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The Gene cover art

The Gene

By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
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Publisher's Summary

The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history, from best-selling, prize-winning author Siddhartha Mukherjee.

Spanning the globe and several centuries, The Gene is the story of the quest to decipher the master code that makes and defines humans, that governs our form and function.

The story of the gene begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856, where a monk stumbles on the idea of a 'unit of heredity'. It intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. The gene transforms postwar biology. It reorganises our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and freewill. This is a story driven by human ingenuity and obsessive minds - from Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel to Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin and the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes.

This is an epic, moving history of a scientific idea coming to life by the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. But woven through The Gene like a red line is also an intimate history - the story of Mukherjee's own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, reminding us that genetics is vitally relevant to everyday lives. These concerns reverberate even more urgently today as we learn to 'read' and 'write' the human genome - unleashing the potential to change the fates and identities of our children.

Majestic in its ambition and unflinching in its honesty, The Gene gives us a definitive account of the fundamental unit of heredity - and a vision of both humanity's past and its future.

©2016 Siddhartha Mukherjee (P)2016 Random House AudioBooks

What listeners say about The Gene

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Incredible. Informative, gripping, inspiring

For anyone with even a casual interest in biology, could not recommend more. Amazing work.

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great book

very interesting from historical development of gene theory with a touch of the authors interesting personal history

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Very interesting and relatively accessibly presented

I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the book, which had a more varied storyline interwoven with the author’s personal story. I found the middle third in particular very dense and a difficult to follow but that said, the material the author was working with was very technical and I’m glad I persevered.

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This is a masterpiece of a book.

I have read many books on genetics and history. Coming from a non biological background I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. It has a wonderful mixture of my two passions on life: history and genetics

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Excellent

Fantastic story and history that maps our genetic path from prehistory to tomorrow. Well worth your time.

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Read it , you need to know what is gene

A very nice history of the gene and undesirable for people like me who did not have any background

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Wow

Not only the author is an amazing story teller and a top scientist in the field but the narrator gives the perfect tone to a not too easy to grasp topic, which has become ever more relevant for anyone who wants to understand better our world and ourselves in the process.
Thanks heaps!

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Thought provoking

We’ll written book with holistic view of genomic science with its technological social and ethical evolvement

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Extremely enjoyable

Extremely well written and read. Fascinating content.
Could not stop listening. Definitely worth listening or reading.

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A wonderful introduction to the journey taken

Definately worth it, I learnt heaps.
Thankyou for the personal insights.
Humans walking chemical factories

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