Genomics Books

After slaving away at high school and college science classes I had completely lost any interest in the subject because I assumed it was too darn hard! But this book takes a HIGHLY complex subject, and with just a few backtracks on my part for clarity, takes, genetics, DNA, and the important differences between patriarchical/matrilineal and makes them meaningful and useful. Because I am working at establishing a tribal membership, the suggested sources and unique patterns to Native American DNA increased my confidence in applying. I am already in contact with a company they recommended for Native American tribal identification. Excellent and useful purchase.

FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN GENEALOGY, THE BOOK BY MEGAN SMOLENYAK TITLED TRACE YOUR ROOTS WITH DNA IS MOST INFORMATIVE. IT IS WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO UNDERSTAND. I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR EITHER THE BEGINNING OR PROFESSIONAL GENEALOGIST.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - her real name - provides an excellent introduction of what DNA can and can not do in Genetic Genealogy.

Anyone starting their "Roots" research effort is advised to buy this book. It will help you save money by allowing DNA to focus on your line and not someone elses. Read the book for more details!

Helps to clarify the most commonly used terms in genetic genealogy. But goes off-topic with details concerning paternity tests, etc. Additionally it seems to go too far in making the case for forming online groups to identify potential connections. Would be a lot better if it stuck more to the topic of using genetics in genealogy and spent more time discussing the various tests in the marketplace and the existing sites associated with them.

As a DNA-surname research group administrator, I tend to buy every book, VHS, or DVD I can find regarding the use of DNA research in support of traditional genealogy.

Of the 12-15 books I have purchased so far, Megan Smolenyak's touchstone reference work continues to be the one I reach for when I have a question myself.

Easily read and understood, this book makes complex concepts readily accessible with clear illustrations, definitions, real-world examples, and authoritative references when needed. I am not naturally science-minded, but as a good researcher, I want to be able to use every tool in the box. This is my go-to book for that purpose.

Buy as many DNA books and tapes as you want, but your DNA library will not be complete without this classic introduction to the concepts involved in genetic genealogy.

I highly recommend it!

CHT in Virginia

It has the most up to date material about science and he puts it in a funny way.

This book may be advertised as a polemic, but it actually provides straight common sense where it's most needed. In a political era where ideology often takes second place to facts, Stebbins lays the science bare on a host of controversial issues--from stem cells to genetic testing. You might not always agree with him, but he'll definitely get you thinking.

Doctor Mike Rocks! I urge you to read this book. The Dr. lays it out there, whether you know anything about science or not it doesn't matter - you will after reading this book. It's funny and really terrifying at the same time. A tell all, hard-and-slamming-clash between the myths, truths and politics behind the world of science. I couldn't put it down, bought three copies for friends. Brilliant piece of work!!

Being able to explain scientific concepts to nonscientist is an art. Michael Stebbins has accomplished the goal of explaining several areas of scientific research that sometimes gets drawn into politics (embryonic stem cell research). He takes every subject and explains it in language that the lay person can understand. He does a great job of showing how special interest groups can take some segment of the subject, distort it and promote opposition to the research and make it look legitimate to the unknowing public. We need more books like this and more scientist like Michael Stebbins!!!

Sex, Drugs and DNA is a fantastic literary find. Michael Stebbins shares a voice seldom heard in today's news and politics, that of an independent and experienced scientist. Most of what you hear on the news about science these days seems to consist of "expert" journalists with no more information on the subject they are discussing than a brief overview of a watered-down scientific abstract. This is a man who has devoted his life to science and is not afraid to give his opinions on what is wrong with today's society, and, more importantly, how these problems might be solved.

I was personally very impressed with his first chapter. It is something that I would highly recommend to most young and developing scientists. I feel it gives an honest and needed look at what they will be dealing with in the near future.

Michael Stebbins makes this foray into the world of a science an entertaining and informative journey. I highly recommend it.

Prof Terry Brown was one of my tutors when I was a student and the book, like the man himself, is a wealth of information which I referred to constantly. He is an excellent tutor, and the book reflects this fact. It was an enormous help to me, as indeed Terry Brown himself was.

