by Matt Ridley
Read April 2020
Suggested by Naval Ravikant in Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris.
This one appealed to the science geek in me and brought back hazy memories of my university genetics classes. I usually read at bedtime and I admit to having to re-read sentences (or paragraphs) to regain my focus. This is not a book your eyes can skim for your brain to catch up later. That being said, Ridley does an excellent job of taking complex biological processes and presenting them in a way readers, without a degree in genetics, can understand. Instead of droning on about the minutia of biochemistry, he presents information as a story with real-world applications that make it interesting and relatable. The chapters are organized by chromosome and he selects one theme for each human chromosome then discusses it for that chapter. I learned interesting tidbits like AB blood type is least likely to develop symptoms of cholera while type O is especially susceptible (chapter / chromosome 12) and re-learned how the hox genes organize embryo development (chapter / chromosome 9). He also delves into some of the ethical considerations of genetic testing and the age-old question of nature versus nurture. I think these discussions were my favorite parts of the book as I have always loved debating and I found his arguments to be well-reasoned and compelling. It probably helps that he and I are of the same opinion on most of these topics. Ultimately, this book can be summed up by saying it is actual science presented in readable prose and I found it to be absolutely fascinating.