She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer

She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer

2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist
Science book of the year--The Guardian
One of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018
One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2018
One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2018
One of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018
One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018
Extraordinary--New York Times Book Review
Magisterial--The Atlantic
Engrossing--Wired
Leading contender as the most outstanding nonfiction work of the year--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities.

But, Zimmer writes, Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are--our appearance, our height, our penchants--in inconceivably subtle ways. Heredity isn't just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors--using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates--but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.

Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world's best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations.

Carl Zimmer is a journalist and lecturer on science writing at Yale University. His numerous critically praised books include Parasite Rex (Atria Books), which the LA Times called capable of changing how we see the world; Soul Made Flesh (Atria Books), one of the top 100 books of 2004, according to the New York Times Book Review; and Microcosm (Vintage), which the Boston Globe called superb ... quietly revolutionary. He writes for countless publications, including the New York Times and Scientific American, and regularly appears on radio (including on Fresh Air and This American Life) and on TV. His blog, The Loom, is regularly cited as one of the web's best science blogs. He lives in Guilford, CT.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781101984611
ISBN 10	1101984619
Title	She Has Her Mother's Laugh
Author	Carl Zimmer
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2019-06-04
Number of pages	672
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.