"...probably the most up-to-date textbook on molecular biology...a useful text...and reference..." (Annals of Pharmacotherapy, September 2003)

"...a second edition to incorporate new developments in genome science and to make the book more `user friendly'...the book substantially exceeds that modest objective; this is a text suitable for anyone who does not specialize in genome science." (Clinical Chemistry, Vol. 48, No. 12)

"...this didactic masterpiece...model of a modern university textbook deserves to be read and studied by...students worldwide." (Modern Pathology, Vol. 15, No. 9, 2002)

"...a marvelous text...plenty of definitions and excellent illustrations essential for an introductory textbook...the reader is...guided wonderfully through the text...this text is an essential cornerstone of information..." (Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 19, No. 12, December 2002)

Intervention in one of those books that wakes you up. Not only did I learn a tremendous amount about the potential risks of genetic engineering, I also gained a new understanding about the process of risk assessment itself. The book is a model of critical thinking, as Caruso questions in a fairminded, non-sensationalistic way fundamental assumptions surrounding the biotech industry and the way genetically engineered products are developed and marketed. As I read Intervention, I kept having "ahas" on two levels. The first involved a growing awareness of how we are increasingly all participants in what amounts to an ongoing series of lab experiments as genetically engineered products are introduced around the globe without fully comprehending what the consequences might be. The second concerned a new understanding of the field of risk assessment and the increasing need for collaborative, cross-disciplinary approaches to problem solving and decision making. This is a rich, engaging, thought provoking work that deserves widespread attention and discussion. I recommend it most highly.

This easy-to-read, cogent analysis of the bio-tech - including genetic engineering - industry serves a critical purpose in the world right now. Denise Caruso brings a diligent journalist ethic to a subject that should have most of us putting pressure on our leaders (business, scientific and political) to insist on more rigor in our decision making process in the better interests of humanity and the environment. While she grounds this in the bio-tech industry, Caruso's warnings and proposed solution (of an analytic deliberative process) are equally relevant to many other highly uncertain, risk-fraught, unfettered science domains. I highly recommend this book.

Denise Caruso brilliantly articulates issues around genetic engineering with clarity and insight in Intervention. Everyone who cares about issues of the 21st Century, needs to read this book. - Tiffany Shlain

I am not familiar with genetics, genomics, post genomics and all this stuff, but I read Intervention with a lot of interest, as a guide into the unknown.
I would feel more confident if more scientists understood the problems it raises.
Caruso develops an aproach that, I am convinced, we should encourage. An atitude of openness and cautiousness in front of what's changing and that we don't know. Be there, participate with a critical mind might be the smartest way of entering the future as we make it happen. Be open to all stakeholders knowledge and understanding might be the safest way to move forward.
This is one of the most difficult thing I can think of. But Caruso is of considerable help with the processes she suggests we should adopt.

In Intervention, Denise Caruso, a columnist for the New York Times, has written an important and timely book. The set of people who need to read it include but are not limited to policymakers and voters in the US, in the affluent world, and in the developing world.

Intervention is mainly about transgenic organisms. One of the numerous unsolved problems people need to tackle this century is devising a workable regulatory framework for transgenic plants and animals, aka genetically modified organisms, aka organisms into which engineers have dropped pieces of DNA. In the US, the existing regulatory regime is a patchwork. The biggest part of the patchwork comes from at the dawn of recombinant DNA work at the Asilomar conference in 1975. Asilomar led directly to the "NIH guidelines". These guesstimated different levels of potential risk for different kinds of recombinant DNA experiments, mandated lab practices and levels of containment to conduct research at each level, and set up bodies for review and approval of experiments local to each university. Asilomar also brought about the establishment of an overarching national body, the Recombinant Advisory Committee (aka RAC) to rule on the appropriate level of containment for contested experiments, and established mechanisms by which levels of containment could be ratcheted up or down in response to information coming from new experiments, which in practice has led to sunset of most of the most burdensome regulations as the feared risks did not materialize. The regulatory framework affected experiments in universities funded by the US government, but was extended to commercial work via local communities. Individual cities caused, via their control of zoning, biotech firms to follow the NIH rules. Most of this "Asilomar framework" governs recombinant DNA research in lab organisms such as E. coli, yeast, and mice. In the US, use of recombinant DNA in people, for example in gene therapy, is regulated by the FDA, and release of an organism into the environment, for example a herbicide-resistant potato or an oil-eating bacterium, is regulated by the EPA.

