Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible) [Paperback]

Scientific American (Author)

Book Description

Series: Science Made Accessible | Publication Date: March 1, 2002

Drawn from the pages of Scientific American and collected here for the first time, this work contains updated and condensed information, made accessible to a general popular science audience, on the subject of understanding the genome.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446678724
• ISBN-13: 978-0446678728
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,160,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting anthology of SciAm articles, October 17, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible) (Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent but somewhat dated intro to human genome issues, April 11, 2003

By 

David M. Ng (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible) (Paperback)

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.

3.0 out of 5 stars Understanding The Genome, January 3, 2005

By 

merrychristmas - See all my reviews

This review is from: Understanding the Genome (Science Made Accessible) (Paperback)

The Human Genome Project (HGP) has been an ongoing research project for many years. Throughout this book, it is explained in different scientific essays what the project is about and what exactly the human genome is. Although this book is quite outdated, for it was published in 2002, it is a great introduction to understanding the genome and what it is about. As previously stated, there are scientific essays as well as interviews between Scientific American (where the book actually came from) and the scientists themselves.

The articles and essays that are contained in this very short read cover a wide range about human genomics. That is one thing that I liked about this book. The articles, although based mostly around one point of view, (scientific as opposed to ethical), cover all the bases concerning the HGP. For example, it covers both sides of the fact that drugs that can cure diseases may be discovered in the future. It may sound crazy, but like everything, there are people that go against things like this.

The book was relatively easy to understand. There was no need to look up words very often, for they explained it all to you. The point of the book was for scientists and the regular man alike to have a better understanding of the genome. If you really want to know more about this interesting topic, I would definitely recommend reading this book. In addition to this book, you should pick up another, more recent one too, because so much has happened regarding the Human Genome Project since 2002. It is a short, quick, easy to understand book that has a lot of information. If you are just now beginning to want to know about the HGP, you should read Understanding the Genome for a solid grounding about the subject.