Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity - Softcover

Ackerman, Jennifer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0618082875 ISBN 13: 9780618082872

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001

Synopsis

A timely exploration of the mysteries of genetics examines the diverse ways in which human heredity is linked to the rest of the natural world and analyzes how the science of genetics touches our lives every day, discussing such topics as congenital birth defects and disabilities, illness and its links to heredity, and more.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Chance in the House of Fate is about the biggest biology story of the last ten years: the discovery of remarkable family resemblances that unite every living thing in the tree of life, at the level of our genes. It's a beautiful discovery that has accumulated bit by bit in thousands of laboratories all over the world. Jennifer Ackerman has risen to the occasion with a beautiful meditation on our likenesses, like a poet musing in the small hours after a family reunion." –Jonathan Weiner, author of The Beak of the Finch

"Chance in the House of Fate is a poet's embrace of the biological world, written with grace and intelligence, warmed by a personal story. I am reminded of Lewis Thomas and Annie Dillard, but most of all of Walt Whitman, Jennifer Ackerman sings a song of self in the widest possible sense, the unity of all life on our planet." –Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams and The Diagnosis

About the Author:

Jennifer Ackerman is the author of Notes from the Shore and Chance in the House of Fate. The recipient of a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and literature fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, she writes for National Geographic, the New York Times, and other publications.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0618082875
• ISBN 13: 9780618082872
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272