Recombinant work is also regulated in other advanced countries, but in no country is there a system of local and national oversight as strong as that in the US. And the US framework, 32 years old, is fraying at the seams. It is showing its age by showing gaps. Many of the issues are due to the Moore's-law-like growth in the scope and power of the technologies, the democratization of the technical ability to hack DNA, the adoption of recombinant DNA methods by new classes of hackers , and the use of recombinant DNA to engineer different classes of organisms.

The Asilomar framework was designed to regulate research in universities and, extended by zoning regulations, in companies. The Asilomar framework was not designed for a world in which the number of people with basic training in recombinant DNA methods has increased from hundreds to tens or hundreds of thousands worldwide. For example, in most US localities, the only framework that governs recombinant DNA work by private citizens is that sometimes provided by local zoning regulations; and this at a time when affluent parents can and do outfit labs for their high school aged children.

But perhaps the most public change since Asilomar is the increase in the number of different engineered organisms intended to be used outside of the lab. Here, agriculture has emerged as a flashpoint. Last year most of the dollar value of the US corn, soybean, and cotton crops came from transgenic plants. Although introduction of recombinant crops in Europe is stalled, due in part to old fashioned trade protectionism, worldwide, farmers are planting them everywhere they can, from Brasil, where the Lula regime retroactively legalized herbicide resistant soybean seed in the face of the fact that farmers were enthusiastically smuggling in metric tons of the stuff from Argentina and Paraguay, to China and India, where genetically modified insect-resistant rice seed, probably made by multiple independent firms, has been sold since at least 2005. In agriculture, without outright prohibition, the spread of genetically engineered plants and animals is likely to continue until most species of economic importance have been engineered. But even though farmers may love the stuff, it turns out that people tend to view technologies such the recombinant DNA that enables transgenic plants as affecting their lives. Moreover, many may feel that the changes the technologies are bringing are occurring without their understanding or consent.

In Intervention, Caruso uses this steady increase in the contribution of genetic engineering to the economy as a test case, an example to consider how new technologies might be regulated. The book requires the reader to face the question of what an international regulatory framework for recombinant DNA work and genetic engineering of organisms should look like.

Caruso does not lay out solutions, but she does describes processes for involving larger numbers of stakeholders in decisionmaking, promising tactics to provide additional ways for societies to get a handle on the pace of technical change.

Intervention is not horatory, it is not prescriptive. Caruso raises issues and suggests mechanisms that might help address them, but does not provide a ten point set of solutions. I find this aspect of the book to be a strength, although as a consequence the book leaves the reader with many more questions than answers. Here, I will mention two.

First, at the moment, in the US, a new technology is typically regulated only after has been shown to cause harm, and, by law, the degree of regulation is based on assessed risk, and the assessment of risk is supposed to be based on the best science available. Overall, at least for recombinant DNA, I believe that this conceptual framework for regulation has worked pretty well (To my knowledge there has only been one death directly attributable by recombinant DNA (the child Jesse Gelsinger, who died during an experimental gene therapy trial in the 1990s from a dose of a gene therapy vector that should never have been allowed by the local review committee)). But there are other ideas on which regulation can be based. Should the US exchange this basis for regulation for that used in the EU, grounded in "precautionary principle", derived from German Social Democratic legal theory in the 1930s, even if to do so were to carry a cost of delaying the benefits new technologies might bring?

