Drawing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project - Hardcover

McElheny, Victor K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 046504333X ISBN 13: 9780465043330

Publisher: Basic Books, 2010

Synopsis

Drawing the Map of Life is the dramatic story of the Human Genome Project from its origins, through the race to order the 3 billion subunits of DNA, to the surprises emerging as scientists seek to exploit the molecule of heredity. It s the first account to deal in depth with the intellectual roots of the project, the motivations that drove it, and the hype that often masked genuine triumphs.Distinguished science journalist Victor McElheny offers vivid, insightful profiles of key people, such as David Botstein, Eric Lander, Francis Collins, James Watson, Michael Hunkapiller, and Craig Venter. McElheny also shows that the Human Genome Project is a striking example of how new techniques (such as restriction enzymes and sequencing methods) often arrive first, shaping the questions scientists then ask.Drawing on years of original interviews and reporting in the inner circles of biological science, Drawing the Map of Life is the definitive, up-to-date story of t

About this title

About the Author

Victor K. McElheny, author of the much-acclaimed Watson and DNA, lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Veteran science journalist McElheny (Watson and DNA) concludes about the human genome project, the government-sponsored effort, completed in 2003, to decipher the entire human genome: "the big-scale science of genomics represents an explosion in knowledge that shows no sign of contracting." Indeed, the topic is huge and gets bigger with each passing year. By attempting to cover as much of the field as he does, McElheny makes it difficult for all readers to be fully informed: he lacks the necessary space to provide the detailed genomics background that would make the advances wholly comprehensible. Nonetheless, the author does two things very well. His description of the politics that led to the human genome project becoming the first megascale biology research program (akin in a number of ways to some large-scale physics projects supported by governmental funding) is clear and illuminating. Similarly, McElheny does an impressive job at explaining the current and future benefits likely to arise from the genetics data flooding into scientists™ laboratories. He is able to link pure research with medical advances, providing hope for concrete breakthroughs in individualized treatment while demonstrating that the money invested in this huge project has been well spent.
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McElheny, who has written a biography of James Watson (Watson and DNA, 2003), here discusses the scientific and bureaucratic genesis of sequencing the human genome, accomplished a decade ago, and follows up with the developments since 2000 that have potential medical applications. Careful to be technically clear, McElheny reviews a series of discoveries and inventions in molecular biology (such as polymerase chain reaction) that by the early 1990s presented possibilities for vastly accelerated analysis of DNA. Bureaucracies mobilized—too slowly for National Institutes of Health researcher C. Craig Venter, who left government to map the genome as an entrepreneur. Both he and his federal rival have had their say about the genome race (Venter’s A Life Decoded, 2007; Francis Collins’ The Language of Life, 2010), so McElheny’s freshest information concerns post-2000 genomic news. Not aiming at readers looking for information on specific diseases or treatments, McElheny explains recent research to the science-minded and reports on new discoveries about RNA and whole new fields such as pharmacogenomics. Well practiced in presenting biological complexity, McElheny should circulate in active science collections. --Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 046504333X
• ISBN 13: 9780465043330
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384