Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome

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Fourth Estate, 2004 - Science - 272 pages
In DEEP TIME Henry Gee told us why the chicken came before the egg. In his new book, JACOB'S LADDER, he tells us the comprehensive answer to the simple question: How did I get here?When the human genome was unveiled on 12 February 2001 headlines were filled with announcements that we had found the genes which cause schizophrenia, homosexuality and more. The assumption was that the genome offered a blueprint for what made human beings: the reality is far more complex and significant. The true importance of our discovery of the engine of life is that it offers us the possibility of altering our evolutionary destiny. Biology, once a passive science of observation, now possesses the tools to create form from the formless. For the first time we have the opportunity to shape life; like the angels on Jacob's Ladder, we are poised on the brink of godlike powers. But as Gee powerfully argues, we must exercise these powers with caution and learn from the mistakes of the past. He traces the entertaining history of man's search for what brings form from the formless, revealing the extraordinary thinkers and often bizarre experiments that led to this epochal moment: from Aristotle's musings and

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