Genetics for the Intelligent
By Hayley Birch
It’s difficult to read a book that calls itself a guide for ‘intelligent people’ without a certain degree of self-consciousness.
After fretting for at least 150 pages that I was about to stumble upon the section intended only for true geniuses, I suddenly realised I had made it most of the way through without having to consult a text book. Then came this,
"In a post-apocalyptic world consisting only of gorillas, a skilful gorilla geneticist should in principle be able to reconstruct a lobster."
which threw me for a while.
Despite this bizarre sentence, however, Adrian Woolfson has succeeded in producing an admirable account of the nature of DNA and genes, followed by some fascinating dives into the realms of ‘DNA space’ and synthetic life. The section concerning The Limits of Possibility discusses at length the constraints on possible proteins and creation of synthetic organisms, which is where the lobsters come in.
According to Woolfson, if all life but gorillas should one day become extinct, it would be impossible, due to historical constraints, for lobsters to one day return by natural evolution. On the other hand, he points out, if we consider the extraordinary possibilities that synthetic biology opens up, it should be perfectly feasible. Fantastic.
Also particularly thought provoking are Woolfon’s ideas on what it is in our genes that makes us human. He concentrates on consciousness and language, citing some interesting studies on the differences between us and our closest living relations, chimps.
It’s not riveting stuff. But then neither is the Lonely Planet, and there’s a multi-million selling and highly functional read if ever there was one. It did, however, spark a rather interesting debate in the office about whether it would be preferable to be a fly with a human head or a human with a fly’s head.
Woolfson’s style is alternatively informative and entertaining; refreshing anecdotes are dotted amongst bouts of what can be tough reading (depending on your level of intelligence, obviously) as rewards. All in all it’s a worthwhile read, whether you’re a genetics virgin, so to speak or, as I suspect, a rusty biologist.
And if you’re still curious as to the results of the human/fly head debate, we concluded that if you were a fly with a human head, you would be a far superior fly, where as a human with a fly’s head would be far inferior to the rest of the human race. After pondering over whether this view be considered species-ist, someone helpfully pointed out that, of course you wouldn't want to be a fly with a human head - because you could fly.
[Adrian Woolfson, An Intelligent Person's Guide to Genetics, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, 2004]
Title image: Muris Kuloglija Kula
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