A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes, by Adam Rutherford, explores the promise and disappointments of the project to map the Human genome. The story is interesting, and pops the bubble of the early days of the project, with the heady promise of genetic determinism. We can cure diseases! We can link genes to criminal tendencies!
No, we can't. Two decades out, the picture is considerably more muddled. Most questions about genetics and individuals can’t be answered with certainty. We can know about populations; we can talk broadly. Genetics is about statistics, not Newtonian physics. We are not our genes, but a complex interplay between our environment and our genes.
This book is informative, if at times muddled. I found the author’s organizing principle behind the work a bit confusing. There does not appear to be an overarching organization. This book is more an interconnected series of essays on the topic. At times, it lacks thrust.
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