She Has Her Mothers Laugh

Posted on 21 March 2017 by Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer presents a history of our understanding of heredity in this sweeping, resonating overview of a force that shaped human society a force set to shape our future even radically.She Has Her Mother s Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities But, Zimmer writes, Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are our appearance, our height, our penchants in inconceivably subtle ways Heredity isn t just about genes that pass from parent to child Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies We say we inherit genes from our ancestors using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates but we inherit other things that matter as much or to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life comfortable We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer s lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world s best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations. Read She Has Her Mothers Laugh – kino-fada.fr Yes, it s long about 540 or so actual pages of text, followed by a glossary, bibliography and endnotes but She Has Her Mother s Laugh does not waste a single page Carl Zimmer has produced a masterpiece of science writing, distilling incredibly complex concepts into understandable and relatable language by using narrative journalism and ...Se tem um autor que sempre vou fazer quest o de ler o que lan ar o Carl Zimmer Foi de longe uma das maiores motiva es para eu come ar a blogar e escrever sobre ci ncia E um dos jornalistas com o conhecimento de biologia mais amplo que leio, que sabe integrar reas da biologia como muitos pesquisadores envo...An amazing and well researched book Takes us through the history and research of heredity from first works to today It was so interesting to know where we started and how little we knew about heredity not that long ago Some scientific researchers got it right and others drew wrong conclusions which may be forgivable for the time period but caused so much harm There were certainly many ethical dilemmas that came in strong Although it includes studies and scientific outcomes it is easy to rea An amazing and well researched book Takes us through the...What a brilliant earth shuttering book The staff good science fiction is made of except happening IRL now as we live So many amazing new ideas and facts, I was forced to stop reading and just contemplate and share with friends and family what I read I m not very good at science, although love reading pop science books and magazines, yet this book was quite accessible even to someone with barely passable grade in biology class I would love to thank the author for the wonderful experience of r What a brilliant earth shuttering book The...Heredity is the sum of all the previous environments and the current environment we were thrown into Who we are as a species and as individuals is farcomplicated than just our genes Mendel s law is a suggestionthan a law This book lays the ground work for each of those assertions and steps the listener through some of the history of our understanding of the subject and reviews some of the current new research that has been transpiring over the last five years or so Humans are spe Heredity is the sum of all the previous environments and the current environment we were thrown into Who we are as a species and as individuals is farcomplicated than just our genes Mendel s law is a suggestionthan a law This book lays the ground work for each of those assertions and steps the listener through some of the history of our understanding of the subject and reviews some of the current new research that has been transpiring over the last five years or so Humans are special we culturally pass on racism, bigotry, misogyny and superstition mimetically The racist premises in the Bell Curve or Nicholas Wade s last book are best ignored rather than refuted since they are groundless The author doesn t mention either book or author but he does spend...A truly mammoth book that should have been edited down to a few hundred pages The interesting tidbits and stories were immersed in unnecessary prose and benign chapters that served no purpose except to increase the word count Some stories SHINED and AMAZED especially the chapter...Parts of this book are interesting Parts are excrutiatingly dry It felt like it took me forever to slog through the ending.This science writing pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the amazing world we live in, it never gets dull or dry even when describing meiosis Zimmer weaves historical and contemporary scientific research to create a work which you want to engage with Who d have thought that Mendel s messing around with peas would lead eventually to the horrors of Hit...Fascinating science book with enough personal histories to keep it all interesting, although I admit those last few chapters on gene splicing CRISPR got beyond me I learned a lotdidn t realize that hereditary was so variable we don t get exactly 50% of our genes from each parent, within a few generations we may no longer carry DNA from a particular ancestor, inheritance is a matter of luck I also had never heard of mosaics and chimeras Author is a science journalist s Fascinating science book with enough personal histories to keep it all interesting, although I admit those last few chapters on gene splicing CRISPR got beyond me I learned a lotdidn t realize that hereditary was so variable we don t get exactly 50% ...A fascinating journey through the multi facetted biological basis, historical and societal impact of heredity from Aristotle to plant and animal breeders in the 18th and 19th century to Darwin, Mendel, eugenics, pre implantation diagnostics and CRISPR Cas Carl Zimmer tells the story not in a chronological way but in different vignettes of researchers that are careful, struggle with or are too confident about their discoveries The book reads or is listened to easily Zimmer reduces scientific A fascinating journey through the multi facetted biological basis, hi...

English
21 March 2017

Carl Zimmer