Second, in part because of the science-based risk assessment mandated in the US, people who feel uneasy about a new technology or who simply dislike it are almost always required to assert that their opposition or unease is due to the fact that the technology presents a risk. Why always talk piously about risk if the real issue that one finds some work of engineering distasteful (Caruso even has a term for this, the "ugh factor")? In a democracy, should widespread dislike, by itself, ever constitute grounds for regulating or even prohibiting a technology? If not, why not?

I hope that the publication Denise Caruso's Intervention marks the start of a broader discussion, one that might help societies gain better control of technical change and its consequences.

I picked up this book because I realized that I knew next to nothing about the human genome--one of the most significant scientific accomplishments of the century. Shreeve's explanation of what it is and why it matters while describing the dramatic intellectual, technical and commercial competition between the academic community and private venture capitalists--most notably Craig Ventor-- is spellbinding. The most painless way to familiarize yourself with recent human genome research. An outstandiing read.

You don't need to be a scientist to be captivated by this book. This is a riveting story of the intersection of vision, ego, politics and the battle between commercial interests and publicly funded efforts to do nothing less than lay the foundation for the technology that will likely define this century.

This is not a dry chronicle of the scientific methods, technological and computational breakthroughs that made this great accomplishment possible. Rather, Shreeve manages to guide the layman through the intricacies of all of the above, while never loosing site of the more interesting story of the personalities and interactions among the key players in this story. There are lessons here for anyone - integrity, vision, politics, business, perception and the law of unintended consequences.

The best book I've read this year.

This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the future of science, medicine, and technology. Though I have been intrigued with the human genome project and the mapping of other life forms, I had never understood the process or knew the key players in the epic search to do so. James Shreeves' masterful account of this landmark achievement brings the complex and compelling venture into sharp focus. His narrative includes not only colorful and insightful quotes from those involved on all levels, but also offers cogent explanations of the technical and scientific issues in breakthrough biological data-processing that will eventually change all our lives.

Firstly, I haven't even finished this book at the time of my writing this review, but I could no longer wait to comment on it.

The distinguished feature of this book is its style of writing. It is incredibly simple and straight forward, without any unncessary twist of language or logic. Although this is a depiction of the whole story behind the Human Genome Project, it reads like an epic tale of a breathtaking journey.

James Shreeve gives a close account of all the events that led up to sequencing of human genome, including politics, science, business, legal matters and personal relations. What's more, is that a lay reader who understands nothing about gene or molecular biology can learn a whole lot of things he didn't know before. While the book is not technical in biological and other scientific explanations, it is sufficient to explain to the lay reader about genes, their importance as well as their pharamaceutical value.

This book, like other reviewers have mentioned, is truly hard to put down. Highly recommended to everyone!!

I could not put this book down. This is an engrossingly written glimpse into the people, politics and science of the Human Genome project(s). Extraordinarily well done. Uplifting.
Exciting. At times depressing. Full of real people at war with real problems and real results.

World Hunger is an excellent read and intelligently written from beginning to end. The amount of research and thought put into this book is quite evident, and proves that this author has a true talent for writing a captivating thriller! I will definitely hope to see more books by Brian K. Swain.

Swain has weaved a hair-raising (literally!) tale of what happens at the intersection of science and greed. World Hunger was captivating and educational at the same time - a thoroughly enjoyable read I would highly recommend!

A thoroughly believeable story, told in a comfortable style. It sure makes you rethink genetically modified anything. I saw a spider in my garage today and it gave me the creeps! I highly recommend this book.

If you are a fan of Michael Crichton type novels, you will love this book! Swain combines teaching us about a new technology, bio-engineering, with a gripping, fast-paced story that includes action, suspense and romance. The story also takes us around the world. Although fiction, it is all believable. As the plot builds to a crescendo, you will not be able to stop reading until you have finished the book. I recommend it highly.

World Hunger is a great read. The attention to details prepared me for the thrilling action that is fast paced and engaging!

Based on protocols in this book, I devised methods to complete my own experiments. I found the insights contained in the book completely indispensable. The range of topics it contains and the detail with which Freshney explains each point made the process of designing conditions for experiments rational and approachable. I highly recommend this book.

