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Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Gene: An Intimate History Paperback – May 2, 2017

by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Author)

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The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).

"Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself." –Ken Burns

“Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.

“Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.

“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).

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608 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Scribner
Publication date

May 2, 2017
Dimensions

6.13 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

147673352X
ISBN-13

978-1476733524
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Mukherjee views his subject panoptically, from a great and clarifying height, yet also intimately.” —New York Times Book Review

“The Gene is both expansive and accessible . . . . In The Gene, Mukherjee spends most of his time looking into the past, and what he finds is consistently intriguing. But his sober warning about the future might be the book’s most important contribution.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“The Gene boats an even more ambitious sweep of human endeavor than its predecessor, The Emperor of All Maladies. . . . Mukherjee punctuates his encyclopedic investigations of collective and individual heritability, and our closing in on the genetic technologies that will transform how we will shape our own genome, with evocative personal anecdotes, deft literary allusions, wonderfully apt metaphors, and an irrepressible intellectual brio.” —Elle

"[Mukherjee] expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories . . . .[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry.” —Washington Post

“Compassionate, tautly synthesized, packed with unfamiliar details about familiar people.” —The New York Times

“A well-written, accessible, and entertaining account of one of the most important of all scientific revolutions, one that is destined to have a fundamental impact on the lives of generations to come. The Gene is an important guide to that future.” —The Guardian

“Reading The Gene is like taking a course from a brilliant and passionate professor who is just sure he can make you understand what he’s talking about. . . . Excellent.” —Seattle Times

“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future. . . . The Gene captures the scientific method—questioning, researching, hypothesizing, experimenting, analyzing—in all its messy, fumbling glory, corkscrewing its way to deeper understanding and new questions.” —Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

“Dr Mukherjee uses personal experience to particularly good effect. . . . Powerful.” —The Economist

“As compelling and revealing as [The Emperor of All Maladies]. . . . On one level, The Gene is a comprehensive compendium of well-told stories with a human touch. But at a deeper level, the book is far more than a simple science history.” —Dallas Morning News

“Mukherjee’s visceral and thought-provoking descriptions... clearly show what he is capable of, both as a writer and as a thinker.” —Nature

“His topic is compelling. . . . And it couldn’t have come at a better time.” —Boston Globe

"Compelling... Highly recommended." —Booklist, starred review

“Sobering, humbling, and extraordinarily rich reading from a wise and gifted writer who sees how far we have come—but how much farther far we have to go to understand our human nature and destiny.” —Kirkus, starred review

"Mukherjee deftly relates the basic scientific facts about the way genes are believed to function, while making clear the aspects of genetics that remain unknown. He offers insight into both the scientific process and the sociology of science... By relating familial information, Mukherjee grounds the abstract in the personal to add power and poignancy to his excellent narrative." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

About the Author

Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Gene: An Intimate History, a #1 New York Times bestseller; The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction; and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013. Mukherjee is an associate professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in many journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, Cell, The New York Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters. Visit his website at: SiddharthaMukherjee.com.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner; Reprint edition (May 2, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 147673352X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1476733524
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #37,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Genetics (Books)
- #59 in General Anthropology
- #68 in History of Medicine (Books)

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Siddhartha Mukherjee

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Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher. He is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a staff cancer physician at the CU/NYU Presbytarian Hospital. A former Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford (where he received a PhD studying cancer-causing viruses) and from Harvard Medical School. His laboratory focuses on discovering new cancer drugs using innovative biological methods. Mukherjee trained in cancer medicine at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard Medical School and was on the staff at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He has published articles and commentary in such journals as Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Neuron and the Journal of Clinical Investigation and in publications such as the New York Times and the New Republic. His work was nominated for Best American Science Writing, 2000 (edited by James Gleick). He lives in Boston and New York with his wife, Sarah Sze, an artist, and with his daughter, Leela.

His author website is www.siddharthamukherjee.me

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1 star		1%

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James D. Michels

A great history with a flaws

Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2019

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If you are thinking of buying this book, please note the word "History" in the title. If you are looking for a history book on genetics, heritability and the human understanding of these things, this is a great book. If you are interested in deep technical descriptions or in understanding the latest in gene editing technology, this is not the right book.

The great aspect of the book is that it weaves together and conceptualizes all the bits of genetics we remember from high school biology and various articles and books we have read over the decades. The author is very good at this. The book can give you an excellent basic understanding of the topic.

