Highly Commended in the 2005 BMA Medical Book Competition.

 

Order now in the UK or USA.

Also available in Spanish and Italian and forthcoming in

Portuguese, Polish and Korean.

 

"Henry Gee has produced a beautifully written account of the history of the genome.

What sets Jacob's Ladder apart from the slew of other recent volumes

on the subject is that it explores the antecedents,

whose researches dealt with the very questions that tantalize us today

and who set the stage for deciphering the genetic code."

-- New York Times

 

"Read this account of development even if you never thought you

would read a book about biology.

Jacob's Ladder is an engagingly written and informed account

of what is probably the most important science of our times"

-- New Humanist

 

"In his immensely enjoyable new book Henry Gee

concerns himself with the forces 'that take a formless speck

and shape it into what is recognisable as a human being.'

It is Gee's contention that the 'history of biology can be retold

as the story of the search for this agency, the genome.'"

-- London Review of Books

 

 "This book is filled with gems,

educating and entertaining as well as

introducing its own bold ideas"

-- The Times

 

"To make complicated scientific discoveries intelligible to non-scientists

requires great skill and this is possessed by Mr Gee,

a senior editor at Nature magazine"

-- Contemporary Review

 

 "A sophisticated, fluid presentation that leaves general readers

knowledgeable about the genome's past and

positioned to make sense of the future of genetic engineering"

-- Booklist

 

"The crowning gem of this work is the last section on the new network theory of genomics.

Gee draws the reader into the new field of computational biology

and shows that having the sequence of the human genome

is just the beginning."

 

"A wonderful piece of writing"

-- Nature

 

"Fascinating"

 

"[Gee] grapples with some extremely elaborate concepts,

presenting them in an accessible and light-hearted way

that will have even the most reluctant scholar hooked"

-- Ilford Recorder

 

"Well-written and illuminating"

-- Kirkus Reviews

 

Return to Home Page // Return to Books Page