Understanding the Genome

by Scientific American

Now that the human genome sequence is nearly complete, science has turned its attention toward the function of each of the nearly 40,000 genes. The results of these efforts will touch every facet of our lives. In time, we will be able to tailor medical treatments to a person's exact genetic makeup, greatly diminishing the problem of unwanted drug side effects. We may be able to cure devastating hereditary disorders. And we could be able to create...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446678724
• ISBN13: 9780446678728
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Warner Books (NY)
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent but somewhat dated intro to human genome issues

This book is a collection of articles and columns from issues of Scientific American between March 1996 and April 2001. This date range represents a long time in molecular biology and now some of the articles are dated. For example, several articles estimate that humans have 100,000 genes; a more recent textbook gives the number of human genes in the range 25,000-40,000. Also, this book is part of the "Science Made Accessible" series so the reader should not expect much technical depth. An exception is the interview with Stuart Kauffman which tends to uses undefined technical terminology such as "canalizing input" and "cis site." Better editing could have brought the articles up-to-date and provided definitions (especially for the Kauffman interview) to make the material more "accessible."So why do I give this book a four-star rating? Because of its coverage of human genome issues. A couple of articles discuss genetic discrimination and insurance. Another couple of articles discuss bioinformatics (biology as an information science). I thought one of these articles, the interview with Kauffman mentioned earlier, was the most interesting in its discussion of gene regulatory circuits. Several articles discuss the history of the publically funded Human Genome Project and the privately funded Celera group. Many articles are concerned with the medical advances that may result from having sequenced the human genome. Perhaps what this short (150 page) volume best provides is a hopeful view of where biology and medicine are headed (the genetic discrimination issue is somewhat less hopeful) and I recommend this book for its glimpse of the future.

An interesting anthology of SciAm articles

This book is one in a series by Scientific American that has been published with the intent to give an overview of various themes in science to a lay audience. This book on genomics is a reprint of various articles that have been published in SciAm (in either magazine or web formats). The articles include: articles on J. Craig Venter and Francis Collins (the two de facto leaders of the Human Genome Project), an article co-written by Dr. Collins, articles on business and philosophical aspects of genomics, etc.Overall, I thought this book was interesting. It doesn't get the 5th star because of the sort of hodge-podge feel to the book (it is an anthology of somewhat disparate articles not originally intended to be published together) ... which more assertive editing may have solved. But, all-in-all, considering the low price tag, I would recommend the book to those who are interested in the subject and do not own copies of the relevant SciAm back issues.