The downsides:
1. The author attempts to weave personal family stories into the book and relate them to genetics. The stories are not interesting and are not tied into the narrative well. Fortunately, it is very easy to skip these sections. You lose nothing in your understanding if you just skip them.
2. Every time a sensitive topic comes up like eugenics, the author puts in a great deal of effort in virtue signaling about being on the right side of the topic. The endless condemning of Nazis is not really necessary. We kind of assume the author is not an admirer of Nazis. The author goes into a long straw man argument attempting to debunk "The Bell Curve" and then restates the primary thesis of the book as established fact. It looked like he had never read the book, but needed to condemn it so he could stay in academic good graces.
3. The later parts of the book fall short as the author gets into very recent technology. The early historical narratives are excellent. The later chapters lack quality and clarity.

All in all, a very worthwhile book and I have not seen anything that would provide a better history. Read the book, just be aware that there are flaws.

134 people found this helpful

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barbara

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2016

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I finished medical school in 1984, and have practiced medicine ever since. I have seen and used the technology described in this book, but never had a complete understanding of the underlying research.

This book tells the story of how the research decoded our genes, and how we are using that information in an amazing fashion.

I think he writes for anyone with an interest in science. Any I think anyone with an interest in science will be fascinated by this book.

I love his sense of humor, his ability to make historical people come alive and the way he weaves stories into the facts to make a point more real. He is a great writer.

16 people found this helpful

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Peter Schaeffer

Great Book, Well Worth Reading

Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2018

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This is an interesting book. Indeed, it is a fascinating book. However, it suffers from a very basic flow. The author is attempting to write a Politically Correct (PC) book about the least PC subject imaginable, genetics. The book opens with a harrowing tale of how genetics (genetic inheritance) has cursed the author’s family (via an inherited tendency towards schizophrenia). This sad tale was quite illuminating for me personally. My own family does not have a history of schizophrenia. However, the book mentions three other very serious inherited (as in the tendency towards) disorders that do run in my family.

Somehow, the reader is expected to believe that a great many aspects of human life are heritable (to a greater or lesser extent), but anything PC is not. To be fair that is not really the author’s position (in all cases). The dominant view of sexual preference (homosexuality) is that it is at least partially genetic. The gay community and the author embrace at least partial genetic determinism in this case (sexual preference) and the evidence supporting this view is quite strong. Of course, in this case, genetic determinism (partial) and PC are aligned making the author’s take rather easy. In this context the author mocks (quite rightfully) the opinions of Lewontin.

“There is no acceptable evidence that homosexuality has any genetic basis. . . . The story has been manufactured out of whole cloth,” Lewontin wrote.

The author also argues that sex is real and sex and gender are inseparable in most (but not all cases). The tragic tale of David Reimer shows up, along with a (highly justified) denunciation of the abominable Dr. John Money. Quote from the book

“These case reports finally put to rest the assumption, still unshakably prevalent in some circles, that gender identity can be created or programmed entirely, or even substantially, by training, suggestion, behavioral enforcement, social performance, or cultural interventions. It is now clear that genes are vastly more influential than virtually any other force in shaping sex identity and gender identity”

The author also argues that race is real and has a genetic basis. This is the scientific consensus, even if the “non-existence of race” is the rigidly enforced PC dogma of our time. Conversely, the author argues that “race is only skin deep”. This may or may not be true. Quote

“Yet, even a young species possesses history. One of the most penetrating powers of genomics is its ability to organize even closely related genomes into classes and subclasses. If we go hunting for discriminatory features and clusters, then we will, indeed, find features and clusters to discriminate. Examined carefully, the variations in the human genome will cluster in geographic regions and continents, and along traditional boundaries of race. Every genome bears the mark of its ancestry. By studying the genetic characteristics of an individual you can pinpoint his or her origin to a certain continent, nationality, state, or even a tribe with remarkable accuracy. It is, to be sure, an apotheosis of small differences—but if this is what we mean by “race,” then the concept has not just survived the genomic era, it has been amplified by it.”

The author invokes Lewontin to defend his ideas about genetics and race. Of course, this is the same Lewontin whom the author mocks with respect to homosexuality.

The author goes to some pains to denounce eugenics, Nazi and otherwise. Reading the book, you would never know that the most prominent advocates of eugenics (in the UK and perhaps the US) were left-wing socialists. For example, Sidney Webb was a prominent far-left political figure who devoted much of his later life to promoting the Soviet Union. The list of left-wing eugenicists is rather long and includes George Bernard Shaw, William Beveridge, Marie Stopes (the UK version of Margaret Sanger who was also a eugenicist), Harold Laski, Haldane (a Marxist), and of course, John Maynard Keynes (not a Marxist).