There are not a lot of glossy pretty pictures, which is a good thing for a no-nonsense instruction manual that gets the point across with what pictures it did have. I found it to be a very good complement to my cell culture class. Everything I learned in the lab was put into context nicely.

I purchased this book with a description of like new. I would say this is new. The previous person who used this did not even break in the binder. This is an excellent reference book, I have enjoyed reading the text up to this point.

For many years Freshney's Culture of Animal Cells has been the gold standard of tissue culture reference books. This new edition adds and updates many techniques and continues to be the best book in its area. I use it extensively both for my own research and in teaching classes on tissue culture.

Freshney's Culture of Animal Cells is a great book. It is writen on an easy style, it is concise and complete at the same time and it does teach you all the basics (and a little bit more) of cell culture. When I was doing my masters I didn't have a lot of help with my cell culture experiments and this book was fundamental for my research. The book covers everything, starting from the biology of cultured cells, equipments, design of the lab and asseptic technique and going all the way to primary culture, cloning and selection, cell separation, characterization, differentiation and more. The book (hard cover) is pretty resistant and it easily stands going to the bench (where you surely will be using it a lot). If you are thinking about spending money on a book about cell culture techniques this is the book! Don't think twice.

this book is well orgnized and clear stated. It contains many concepts about evo-devo field. Also this version includes many updated information about development and evolution.
Start from very basic phenomena and go further to the molecular level. Easy to read for anyone who is interested in this field.

Excellent book. Had to get it for my Evo-Devo class, and ended up loving it. It's plastered with genetic lingo, so if you've never taken a genetics or developmental biology class, you might struggle a bit, but what do you expect with a book called DNA to Diversity? For all you debaters out there, Sean Carroll heavily sides with the cis-regulatory argument of genetic modification, so beware to all you trans people. Not only was this book a joy to read, but it's handy as well. It's about half the size of a normal textbook, so it's easy to move.

We have about 25,000 genes. Some of these are "tool kit" genes that we share with all other animals. They evolved well before the Cambrian explosion over 540 million years ago from a bilaterally symmetrical common ancestor. Almost exact counterparts are found in apes and mice, and close counterparts in arthropods and worms. Next to most genes is a stretch of so-called "junk DNA" that does not code for genes. These DNA segments contain from three to twenty (or more) switches that collectively turn that gene on or off. The switches are activated or repressed by the differing concentration gradients of the protein products of other genes produced by neighboring cells. By virtue of the servo-feedback loops creating unique combinations of the protein products of tool kit genes, cells of the early embryo create a geographical map of their future body.

An escalating orchestra of domino effects builds complexity, each new development affecting the others. The tool kit genes and the other core genes that control biochemical function from bacteria to man are resistant to mutation. Novelty and speciation comes from the infinite variety of changes that come from the readily mutable genetic switches - allowing for changes in a segment without mortally wounding the rest of the animal. Not a single biologist 40 years ago would have predicted these discoveries.

The exciting developments of evo-devo have sent jolts of electricity through the evolutionary community. Nothing basic has been overturned; much has been enhanced. For example: It used to be thought that eyes had evolved independently many, many times - after all, the lumps of light sensitivity in primitive wormlike creatures, the compound eyes of insects, and the eyes of mammals have more differences than commonalities. As it turns out, the making of each eye-like organ is directed by a PAX6 tool kit gene. Not only that, if the PAX6 gene from the mouse is artificially introduced into the genetic material destined for the leg of the fly, an eye will form on the fly leg...and it's not a mouse eye - it's a fly eye. The mouse PAX6 gene switches - influenced by chemical gradients from adjacent tissue in the fly embryo - cause the gene to produce a fly eye! Astounding!

Tool kit genes (and other genes) are frequently named after the anomaly that doesn't develop when that gene is absent. The TINMAN gene controls development of the heart and circulatory system from butterflies to badgers - named after the Wizard of Oz character who had no heart. The wealth of information presented in this book will surprise, educate, and entertain the reader - and evo-devo researchers have just scratched the surface. New graduates in biology are surging into this explosive and previously neglected science.

