This book is about how minor life events and the choices we make, as well as those made by our ancestors, fuse with our inherited genes to mould us into individuals. What makes you so different to your siblings? Why do you vote a certain way, remain faithful for twenty years, believe in God, love salads, be heterosexual, get cancer or depression, dislike sport or never put on weight? Using fascinating case studies of identical twins, Tim Spector draws gems from his exhaustive research project that has spanned twenty years to show how even real-life 'clones' with the same upbringing turn out in reality to be very different. Based on cutting-edge discoveries that are pushing the frontiers of our knowledge of genetics, he show us that - contrary to recent scientific teaching - nothing is completely hard-wired or pre-ordained. Challenging, enlightening and entertaining, Tim Spector explains theories such as why the Dutch have become the tallest nation in the world, why autism is more heritable than breast cancer and what could cause a fit and healthy man to have a heart attack within weeks of his overweight, heavy drinking, heavy smoking identical twin. Conceptually, he argues, we are not just skin and bones controlled by our genes but minds and bodies made of plastic. This plastic is dynamic - slowly changing shape and evolving, driven by many processes we still cannot comprehend. Many of the subtle differences between us appear now to be due to chance or fate, but as science rapidly evolves and explains current mysteries we will be able to become more active participants in this human moulding process. Then we can really begin to understand why we are who we are and what makes each of us so unique and quintessentially human.
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Spector will get you through many dinner parties. But, much more importantly, he will show how a certain kind of scientific fundamentalism collapsed under the burden of its inability to explain the world as it is - complex, flowing, changing - rather than as they would like it to be - simple and clear. Read him. (Bryan Appleyard THE SUNDAY TIMES 2012-06-17)
A fascinating and provocative book...Spector is a talented story-teller, weaving real-life accounts of identical twins into each chapter...This is an informative and thought-provoking tour of some of the most exciting areas in biology right now. Spector concludes by inviting us to imagine a future in which we see our genes as malleable, rather than as masters of our biological destiny - just one part of the endlessly complex and fascinating story of what makes each of us unique. (NEW SCIENTIST)
Identically Different is a fresh and though-provoking book on how the environment affects epigenetics. (Dr Nessa Carey BBC FOCUS MAGAZINE)
Spector...pulls off the rare feat of being able to make genetic theory both intriguing and comprehensible to the ordinary reader. (THE LADY)
In Identically Different, Tim Spector, a world-renowned authority on twins, introduces us in an entertaining, eloquent and expert way to the new (yet old) science of epigenetics: the study of how the environment can influence our genes and how those influences can be passed on to future generations. (James Williams TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT)
A fascinating attempt to see us for what we are and to investigate what life is, and to show why a heady combination of hormones, chemicals, genes and instinct can make us what we are, and what we might be. (GOOD BOOK GUIDE)
This book is a fascinating exploration of our current understanding of what makes us what we are: health, behavior, and personality. (JOURNAL OF TWIN RESEARCH AND HUMAN GENETICS)
Tim Spector's book turns genetics on its head. Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive. it is a great read! (Michael Mosley)
A fascinating and provocative book...Spector is a talented story-teller, weaving real-life accounts of identical twins into each chapter...This is an informative and thought-provoking tour of some of the most exciting areas in biology right now. Spector concludes by inviting us to imagine a future in which we see our genes as malleable, rather than as masters of our biological destiny - just one part of the endlessly complex and fascinating story of what makes each of us unique. (NEW SCIENTIST)
Identically Different is a fresh and though-provoking book on how the environment affects epigenetics. (Dr Nessa Carey BBC FOCUS MAGAZINE)
Spector...pulls off the rare feat of being able to make genetic theory both intriguing and comprehensible to the ordinary reader. (THE LADY)
In Identically Different, Tim Spector, a world-renowned authority on twins, introduces us in an entertaining, eloquent and expert way to the new (yet old) science of epigenetics: the study of how the environment can influence our genes and how those influences can be passed on to future generations. (James Williams TIMES EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT)
A fascinating attempt to see us for what we are and to investigate what life is, and to show why a heady combination of hormones, chemicals, genes and instinct can make us what we are, and what we might be. (GOOD BOOK GUIDE)
This book is a fascinating exploration of our current understanding of what makes us what we are: health, behavior, and personality. (JOURNAL OF TWIN RESEARCH AND HUMAN GENETICS)
Tim Spector's book turns genetics on its head. Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive. it is a great read! (Michael Mosley)
Book Description
Professor Tim Spector reveals the astonishing new science that is changing everything we thought we knew about genes and identity. 'Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive ... a great read!' Michael Mosley
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Rose
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
What makes us who we are? Is everything predetermined by our genes or does upbringing and environment have the major role?
