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My Beautiful Genome: Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time
 
 
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My Beautiful Genome: Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time [Kindle Edition]

Lone Frank (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
Print List Price: £8.99
Kindle Price: £4.45 includes VAT* & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
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Product Description

Review

'My Beautiful Genome covers some of the most interesting controversies in biology today, including designer babies, brain imaging and even whether or not we have free will. It's an enthralling read.' --New Scientist

'A pin-sharp, lively memoir-cum-investigation... Frank's discoveries make for some truly tingling moments... Absorbing.' --Mail on Sunday

'The huge research effort to understand the complexity of the genome is throwing up new insights into the nature of humanity, as the Danish science writer Lone Frank shows in My Beautiful Genome, her excellent look into the postgenomic world.... Fascinating.' --Financial Times

Product Description

Internationally acclaimed science writer Lone Frank swabs up her DNA to provide the first truly intimate account of the new science of consumer-led genomics. She challenges the business mavericks intent on mapping every baby's genome, ponders the consequences of biological fortune-telling, and prods the psychologists who hope to uncover just how much or how little our environment will matter in the new genetic century - a quest made all the more gripping as Frank considers her family's and her own struggles with depression.
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Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 606 KB
  • Print Length: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Oneworld Publications (1 Sep 2011)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B005GOBKS6
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Not Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #50,797 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

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Lone Frank
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Complex subject, but a page turner - wonderful 8 Nov 2011
By M. D. Holley TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This book asks more questions than it answers, because the science discussed here is so very young. Lone Frank does not try to over simplify or produce easy certainties. The world she describes is uncertain, full of contradictions, and not yet coherent. By interviewing many different researchers, we get an overview of various current schools of thought, rather than one narrow viewpoint.

Her stroke of genius is in the way she presents the material. She uses herself as a human guinea pig. Because of the way she gradually uncovers more of her own genome, the book operates on one level as kind of auto biography. That's what makes it such a page turner - as you get more and more hooked on Lone Frank's biographical story you really can't wait to find out what type of BRCA gene she has. And by making the subject so personal, she converts what could be a dry and dusty academic discussion of some quite complex science into a joyful read.

While much has yet to be worked out, several interesting and somewhat controversial conclusions come out along the way. Like the finding that different races of humans really are qualitatively different. That our society currently practices a form of eugenics, and most of us approve of it. That the genome is not completely stable, and can be influenced by its environment (epigenetics). That our free will is limited, but ironically we can maximise what free will we have by acknowledging the features that are pre determined by our genes.

Highly recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant overview of the foundations of human quirkiness 27 Jan 2012
By C. Feltham
Format:Paperback
I have to agree with Michael Shermer that this book is a genuine page-turner. It works very well as popular science and covers many of the topics general readers will want to see - getting your own genome interpreted, diseases, epigenetics, sexual attraction, abortion, personality, ethical problems, determinism, etc. Lone Frank even touches on the taboo topic of eugenics. Her journalist's easy and often humorous interview style, moving across continents and via Skype, brings the key scientists alive and she isn't at all shy of using vivifying personal disclosures of her own. The science and its applications have a long way to go but Frank shows a knack here for zooming in succinctly on the trends in genetic research that have begun to really count. Anyone interested in human development, identity, individual differences and personality traits should read it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars My Beautiful Genome: Exposing Our Genetic Future, One Quirk at a Time 12 Oct 2012
By Iva
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was glad to discover this book. I'm not so familiar with genetics but I easily understand every explanation Lone Frank gave. Highly recommend this book for any scientific minds
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars good for non-academics 25 Oct 2011
By asp
Format:Paperback
this book is unique in the way that the author uses herself as a prop to go through various genetic tests and then discusses the results with pros.

as such its a gonzo type intro on genetics and a counterweight to the many books that offer a bird's eye view of the field. so good for non-academics
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1.0 out of 5 stars nursery stories 19 May 2013
By EA Williams
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Lone Frank has an interesting haplogroup. So she is interested in her ancestry. I'm not. There was very little science and very little interest. It may have come later but I gave up on her Lots of words , lots of anecdotal science but no real content.
Don't waste your money
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4.0 out of 5 stars Introduced me the epigenetics, but not as witty and sharp as proported 26 Feb 2013
By Raven
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book held my interest from start to finish. I love how the author makes her scientific research so intensely personal and intimate. I found her descriptions compelling, such as those of close family members, their personalities, behaviour and how they eventually died, her own clinical depression. So for me, the book bridged the gap between science and the soul searching question of "Why am I the way I am?" I will be reading more on epigenetics now that I've had this introduction. Also, I like that all the research is well referenced and the contributors acknowledged.

As for the author's style of writing, many people have said it's witty. Not me; I would only say it's dry, and a even bit moany in places ... though not enough to stop me turning the pages. And the author's second-language use of English was obvious to me at times, making some sentences sound a bit "clunky" to my ear.

Apart from minor taste issues, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about genetics and epigenetics, but doesn't want to wade through anything too science-heavy.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Great but.. 13 Jan 2013
By elena agresta
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ok, should you read this book? Yes, yes and yes. Is it my favourite book ever written on the subject? Not really. Does it broaden your horizons? Oh yes. Someone wrote in a review, it opens more questions than it answers, which is completely true, but it does so beautifully. You can just start from this book and by the end of it you want to sign up for a degree at Open University or read every copy of Nature you can get hold of. Beware though, the author is irritating. You can't sort of fault the bad bits and only take the good ones, they are like her genome, they are whole. Take it or leave it and I'd say take it. The writer gives you a glimpse on stuff about her that you really do not care or want to know, without making a call for empathy and telling you her story so you might actually understand her or start to like her.

But apart from that, recommended :).
Are you keen on the subject? Read this book.
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