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Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity, by Jennifer Ackerman
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Award-winning science writer Jennifer Ackerman investigates the endless mysteries of genetics, offering an elegant natural history of humanity as seen through the lens of our genes and cells. Combining the gifts of vision and language with in-depth knowledge, Ackerman explores the ways in which, at the most fundamental level, humans are genetically linked to every part of the natural world.
CHANCE IN THE HOUSE OF FATE is a rich and often personal tour through the surprising turns of heredity, informed by the ways genetic inheritance has affected Ackerman's own life. From a younger sister's profound retardation and her mother's illness to the births of her own healthy daughters, Ackerman reveals her own experiences as telling touchpoints, ultimately illuminating the the hidden biological connections among all forms of life.
- Sales Rank: #2038594 in Books
- Color: Brown
- Brand: Brand: Mariner Books
- Published on: 2002-04-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .68" w x 5.50" l, .73 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 272 pages
Features
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Ackerman (Notes from the Shore) offers another series of natural science essays, this one concerning the continuity and discontinuity of cellular, sometimes molecular, existence. A fascination with the "natural history of heredity" may be written into Ackerman's DNAher youngest sister has a rare genetic syndromeand propels her career as a science reporter, so that even the mechanics of genes make for quite personal reporting, early Annie Dillard-style (viz. her conception of genetics as "the past whispered in bone and blood"). Terms that many readers will recall from biology texts become for Ackerman, a relative newcomer to molecular science via the biology "of the whole organism," characters in a thrumming, deep-time performance piece by proteins, enzymes and mitochondria: "the cosmos of molecules and cells has surprising beauties and minute dramas." She chases her themes in and out of the nucleus, up and down the phylogenic tree from E. coli to the giant squid's eye to her own daughters in uteroall points of departure for 18 energetic expositions on genetics and other biomechanisms like morbidity, sexual reproduction, the immune system and the oldest of senses, smell. Some attempts to project the microscopic up to a visible-to-laypersons scale fall flat, but her style overall is a sweet hybrid of popular science and expansive prose. A sense of wonder and clearheaded respect for the raw biochemical chance that shadows evolution leads Ackerman into interesting corners not explored in recent genetics titles like Matt Ridley's Genome. Agent, Melanie Jackson. (June 1)Forecast: Ackerman will tour as part of Houghton's Literature in Science series. The house is bullish on her, and booksellers love her, too. With handselling and good reviews, the first printing of 25,000 should sell nicely.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Recent discoveries in molecular biology have shown that genes governing life processes in widely different organisms from yeast to humans are essentially alike. That is the underlying theme of this book as it looks for meaning in the natural world while exploring complex questions in molecular genetics. Ackerman, a former staff writer for National Geographic and a nature author (Notes from the Shore), weaves her own personal experiences into this popular account of the natural history of heredity. (When she is pregnant with her first child, Ackerman worries that the baby will inherit the gene that caused the retardation of her younger sister.) Moving from topics such as development and sex determination to biological clocks and cell death, this is an engrossing book written in delightful prose that will please most readers.
- Leila Fernandez, Steacie Science Lib., York Univ., Toronto, Ont.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Scientists have a penchant for straight lines, clearly defined categories, and orderly progressions, but the more that geneticists learn about the surprising number of genes shared by such disparate entities as a yeast and a person, the more barriers between species disintegrate, and the more convoluted the path of evolution is revealed to be. Ackerman proves to be an exciting and eloquent tour guide through the complex realm of heredity, writing about genes, chromosomes, protein molecules, antibodies, and pheromones--the "deep-down world"--with the same sense of adventure she brought to her book about the sea, Notes from the Shore (1995). Adept at selecting vivid analogies sure to please nonscientific readers, she marvels at the spectacular array of life-forms one set of genes can generate, nature's grand balancing act between stability and change, and the intrinsic connections between plants and animals. Using events in her life as catalysts for each phase of her discussion, Ackerman makes vital and relevant such tricky subjects as "junk" DNA, "timekeeping" genes, and the caprice of inheritance. Donna Seaman
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Three Stars
By Robert R.
beautifully written factual book .
