Our genes are the master-code of instructions that makes and defines humans; it governs our form, function, and fate, and that determines the future of our children. The story of the gene begins in earnest in an obscure Augustinian abbey in Moravia in 1856 as Mendel's idea of a "unit of heredity;" intersects with Darwin's theory of evolution, and collides with the horrors of Nazi eugenics in the 1940s. Mukherjee tells the story of her own family and...

"His groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease." -Barack Obama From Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health, 2007 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and 15-year head of the Human Genome Project, comes one of the most important medical books of the year: The Language of Life. With accessible, insightful prose, Dr. Collins describes the medical, scientific, and genetic...

Since the publication in 1859 of Darwin's “Origin of Species”, debate over the theory of evolution has been continuous and often impassioned. In recent years, opponents of "Darwin's dangerous idea" have mounted history's most sophisticated and generously funded attack, claiming that evolution is "a theory in crisis." Ironically, these claims are being made at a time when the explosion of information from genome projects has revealed the most compelling...

"When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback, titled The Double Helix, on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the building blocks of life. Even though her high...

In a near-future world where biotechnology and genetic research has become big business, the discovery of several transgenic animals leads to a legal and ethical battle over the rights to genes that can be used for commercial purposes.

"A researched exploration of the promises and vulnerabilities of having children in an age of genetic tests and interventions considers key scientific, technological and political factors while sharing the stories of men and women struggling to understand the range of the tests and their revelations, "--NoveList. "Is screening for disease in an embryo a humane form of family planning or a slippery slope toward eugenics? Should doctors tell you that...