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The human genome, the complete set of genes
housed in twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, is nothing
less than an autobiography of our species. Spelled out in
a billion three-letter words using the four-letter alphabet
of DNA, the genome has been edited, abridged, altered and
added to as it has been handed down, generation to generation,
over more than three billion years. With the first draft
of the human genome published in 2000, we, this lucky generation,
are the first beings to read this extraordinary book and
to gain hitherto unimaginable insights into what it means
to be alive, to be human, to be conscious or to be ill.
By picking one newly discovered gene from
each of the twenty-three human chromosomes and telling its
story, Matt Ridley recounts the history of our species and
its ancestors from the dawn of life to the brink of future
medicine. He finds genes that we share with bacteria, genes
that distinguish us from chimpanzees, genes that can condemn
us to cruel diseases, genes that may influence our intelligence,
genes that enable us to use grammatical language, genes
that guide the development of our bodies and our brains,
genes that allow us to remember, genes that exhibit the
range alchemy of nature and nurture, genes that parasitise
us for their own selfish ends, genes that battle with one
another and genes that record the history of human migrations.
From Huntington's disease to cancer, he explores the applications
of genetics: the search for understanding and therapy, the
horrors of eugenics and the philosophical implications for
understanding the paradox of free will.
Matt Ridley is a former science editor,
Washington correspondent and U.S. editor for The Economist.
He is the author of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution
of Human Nature and The Origins of Virtue: Human
Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. He lives
in England with his wife and two children.
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