zimmer's NY Times articles, and perhaps two steps down from Nature summaries). Unlike cancer, this is not really Mukherjee's area of expertise, and it shows. His naive and somewhat inaccurate portrayal of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing is unfortunate. Moreover, the book is poorly written. The writing is incredibly, astoundingly, unbelievably self-indulgent. One adjective won't do if he can think of ten. One metaphor won't do if he can think of three. One sentence won't do if he can write a page. (Do you get my point?) (Even the chapters sometimes begin with three gratuitous quotes.) There was no editor. To the contrary, you get the sense that he kept index cards of every metaphor he came across, and every single one is included. He can't choose. "Proteins, recall, are the hubs of the biological world. They are the enablers and the disablers, the machinators, the regulators, the gatekeepers, the operators, of cellular reactions. They are the switches that most drugs seek to turn on and off." If you've never heard of DNA, then you are in luck, because Mukherjee explains how A and T, and G and C are paired up probably dozens of times. Mukherjee tries to weave in his own personal story, of his family's history with mental disease. To his credit, he doesn't veer into melodrama. But it never adds up to anything, and feels like a shoehorned excuse for writing this book rather than the real reason.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The biography of Cancer was much more engrossing and thrilling. this is a bit murkier, a bit drier.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Author Siddhartha Mukherjee captures the excitement, frustration and stubborn efforts of the people who uncovered the mysteries of heredity and genetic information. He carefully lays out the scientific advances for clear understanding and cites a mountain of sources. I hope to read some of the mountain of sources!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great book about the history of science and its progress in understanding the human genome, heredity and disease. It is not only focus on the result of the discoveries, but also on the humans behind them, their mistakes in the process, their false ideas and the huge impact on society. Nicely written, mixes pieces of personal stories of both the author but of some of the patients and scientists involved. Presents a clear, summarized picture of the status of the current understanding and, more important, what is not yet known and what are the moral/ethical issues that might be required to be dealt with in the near future.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I'm a big fan of The Emperor of All Maladies and so had this one on my wish list for awhile. Once again Mukherjee takes a very complex subject and makes it compelling for non-experts. I came away with a new appreciation of the history of gene research and the promise and peril of gene therapy in the future. Really great book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This was a bit of a disappointment. Partly that is purely my own taste - I was looking for more scientific detail and less in the way of background stories - but it's also the fact that, as a narrative it's competent but not gripping. The earlier part of the book, down to the cracking of the genetic code and the crystallographic analysis of haemoglobin, goes over ground which was dealt with in a very much superior way by Judson's The Eighth Day of Creation. The latter part is spotty and unfocussed, and is less interested in genes themselves than in what people make of them.