In Search of the Double Helix: Darwin, DNA and Beyond - Hardcover

Gribbin, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0704530775 ISBN 13: 9780704530775

Publisher: Wildwood House, 1985

Synopsis

A complete description of the search for an understanding of heredity follows the growth of the science from Darwin and Watson through to today's advanced DNA and genetic engineering

About this title

Review

Though often told, the story of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA is such an exciting drama that it rarely fails to fascinate, especially in the hands of an expert science writer like John Gribbin. Gribbin, a Cambridge-educated astrophysicist, has had the advantage of living and working as a science journalist through the decades when Crick and Watson were making their Nobel prize-winning discovery.

Though this is a reprint of a book first published in 1985, the bulk of the story remains unchanged. Gribbin takes the reader from the early 19th century, the people and ideas that influenced Darwin, rapidly though Mendelian genetics and inheritance into the depths of modern quantum physics and chemistry. There is some fairly serious science here but with a bit of effort and the help of the diagrams in the book, the general reader can get the drift of the most important ideas. Gribbin always provides a human angle through a knowledge of the scientists who have made the discoveries and had the ideas. They provide the essential background to understanding the importance of the double helix story and its consequences which have revolutionised so much of modern biological science.

The last part of the book returns to the Darwin connection and the tricky question of the The Descent of Man (Darwin's book was published in1871) and its update. Molecular evolution and the use of the molecular clock have overthrown traditional ideas about our relationship with the apes and the recency of a common ancestor. It is perhaps a pity that Gribbin has not added other more recent developments to the story, such as the ramifications of our new ability to "read" the complete genetic code for organisms, but he is a prolific author and is no doubt working on it. -- Douglas Palmer

About the Author

Dr John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge before becoming a full-time science writer. He has worked for the science journal Nature, and the magazine New Scientist and has contributed articles on science topics to The Times, the Guardian and the Independent, and has made several acclaimed science series for BBC Radio 4. John Gribbin has received awards for his writing in both Britain and the United States and is currently a visiting Fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His many books include In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat, Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science (with Michael White) and In Search of SUSY. John Gribbin is also the author of several science fiction works including Innervisions. He is married with two sons and lives in East Sussex. More books from John Gribbin are available at: http://ReAnimus.com/authors/johngribbin

Edition details

• Publisher: Wildwood House
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0704530775
• ISBN 13: 9780704530775
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 369