- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Allen (Aug 1 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0618082875
- ISBN-13: 978-0618082872
- Product Dimensions: 21.7 x 14 x 1.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 553 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,620,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
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.
- Leila Fernandez, Steacie Science Lib., York Univ., Toronto, Ont.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Science as poetry,
By A Customer
This review is from: Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity (Hardcover)
Science writer Ackerman (Notes from the Shore, 1995) takes her title from a motion sculpture that, when activated by a crank, may drop a marble into a cup-or may jiggle a blade to fall like a guillotine-her metaphor for evolution in general, as well as one's own hereditary fate. Ackerman personalizes her tale of the wondrous interplay of genes and environment in the history of life on earth with biographical details: growing up with a sister born microcephalic (small-brained), the early cancer death of her mother, the rapid decline of her witty grandmother to Alzheimer's disease, and her own intense pleasure in giving birth to normal, healthy daughters. These events ground her orderly exposition of the role of heredity in shaping evolution and individual life, from the fertilization of the egg to old age. So as she ponders the cause(s) of microcephaly, she discourses on the history of genetics, DNA, and the gene families common to humans, fruit flies, and worms. She reminds us that nature continually dips into the same bag of tricks when creating and maintaining life. Genes mastermind body shape and organ development in the embryo, repair DNA, orchestrate cell death, and elaborate the nervous, immune, and endocrine system proteins that enable cross-talk between cells and their environment. Mutations of the gene are common in cancer (which is why oncologists speak of all cancers as genetic-the cancer cell's DNA becomes deranged in ways that allow it to multiply uncontrollably). Women who have given birth may be more prey to autoimmune diseases (like lupus or rheumatoid arthritis) because their bloodstream carries more foreign cells to trigger an immune reaction-due to two-way cellular traffic across the placenta. These are among the scores of research findings Ackerman details, along with cross-species comparisons of olfaction and vision, the importance of symbiosis in nature (think of all those helpful bacteria that colonize your gut), and discussions of circadian rhythms, the meaning of sex, and the process of aging. All this is related in a rich, baroque style, one that allows Ackerman to celebrate the unity of nature even as she marvels at evolution "as a unfolding scroll shot through with mystery."
5.0 out of 5 stars
Science Poetry,
By wordtron (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity (Hardcover)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The poetry of biology,
This review is from: Chance in the House of Fate: A Natural History of Heredity (Hardcover)
It is often heard that there is no beauty in the "world according to Darwin", that biology has unweaved the rainbow and left no joy or beauty in its place. Not true, as demonstrated by this personal and scientific tour of modern biology. Ackerman covers a broad range of topics but always with a deeply personal viewpoint, and manages to tell at once the joys and sorrows of her life and the scientific story behind them. A true joy to read.
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