Genome (book) - Definition and Overview

Genome: The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters (ISBN 0007635737) is a 1999 popular science book by Matt Ridley, published by Fourth Estate.

The book's organisation is to devote one chapter to each pair of human chromosomes. Since one (unnumbered) chapter is required to discuss the sex chromosomes, the final chapter is number 22. Ridley was inspired to adopt this model by Primo Levi's book The Periodic Table.

The book discusses various ways in which genes affect human life, from physiology to disease and behaviour. The book covers the history of genetics, including Mendelian inheritance, eugenics, James D. Watson and Francis Crick, nature vs nurture and Genetic engineering. The book takes a reductionist view of biology and evolution and is pro-sociobiology and evolutionary psychology.

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