In recent years the pedulum has swung from belief that upbringing had most impact on personality to genetics. Reading the popular press you could be forgiven for thinking that there is a gene for everything from eye colour to athletic ability not to mention homosexuality or criminal tendencies. Someone even tried to use genetics as a defence in a criminal court (unsuccessfully).
Until recently Tim Spector was, in his words, "one of the many scientists who took the gene-centric view of the universe for granted...But I had a nagging doubt that we were missing something." This book explains in a very readable way just what that "something" was.
Years of work with twins, particularly identical twins has provided evidence that things are more complicated that the straightforward choice between nature and nurture. So much so that that debate becomes almost irrelevant.
The book is very easy to read, full of fascinating twin case studies and amusing references to modern popular culture. Although it explains the science well it is nothing like a textbook so suitable for anyone interested in the topic.
There's a lot of thought provoking information here especially about plastics, IVF and probiotic yoghurts. If you were dreading the future of Genetic testing dicating access to everything from insurance to jobs, you can probably relax. We may have half the number of genes than a tomato but we humans are still too complex to be completely predictable. The scientists have a lot more work to do.
An informative and enjoyable read.
In recent years the pedulum has swung from belief that upbringing had most impact on personality to genetics. Reading the popular press you could be forgiven for thinking that there is a gene for everything from eye colour to athletic ability not to mention homosexuality or criminal tendencies. Someone even tried to use genetics as a defence in a criminal court (unsuccessfully).
Until recently Tim Spector was, in his words, "one of the many scientists who took the gene-centric view of the universe for granted...But I had a nagging doubt that we were missing something." This book explains in a very readable way just what that "something" was.
Years of work with twins, particularly identical twins has provided evidence that things are more complicated that the straightforward choice between nature and nurture. So much so that that debate becomes almost irrelevant.
The book is very easy to read, full of fascinating twin case studies and amusing references to modern popular culture. Although it explains the science well it is nothing like a textbook so suitable for anyone interested in the topic.
There's a lot of thought provoking information here especially about plastics, IVF and probiotic yoghurts. If you were dreading the future of Genetic testing dicating access to everything from insurance to jobs, you can probably relax. We may have half the number of genes than a tomato but we humans are still too complex to be completely predictable. The scientists have a lot more work to do.
An informative and enjoyable read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Spector gripped me from Page 1 with his whistle stop tour of genetics for the 21st century. He relates his topics to the real world. If you've ever wondered why you're a happy chappy and your neighbour isn't yet you both live on the same street Spector offers an informed insight!
He turns genetics on its head with his passion for the subject, wealth of knowldege and understanding of the topic. His easy prose and witty style will bring a smile to your face as you read. Not to mention how his little gems make great conversation!! This book was my read of the summer. I've already bought it for three people as a gift and they loved it too. No matter who you are young or old, scientist or lay person you will love this book!! A perfect stocking filler for my Christmas list...
He turns genetics on its head with his passion for the subject, wealth of knowldege and understanding of the topic. His easy prose and witty style will bring a smile to your face as you read. Not to mention how his little gems make great conversation!! This book was my read of the summer. I've already bought it for three people as a gift and they loved it too. No matter who you are young or old, scientist or lay person you will love this book!! A perfect stocking filler for my Christmas list...
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Exploring how genes can be switched off or otherwise altered by stuff that happens to us, sometimes in ways that can be passed on to our kids is fascinating enough but having the real cases and ideas pinned down and brought to life with studies of real identical twins makes this amazing!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I've been looking for gentle ways of updating my knowledge of genetics, which consisted of the mostly and increasingly forgotten biology I did at school more than a decade ago, and saw this had good reviews in the press.
Before starting Spector's book, I still basically thought that eye colour was brown trumps blue, blue trumps green, etc. (Felt a bit better when I learnt in the introduction that 95% of medical students overestimate the number of genes there are in the body by three orders of magnitude!). That said, having done my favourite subject to degree level, and so having learnt with hindsight all the simplifications one is taught at secondary school, I felt sure this couldn't be right, and so wasn't entirely surprised to learn that the genetics governing eye colour was indeed rather more complicated than the dominant-recessive stuff I'd been taught! (20 genes, possibly hundreds, are apparently involved, Spector reports).
I also knew genetics, like linguistics, was still a young science when I were a lad, and still is one, when compared to something like physics, and so for this and other reasons wasn't completely shocked that the rate of development had been pretty dramatic since I left school. What surprised me more was the extent to which the fundamentals had galloped on. I say this partly with the state of fundamental theoretical physics in mind, in particular a recent remark by Peter Woit on his brilliant blog, 'Not Even Wrong', that "the current situation in fundamental theory is one of a serious lack of any new ideas at all."
