She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

Carl Zimmer has produced a masterpiece. From early animal breeding practices, to Mendel, to eugenics and way beyond - he discusses gene inheritance, social experiments, DNA & RNA, mosaics and chimera, mutations and epigenetic inheritance, crispr/gene editing, somatic and germ cell lines, to name a few topics. He deftly entwines his research into his own heredity into the narrative. The historical contexts of many of the theories, beliefs and experiments he describes is also carefully laid out. Would recommend sections for a high school or undergrad honors biology class, or anyone wanting to swim in the "gene ocean". I am in awe of his meticulous and broad research on the topic and his ability to present the information in a readable and engrossing manner. I have enjoyed and learned from a number of his other books, but this one has pride of place on my bookshelf.

El autor hilvana los capítulos de forma maestra para mantener el interés del lector. A pesar de que los temas mantienen un foco central, es cierto también que son diferentes pero ello no hace que el interés disminuya.Los temas, complejos de por sí, son presentados tan bien que son comprensibles para un lego en la materia.De otro lado, más allá de la calidad en la redacción del texto, Zimmer nos presenta temas de mucho interés para el futuro de la medicina y de la definición misma de ser humano en cuanto a su contenido hereditario, sin dejar de lado los aspectos éticos que se derivan de ellos. O sea, de tocan las diversas aristas de la herencia biológica de firma clara, divertida e interesante.

She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer is not a quick read, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't read it if you have an interest in genes, genetics, heredity, or genealogy. In fact, if you have an interest in any of those things, I highly recommend reading this book. Are there a lot of scientific terms and concepts? Yes (but come on, how could there not be?) Zimmer breaks those concepts down using interesting examples so that the book is accessible to the general reader.This book takes you beyond what you learned in high school biology. Some of the things I learned: Lactose intolerance is more common than tolerance. Thank goodness I got the right gene for that! A woman can give birth to a child, with a court-appointed witness, and still have a DNA test show she isn't the mother. WHAT? Also, pregnant women will still carry cells and DNA from their child after giving birth. I took that as a cautionary tale to pick your baby daddy wisely. Even more mind-blowing....genetic chimeras. I'm not even going to try to explain it although if you have a calico cat congratulations. But there are also human chimeras. Oooo, you'll have to read the book.

Public understanding of heredity has profound consequences for many dimensions, including research funding, toxicology, medicine, regulation, and even warfare. For example, warped views of heredity fueled ideologies that killed tens of millions in WWII and more recently has funneled the bulk of precious research dollars into the ridiculously shallow box of genetic causation for today's public health crises. Because our limited views of heredity need a sweeping update, I give this book 5 stars for its scope, ambition, and exquisite quality of execution. It takes us a solid step in the right direction, and will greatly enrich public dialogue.Sadly, the book does falter in one key area—Zimmer's weak treatment of epigenetic inheritance. First, he mistakenly calls it a "new flavor of Lamarckism," which is incorrect. The research in this area largely involves direct exposures to early germ cells, and the heritable consequences thereof, and not with some fluffy idea about "acquired characteristics" wending their way into the germline. Moreover, while Zimmer briefly mentions nutrition, plasticizers, and pesticides as exposures that may influence nongenetic germline-borne heredity, he altogether ignores the compelling and deeply troubling evidence of generational pathology caused by the toxic pregnancy drug diethylstilbestrol (DES). How he could have overlooked heritable consequences of the greatest medical catastrophe of our age, yet decide to devote 2/3 of a page to an uber-skeptic like Kevin Mitchell is beyond me. But fear not, good readers, the other 99.99% of the book is outstanding and deserves your attention.

The title of this book drew me in and made me think it would be a nice Christmas gift for all three of my adult children. I meant to order three new hardcover books. I must have accidentally hit used. So when the first one arrived alone and was used, I was nervous about what the other two would look like. The three kids would be together opening them, so a bad one would look truly bad. Fortunately, they were all in good shape as used books. Thanks!

I am a Carl Zimmer fan, and love several of his other books. This one reads more like a failed attempt at intellectual history. Surprising weak on the actual science.

Carl Zimmer puts on a science communication clinic with this book. Far from reading like a textbook, Zimmer has found numerous stories that pull you in and leave you genuinely interested in learning the science, if not just to understand the plight of the real world characters.Content wise, this book takes a very measured and balanced look at the development of modern day genetics. Zimmer addresses the amazing possibility and potential benefit of DNA without giving into sensationalism. He also contextualizes where we are in genetics and how our modern language around heredity has a past that cannot be ignored.If you're a scientist, read this book. If you're not a scientist, read this book. It's important, engaging, and ultimately one of the best pieces of science writing that I've ever come across.

Este libro es para las perdonas curiosas acerca del por que somos como somos. Aunque habla con términos de biología qué tal vez para muchos sean nuevos, los explica con tal suavidad y a través de alegorias y ejemplos sencillos qué no es nada complicado seguir el ritmo de lectura.Otra cosa que me pareció genial, es la forma en que un evento de tipo científico a nivel personal (como hacerse un mapeo genético), el autor puede darmle un sentido literario de suspenso y de expectativa.Gran autor y aun mejor este libro.

Only read a few chapters so far but it was well interesting.

Book is good.

Fascinating book with lots of insights about genetics and heredity. Perfect for someone like me who is not a scientist.

Wonderfully well written. A lot of bright connections between history and heredity.