Genes
A Very Short Introduction, Second Edition

'Genes' and 'genetics', 'in our genes' and 'not in our genes', all are notions which are now peppering our conversations on human nature and condition. We came a very long way indeed since genes were first acknowledged back in the early 20th century, and the structure of DNA discovered in the early......more

Very concise, the author tried touching as many studies needed to present the necessary picture of the field. Can be complemented with some youtube animation of fundamental processes for protein synthesis and other molecular-level processes. Recommended read......more

The book is a very short introduction to genes indeed, relative to the vast scale of the subject. Seemingly every page - even the individual sentence - mentions a topic for which entire books exist. (A point the book makes occasionally in the text, and again in the references.) Perhaps a better titl......more

The earlier chapters detailing the history heredity and genetics from Darwins discussion on evolution through Mendels work on heredity in sweet peas to the more molecular studies on chromosomes, nucleic acids which led to Crick, Franklin, Watson and Wilkins elucidation of DNA stucture, are well writ......more

Very good first introduction Like the title says, this book is a very short introduction to genes. I think it would be helpful to have taken biology and chemistry classes in high school before reading this book, but if you didn’t take such courses then you can probably still get a lot out of the boo......more