The Gene
An Intimate History
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The Gene
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Narrated by:
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Dennis Boutsikaris
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Written by:
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Siddhartha Mukherjee
About this listen
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, best-selling author of The Emperor of All Maladies, a magnificent history of the gene and a response to the defining question of the future: What becomes of being human when we learn to "read" and "write" our own genetic information?
The extraordinary Siddhartha Mukherjee has written a biography of the gene as deft, brilliant, and illuminating as his extraordinarily successful biography of cancer. Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
Throughout the narrative, the story of Mukherjee's own family - with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness - cuts like a bright red line, reminding us of the many questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In superb prose and with an instinct for the dramatic scene, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation - from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Thomas Morgan to Crick, Watson, and Rosa Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary 21st-century innovators who mapped the human genome.
As The New Yorker said of The Emperor of All Maladies, "It's hard to think of many books for a general audience that have rendered any area of modern science and technology with such intelligence, accessibility, and compassion.... An extraordinary achievement."
A riveting, revelatory, and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life and an essential preparation for the moral complexity introduced by our ability to create or "write" the human genome, The Gene is a must-listen for everyone concerned about the definition and future of humanity. This is the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Siddhartha Mukherjee, M.D. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.What the critics say
What listeners say about The Gene
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- William R. Weatherall
- 2022-07-01
Satisfying
At the end of it, you will feel like you got a very well guided tour of the history of genetic research. It’s incredible that he made this book.
Narrator is excellent.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Aella
- 2024-09-06
Easy to understand complex ideas.
It was such an easy listen, finished it in only couple days. The history of our understanding of the gene is indeed packed with information, however the author is able to draw you in to this complex world - and the hours of listen makes you want to learn more about this field.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2018-01-27
Brilliant
Loved the weaving of story, history, science and philosophy, I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to get a grasp of the field.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-08-07
I'm obessed with this book
I was self diagnosed with a propensity to obsess with books and The Gene reinforced this ideas like artful texts often do.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-02-28
Thorough but accessible
In the best possible way it's like auditing a university biology course. The professor is amazing, the topics or incredibly interesting, the pace is measured so not to be overwhelming, and there's never any homework.
I very rarely read non-fiction but I'm very glad I picked this one up!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Richard Malthaner
- 2019-01-19
Thoracik Rick
compelling, engaging, and thought-provoking! a must-read for anyone hoping for the future. excellent narration. I truly enjoyed it!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-07-29
Superb read
This book is beautiful. It poetically describes the history of genetic discovery through the lives of scientists with relevance to modern people and the author’s own family as an example. Insightful enjoyable read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Galadriel
- 2021-06-23
Another masterpiece by Dr. Mukherjee
Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee summarizes the history, major milestones, and contemporary topics in the field of genetic research. In particular, he explains the history that surrounded the development of genetic research. He also explores the key players that have driven advances in the field. In addition, he elucidates key insights about the individual, social, and cultural implications of each stage of research in the field. Finally, he discusses the future of genetic research and their implications for humanity. The books is beautifully written. Dr. Mukherjee has produced another must read masterpiece for all learners in the field of scientific research.
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- Erin Tigchelaar
- 2021-11-03
Excellent way of getting through a dense book
This didn't have as much of an emotional impact on me as "The Emperor of All Maladies", and I felt it lagged or circled in spots, but it is an incredible synthesis of the history of genetics and the writing is, as always with Mukherjee, accessible and yet magisterial -- even with the occasional cheering moment of Dad humour (the puns like "give peas a chance"; the swing back to prioritizing genetic nature over environmental nurture described as "the return of the native"; and numerous plays on genes/jeans like "the cloth from which genes were cut"). Dennis Boutsikaris does a beautiful job of tackling the passages describing complex biological processes and his reading gives a warmth to the whole narrative. Even though I own the hardcover, I ordered the Audible copy to finally get through this book after listening to the sample of Boutsikaris. As in the author's book on cancer, the parts of the story I found most memorable were the personal stories of those suffering from heritable disorders, including Mukherjee's own family members. Highly recommended.
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- Jordan Goldthorp
- 2024-03-30
Wonderful storytelling
Mukherjee is a spectacularly well-researched professional and masterful storyteller. He weaves medical history into a compelling narrative that is impossible to put down.
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