To say that the field of genetics is advancing rapidly is to utter one of modern life’s cliches, but reading Mark Henderson’s lucid, compact introduction, 50 Genetic Ideas You Really Need to Know, will have you exclaiming it again.
Simplifying books of summation serve their purpose. Rarely do they also impress as worthy, stylish works in their own right. 50 Genetics Ideas is one snapshot book that does. Journalist Henderson’s concise writing is laced with stylishishness and his organizational framework is superbly logical. Each of his fifty ‘ideas’ is presented in a well-constructed essay. Imaginative, consistent use of timelines, diagrams, side boxes and apt quotes aids passage through the necessary complexities. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the the reader reaches Crick and Watson’s double helix within eight chapters and the Ventor/Sulster human genome race by Chapter 12. The final three quarters of the book tackles discoveries and issues as fresh as tomorrow’s headlines. In particular, Henderson tackles a number of times the highly charged topic of ‘nature versus nurture,’ viewed from the point of view of fascinating genetic discoveries.
Highly recommended, folks.
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