The major thrust of the book is to introduce you to epigenetics, something I'd heard of by chance one time via some TV programme on the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study (Spector discusses it).... Read more ›
Before starting Spector's book, I still basically thought that eye colour was brown trumps blue, blue trumps green, etc. (Felt a bit better when I learnt in the introduction that 95% of medical students overestimate the number of genes there are in the body by three orders of magnitude!). That said, having done my favourite subject to degree level, and so having learnt with hindsight all the simplifications one is taught at secondary school, I felt sure this couldn't be right, and so wasn't entirely surprised to learn that the genetics governing eye colour was indeed rather more complicated than the dominant-recessive stuff I'd been taught! (20 genes, possibly hundreds, are apparently involved, Spector reports).
I also knew genetics, like linguistics, was still a young science when I were a lad, and still is one, when compared to something like physics, and so for this and other reasons wasn't completely shocked that the rate of development had been pretty dramatic since I left school. What surprised me more was the extent to which the fundamentals had galloped on. I say this partly with the state of fundamental theoretical physics in mind, in particular a recent remark by Peter Woit on his brilliant blog, 'Not Even Wrong', that "the current situation in fundamental theory is one of a serious lack of any new ideas at all."
The major thrust of the book is to introduce you to epigenetics, something I'd heard of by chance one time via some TV programme on the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study (Spector discusses it).... Read more ›
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting study of factors influencing our lives other than our genes - but did not enlighten me about twins as I'd hoped
1 July 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
As a father of twins - very different people but in fact I eventually learned, identical - I had hoped to learn from this book something about 'how come?' In this I was somewhat disappointed. I learned mostly that 'it happens', that we all want to individuate ourselves, that genes aren't king (there's also epigenetics to take account of), and there are some interesting anecdotes about twins, of course.
Looking at the book in its own terms, it's actually rather strong. It comprises a series of chapters asking in each case what impact genes and what impact other factors have on a very wide range of themes in human life, ranging from belief in god, through criminality, fatness, gayness and fidelity. There's a lot of learning here, very accessibly summarised, about a very wide range of science. And it's clear a lot of things can influence our lives - starting with the diet of our ancestors (Dutch famine in 1945 still working its way through the population) and moving onto really unexpected things like the bacteria in our guts - in a chapter about the wider gene landscape that I found the most fascinating in the book. In passing, Spector suggests that some of the theories of scientists or theorists other than Darwin - Lamarck, and even Lysenko - may have understood something about the world after all. Sometimes I did read things that surprised me though - for example on page 70 that it was not until Mozart was aged 21 that he 'produced his finest work - his violin concerto No. 9'!
However, all in all, then, an interesting read - just not the book I was looking for. I hope Spector will one day write a book about twin studies!
Looking at the book in its own terms, it's actually rather strong. It comprises a series of chapters asking in each case what impact genes and what impact other factors have on a very wide range of themes in human life, ranging from belief in god, through criminality, fatness, gayness and fidelity. There's a lot of learning here, very accessibly summarised, about a very wide range of science. And it's clear a lot of things can influence our lives - starting with the diet of our ancestors (Dutch famine in 1945 still working its way through the population) and moving onto really unexpected things like the bacteria in our guts - in a chapter about the wider gene landscape that I found the most fascinating in the book. In passing, Spector suggests that some of the theories of scientists or theorists other than Darwin - Lamarck, and even Lysenko - may have understood something about the world after all. Sometimes I did read things that surprised me though - for example on page 70 that it was not until Mozart was aged 21 that he 'produced his finest work - his violin concerto No. 9'!
However, all in all, then, an interesting read - just not the book I was looking for. I hope Spector will one day write a book about twin studies!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Every parent should read this.
I like its dispatch of the myths of human disease and the updated view of medical treatments. Having suffered from the nature-nurture strait jacket of genetics, I found this book a... Read more
Published 20 days ago by john
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
It takes an outstanding scientist and an amazing writer to be able to turn such a complex subject as epigenetics into stories that touch us.
Published 2 months ago by Alessandra
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of twins
Tim Spector knows a lot about twins, and uses various twin stories to show how people with identical genes can turn out differently. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. D. Holley
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
Fascinating, absolutely loved it, really interesting and easy to read, much better than most books on this topic, which tend to be overcomplicated and stuffy!
Published 4 months ago by vicky roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
This book is a must read even if you are not very sciencey. it is very informative on the topic of epigenetics and has many interesting examples in which to support the argument.
Published 11 months ago by bb
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