To the author’s credit, the modern revival of eugenics (via prenatal testing and selective abortion) is covered in detail, with the troubling echoes of the past heard well. A more subtle point (unmentioned by the author) is that institutionalized populations are (these days) deliberately isolated to prevent sexual relationships. In a bygone era, the “unfit” were sterilized, now that kept behind walls and barbed wire.

23 people found this helpful

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Dr. Hasmukh Ajitray Buch

A book that broadens your vision...

Reviewed in India on June 22, 2016

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I liked the book-The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Being a former teacher of Human Anatomy including Genetics, I am aware of the vastness of the subject and its branches but this book covers all the important aspects in less than 600 pages. The book has been divided into Parts and in each Part, there are several chapters; this makes convenient reading. All the parts and chapters have been thought provokingly titled.
The author has meticulously avoided technical terms as the book is intended to be for the lay readers. If you are interested in the development and evolution of the subject, this is a book for you; it makes interesting reading. The author’s background has lent authenticity to the contents. He has tried to give justice to every character who contributed significantly: Aristotle, Darwin, Mendel, Morgan, Bateson, Johannsen, Galton, Garrod, Beadle and Tatum, Jacob and Monod, Watson and Crick, Khorana, McKusick, Sanger, Berg, Venter, Gurdon and Yamanaka; it is actually ‘Who is who’ of Genetics. Some new terms like previvors have been introduced and Human Genome project has been discussed in details.
The narrative is so detailed and vivid that we feel that the author was personally present when and where the history (and the future) happened! I enjoyed reading accounts pertaining to Eugenics, BRCA1, Indian counter part of Nazism, sexual identity, Gay gene etc. I tend to agree with the author’s prediction- “The discontinuity of genes-the discreteness and autonomy of each individual unit of heredity-will turn out to be an illusion: genes may yet be more interconnected than we think.” That would be the end of the prevalent reductionist view of the word-Gene.
A clinician is mainly concerned with what can be applied on patients in the clinic. In spite of the tremendous strides that Genetics has taken in recent years, there is not much that can be offered to the needy patients as far as the curative treatment is concerned; this is particularly true for the mental ailments (the author with several members of his family suffering from such disorders knows about this more intimately than anyone else) and the cancers. Some of the advancements are rightly facing political, social and ethical hurdles. If researches on the stem cell and gene therapy are approved wholeheartedly in due course of time, we may see more practically beneficial genetics which not only satisfy curiosity but also cures. Human Genome project has been rightly proved to be just the beginning in this direction; we are now eagerly awaiting the outcomes of Human Epigenome project and Encode. This is a book that broadens your vision whatever your background may be.

102 people found this helpful

M. Hillmann

Comprehensive history of the gene - powerful evaluation of the future.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 10, 2017

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The book begins as an intimate history of genetics but develops into the intimate future of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in the history of science: the gene, the fundamental unit of hereditary and the basic unit of all biological information.

The power of the idea can be seen today in the way personal genomics is revolutionising drug development, therapy and precision oncology – preventing and treating diseases taking into account individual variability in genes , environment and lifestyle. Genomics is being combined with Artificial Intelligence to mine vast amounts of genetic information for new clues about disease, diagnosis or treatment and combining the amazing potential in AI and genetics for opening new horizons in healthcare.

Why is the idea dangerous? Because like the other two profoundly destabilising scientific ideas of the atom and the byte that richochet through the 20th century, the gene has transformed culture, society, politics and language.

Mukhergee goes right back to the first steps in understanding the mechanism and influence of genes with Mendel and Darwin and roller coasters through the 20th century. The scientific progress falls into 4 stages ; the establishment of the cellular basis of heredity: the chromosomes; the molecular basis of hereditary :the double helix; the informational basis : the genetic code and sequencing of the human genome; and finally the era of genomics: the deciphering, reading and understanding the human genome and developing medical applications.

He tells history is told in an extremely personal and readable way describing how scientists built on each others’ contribution with accelerating progress. The book is full of detective stories – for example how it had taken Morgan and his team three decades to collect fifty fly mutants in New England. Then one night in 1926 Muller discovered the effects of radiation and mutated half that number in a single night. Or for example, the detective work of Watson and Crick in discovering the double helix structure of DNA following the groundbreaking work of Linus Pauling, Robert Corey, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin.

