Genome is an autobiography regarding the human genome. With 23 chapters dedicated to the 23 pairs of chromosomes within our human genome, this book provided me with a greater curiosity for the nothing short of magnificent world of DNA and genes. Initially this book was very intimidating due to my own unfamiliarity with the subject, and as I advanced in the book my initial thoughts stayed apparent. Even though I struggled understanding the technical biological terms, I still was able to gain a simple understanding of the topics in the book.
After being recommended to this book by my friend Louis T. we had a conversation about his impression of the book, and how he felt the book affected him. As we conversed, Louis mentioned how this book, and biology in general wasn’t really his “forte.” Even though Biology wasn’t Louis’ most favorite subject he still found the books contents to be interesting, he felt this way because reaching the end of the book he realized he was fascinated by our own biological heritage. In general he found the book to be long and tedious, although with somewhat of an understanding of the human genome he was glad to obtain something out of his experience.
The book was an autobiography about the human genome, and as I mentioned earlier each of the chapters was dedicated to a chromosome in the human genome, although the human genome is so complicated and elaborate, that the chapters could not cover the Genomes full complexity, rather the chapters where given a certain characteristic that related to the chromosome (Death, Memory, History). As I mentioned before, following the message Matt Ridley was trying to convey, at times, was very difficult, due to the unfamiliar terms and complexity of the message itself. That being said I didn’t study the book and not acquire any “take-aways” after reading the book comprehensible information stuck with me…
The human genome is information, information whose contents are the cause of practically everything you are, physically and mentally. The book mentioned how if you read the genome carefully you could successfully create a complete human body. Within the human genome there are genes, and these genes contain your information, some contain appearance features, some hold information that tell you if you have disease, some even contain information that define your personality.
In the beginning of the book Ridley gave an excellent introduction to the genome which I believe helped me understand its basics, in the introduction he explained what the anatomy of the genome which let me attain the following understanding… I am a human, within me there are approximately 100 trillion tiny cells with special jobs that make me human, within those cells there is a city which functions to carry out their special job, within the city there is a blob called the nucleus which contains two sets of the human genome (one from my mommy and one from my daddy). Within a genome there are 23 pairs of chromosomes, and within those chromosomes there are genes, which hold tidbits of information about me. As you can see my knowledge of the anatomy appears to be limited, and it basically is, but this book wasn’t only about anatomy, actually, it mainly focused on different traits of chromosomes.
One chapter that really struck me was chromosome 2, Species. In this chapter Ridley talked about how closely related we are to chimpanzees, more than even gorillas. The fact he projected was that we are 98% the same as chimpanzees, and 97% the same as gorillas. This fact truly is astonishing, Ridley continued on to explain how our Genomes are so closely related that only a tiny portion of our genes are contrary. He then brought to light the common misconstrued appearance differences we have with Chimps (Cranium size, Hair amount, and skin), but he effectively corrected these thoughts when he pointed out that we both have thirty-two teeth, five fingers, two eyes, four limbs, and a liver, something so simple although hidden by other dissimilarities.
Another interesting fact that stuck to me appeared in Immortality (chromosome 14). In this chapter matt spoke about the aging rates of different species, and how some animals appear to live longer than other, he explained how cells need to work harder to keep elephants alive (due to it’s large size), although the elephant lives longer than a mouse whose cells don’t work as hard (due to it’s tiny size). Ridley then revealed that the secret is that all species have the same amount of heartbeats although different pulse rates, so the Elephant’s rate is slower than the mouse’s rate, so really comparing the two by heartbeats, they would live the same.
Even though this book is considered a preliminarily to the world of Genome, it was very challenging to comprehend at times. Although after finishing, I realize that the unreal complexity of the Genome is what makes me want to read more.
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