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Well written
By saabataj
Whenever picking up a Science book, I always like to know the qualifications of the author. How much of this stuff is the author making up, how much of it is political propaganda? Is this going to be of the kind of "Research" I did for my grad school paper variety or the really-going-to-a-lab-and-conducting-research-on-rats kind? The excerpt mentions that Jennifer was a researcher on the National Geographic, has lectured at MIT, Harvard, Univ of Virginia. When I read her book, it became obvious to me that she is quite an expert in her field, because not only does she corroborate with other experts in her field by recounting her meetings with them, she talks in depth about her observations of the squid or some such while squatting down in the wet prarie fields. Anyone willing to rough it up in knee deep dirt, has enough hands on experience to know what she is writing about. Good enough for me.
She devotes separate chapters to each of the senses, and what we have in common with our ancestors. It all makes sense, heh, for example, she explains about how adult humans have a much less sensitive sense of smell that say, a male silkworm moth that can sniff out a quadrillionth of a gram of an odor that the female secreats; and boy am I glad we don't, that's just too creepy stalker-ish. But it's only the adults that lose this developed sense of smell, a baby instantly recognizes its mother's breast purely by sense of smell and they correctly chose their mother in an experiment where they were placed near other lactating mothers as well.
The most interesting chapter that highlights her well chosen title, is the one on how the Seeds of Inheritance are born, how they grow, meet their respective partners, exchange phone numbers, i mean, cellular information, you know what i mean, and give rise to a whole new being. The odds that your baby is what it is, the product of an accidental joining of one sperm in milllions and one egg in hundreds : 1 in 3 billion. Go smoke that in your pipe!
She also devotes chapters to Age, the depths of our mind's memory, and the time clock present in all our cells. We have so much in common with the small cell of a plant or amoeba. I am humbled and at the same time, marveled my Nature's penchance for re-use of materials.
She explains it all in layman language, pretty quick to read through and intersperses it with a personal story, so it's not like reading a textbook. If anything, I think her chapters are too short, I wish she'd gone in more detail or touched upon other factors, for eg, when talking about the time clock in our cells, how does a chemical such as caffeine affect it?
This book is a perfectly good way to start recapturing that sense of awe about Nature. Beats squatting in wet prarie fields to look at squicky, snarly worms, don't you think?
Jennifer doesn't delve into Evolution vs Creationism or any of that. She merely presents her facts on what we have in common, scientifically (yeah, better then calling you an ape to your face), with other species and the meticulous, ever-correcting, intelligent, survival instinct of DNA. It's upto the reader to interpret it however they want.
In short, Recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Science Poetry
By wordtron
In the last few years the notion that all living things are cut from the same cloth -- that we are all somehow related to each other -- has more and more become a matter of biological fact. Increasingly, the scientific evidence shows that from yeasts to worms to humans, all organisms are guided by similar genes and proteins that have been passed down nearly intact for hundreds of millions of years. At the most fundamental level, humans are genetically linked to every part of the natural world. In Chance in the House of Fate, Ackerman has woven these astonishing discoveries into a mesmerizing, illuminating, and deeply personal story of heredity, while fearlessly exploring its implications on our everyday lives. Pregnant with her first child, she anxiously calculates the odds that her baby will inherit the gene that caused her younger sister's profound retardation. Unveiling the science of cell growth, she describes the heartbreaking cancer that claimed her mother's life. Carrying her daughter on her hip at the crack of dawn to observe the millennial orbit of a comet, she contemplates the universal circadian rhythms that measure the passing of time. Haunting, fascinating, and gorgeously written, Chance in the House of Fate opens yet more doors into the mysteries -- and beauties -- of the miracle of life.
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