There is a feeling of balance in Mukhergee’s account of the race for sequencing the human genome, once Muller had discovered the way to copy a human gene in a test tube. The US National Institute of Health (NIH) was chosen as the lead agency to sequence the entire human genome with the US’s DOE and the UK’s Medical Research Council and Wellcome Trust joining the effort. However a little known, pugnacious, single minded neurobiologist at the NIH, Craig Venter, proposed a shortcut to genome sequencing. James Watson and the NIH were appalled at not only at Venter’s technique but at his proposal to patent genes. Scientists at Stanford had patented methods to recombine pieces of DNA to create genetic chimeras, Genetech had patented processes to express proteins such as insulin, Amgen had filed a patent for isolation of erythropoietin using recombinant DNA but nobody had patented a gene or piece of genetic information for its own sake. The race between the US and UK’s public agencies and Craig Venter’s privately funded company Celera was on. The Wellcome Trust doubled its funding and congress threw open the slices of federal funding. But a kind of truce was struck and in 2001 the Human Genome Project and Celera both published their results of the sequencing of the human genome marking the start of the era of genomics.

But the history of the gene is told not just from the angle of scientific discoveries. The social effects of the development of the genetics are explored.

The history of eugenics and its misuse widely in the USA for sterilising imbeciles to improve human intelligence is shown to be based on a totally fallacious theory of hereditary. The Nazi eugenic experiments and the holocaust gruesomely exposed the danger of false science.

The Asilomar meeting in 1973 of leading virologists, genetiscists, biochemists and microbiologists addressed the growing concerns about gene – manipulation techniques. Asilomar II in 1975 got unanimous support for ranking the biohazard risks of genetic recombination.

This has resulted until recently in three unspoken principles which guide the arena of genetic diagnosis and intervention. Firstly diagnostic tests have been restricted to gene variants that are singularly powerful determinants of illness – for examplehighly penetrant mutations like Downs syndrome and cystic fibrosis. Secondly, the diseases caused by these mutations have generally involved extraordinary suffering. Thirdly justifiable interventions have been defined by social and medical consensus, and all interventions have been governed by complete freedom of choice.

But these boundaries could be loosening from these originals - of high penetrance genes, extraordinary suffering and justifiable interventions - to genotype-driven social engineering. Mukherjee provides examples of genetic diagnosis being transformed into clinical and personal realities. Individuals are inspired to get our personal human genome mapped which could lead to determining genetic fitness. Individuals are not so easily governed by guiding principles.

Evidence of the influence this book has had on me is that I have now set out to get my personal genome sequenced!

18 people found this helpful

norwich

thought provoking

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2019

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I enjoyed the 'Emperor of all maladies' book from this author, so I was keen to read this new tome as well. I was not disappointed. His prose is engaging and his reports of some of the genetics luminaries are amusing (I wish I had someone like him as my Genetics professor at Uni). Most importantly, the concepts arising from genetic research and technology are explained in a way that is understandable by the vast majority of the public. For me the last chapters are particularly stimulating and thought provoking. a must read!

5 people found this helpful

Amazonian Customer

Awe-inspiring and fascinating popular science story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 14, 2018

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The Gene: An Intimate History is an epic story of how we have come to understand some of the fundamental building blocks of life on earth. From Mendel growing his peas via Darwin and the origin of species, eugenics and the Nazis, Crick and Watson discovering the double helix structure of DNA to the tantalising prospects of genome enhancement, Siddhartha Mukherjee takes us comprehensively through the whole history.
It's a complex subject, but the writing is just the right level for someone (like me) with no biology or chemistry background at all to understand. He also covers the moral and ethical aspects of some of the research as well as the science. There's a lot to it, and it does take a while to read, but it's such a fascinating tale that it's well worth the effort.
Awe-inspiring and downright mind-boggling in places, if popular science is your thing then you won't want to miss this one.

One person found this helpful

Professor Brian D Smith

Quite, quite marvellous

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2016

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I'm not one to give praise too freely. I'm an author and scientist (in a different field) and a critical reader by disposition and training. This book, however, deserves the highest praise. It's a masterpiece. The science is pitched perfectly for a layman. The history is enthralling. The two are woven together in a beautiful, thoughtful way. I would make this book required reading for everyone. Bravo Mr Mukherjee.

13 people found this helpful

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