Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

by Matt Ridley

Simon Prebble (Narrator) and Matt Ridley (Narrator)

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Book cover for Genome

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From the author of the critically acclaimed and best-selling The Red Queen and The Origins of Virtue, Genome is set to be the most important investigation of genetic science since The Selfish Gene. The genome is our 100,000 or so genes. The genome is the collective recipe for the building and running of the human body. These 100,000 genes are sited across 23 pairs of chromosomes. Genome, a book of about 100,000 words, is divided into 23 chapters, a chapter for each chromosome. The first chromosome, for example, contains our oldest genes, genes which we have in common with plants. By looking at our genes we can see the story of our evolution, what makes us individual, how our sexuality is determined, how we acquire language, why we are vunerable to certain diseases, how mind has arisen. Genome also argues for the genetic foundations of free will. While many believe that genetics proves biological determinism, Ridley will show that in fact free will is itself in the genes. Everything that makes us human can be read in our genes. Early in the next century we will have determined the function of every one of these 100,000 genes.
  • ISBN10 0062073117
  • ISBN13 9780062073112
  • Publish Date 18 January 2011 (first published 2 September 1999)
  • Publish Status Out of Print
  • Out of Print 3 June 2024
  • Publish Country US
  • Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
  • Imprint Collins
  • Format Audiobook
  • Duration 12 hours and 30 minutes
  • Language English