Genome: The Autobiography Of Species In 23 Chapters: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

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Matt Ridley is able to break down extremely difficult concepts into terms the average reader can understand. We often read that 98% of our genetic letters are in common with chimpanzees, and 97% with gorillas. Specialized developmental genes turn on and off at each step often repeating the processes of our evolutionary ancestors. But, these cancers were not due to radiation exposure, as there was none, but due to heightened cortisol levels, which which reduced the effectiveness of the immune system.

For further findings on my maternal side, I have also relied on “Five Years in South Mississippi” by Theophilus Shuck Powell, which I have reviewed on Goodreads. There is no evidence showing the difference is due to heritability and in fact blacks raised among whites perform just as well as whites on IQ tests. Unfortunately, both parents passed away before we were able to sit down together at the table and share this valuable information with each other.

I remember a family from Switzerland contacting me shortly after I had sent my saliva samples to Genographic headquarters for analysis. He has clearly spent a great deal of time familiarizing himself with the subject, and it shows; nevertheless, he is no expert. Still, its great strength remains which is the approach to emphasising the amorphousness of data and theory, the tentative nature of concluding anything, and so thus an antidote to the dread ideologies of the numbskulls all around who use language like lego blocks and words like things to be quantified, measured and sold and bought.

Matt Ridley’s Genome is the book that explains it what it is, how it works, and what it portends for the future Arguably the most significant scientific discovery of the new century, the mapping of the twenty-three pairs of chromosomes that make up the human genome raises almost as many questions as it answers. The chapters are numbered for the pairs of human chromosomes, one pair being the X and Y sex chromosomes, so the numbering goes up to 22 with Chapter X and Y couched between Chapters 7 and 8.

He has written several science books including the The Red Queen (1994), Genome (1999) and The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves (2010). I'll admit that the real reason I picked this one up was to read Ridley's political views, and in that, he does not fail.