The Gene : An Intimate History – Mukherjee Siddhartha (2017)

This sweeping history of the gene traces one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in human history. Siddhartha Mukherjee follows the quest to decipher the master code that makes and defines human beings, governing our form and function across several centuries and continents. Alongside this epic history of a scientific idea coming to life runs an intimate account of Mukherjee's own family and its recurring pattern of mental illness, showing how genetics affects everyday lives. These questions become even more urgent as scientists learn to “read” and “write” the human genome, raising the possibility of changing the fates and identities of future children. The story begins in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856, where a monk discovers the idea of a “unit of heredity”; it intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics and transforms post-war biology. It reshapes our understanding of sexuality, temperament, choice and free will, following figures including Charles Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Francis Crick, James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, as well as the thousands of scientists still working to understand the code of codes. The book offers an account of the fundamental unit of heredity and a vision of humanity's past and future.