There are three other books that I know of that cover these captivating discoveries of the last 30 years:

"Coming to Life," by Christiane Nusslein-Volhard. This fine book, written by a Nobel Prize winner for her meticulous ground-breaking work on fruit flies emphasizes the concentration gradients, which are indeed central to the story.

"The Plausibility of Life," by Kirschner and Gerhart. These authors are so excited about the new findings, they think it deserves a name - facilitated variation - and of course, they thought of the name. It is an excellent book with more basic sciences than the book under review, emphasizing how evo-devo facilitates novelty through an enhanced Baldwin Effect.

"Endless Forms Most Beautiful," also by Sean B. Carroll, written more for the college graduate who has taken a little biology.

I have studied them all. For the general public, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" is the best. For those more familiar with molecular biochemistry and genetics, "DNA to Diversity" contains much more specific information - although anyone who would like one book would like the other.

"From DNA to Diversity" is a superbly written book -essential reading for the advanced reader who wishes to keep up with the stunning advances that have occurred in evolutionary knowledge during the past thirty years.

High School, College, Grad School? This book is at the grad school level. Carroll has also written Endless Forms Most Beautiful at the college level and The Making of the Fittest at the high school level. (You can check on "Read all my reviews" to read more about these.)

My own background is this: My formal education in biology consisted of an introductory course in college 40-odd years ago. Since then I've read a lot and in the last two years I've had a very strong interest in molecular and evolutionary biology. (For more info, click on my name, above. My Profile also has a link to my Listmania list of evolution books. Note that you don't have to be a grad student to read this book.)

I read From DNA to Diversity first and it was too much for me. I then read Endless Forms. That was pretty understandable, so I went back to Diversity and found it reasonable clear. I have since read it a third time and I am very fond of it.

Of the thousands of genes involved in the early development of animals, this book concentrates on a few, along with the proteins with which they interact and the various body parts they affect. Special attention is paid to the Hox genes and their insect homologues. Because these have large-scale effects in development, changes in them and in their regulation have profound effects on evolution. I especially enjoyed the section where Carroll combined many bits of information to show us the basic features that must have been present in the first bilaterally symmetric animal, that tiny but promising ancestor of us all. This is one of the bonuses we get for making the extra effort to read the grad-level book.

I find the text very clear and the overall organization - starting with the workings of the major toolkit genes, proceeding through descriptions of how those genes direct the overall shaping of the animal, and on to general considerations of evolution -- proceeds nicely.

[2 June 2007: This was one of the first reviews I wrote and I have added bits as my skills have improved. It got to be a bit patchy, so I have just finished a mafor revision.]

In a sense, Carroll has written the same book three times. "The making of the Fittest" is a work for the general reader explaining how our knowledge of genetics and embryonic development impacts and expands our knowledge of evolutionary biology (and vice-versa). His most famous book, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful," is aimed at college upperclassmen, and deal in more detail with the science of "Evo-Devo," evolutionary development. "From DNA to Diversity" covers much the same ground, but does so in a more technical and sophisticated manner. It appears aimed at graduate students and upper-division zoology majors. Presumably Carroll's next step it to write a graduate-level textbook. Toward the ent, "From DNA" reads like one.

It is a marvellous book, and like a text, it requires and rewards re-reading. Unlike a text, however, it virtually demands to be read in order; not only do the latter chapters build on the earlier ones, but the degree of difficulty in the presentation increases dramatically as the pages turn. As befits a book which assumes a sophisticated readership, there are fewer "detours" into polemics supporting green politics or mocking creationist theory. The photograpsh and the charts are terrific -- full color, clear, and as easy to read and interpret as the difficult subject matter will allow.

Because of the nature of the book, the discussion is less "thesis-bound" than Carrroll's other writings. Rather, he begins with a history of animal life, brings in detail about how embryonic development and genetic control of that process produces the diversity upon which natural selection can act, and weaves the two themes together to demonstrate how the process of forming animal bodies interacts with the changing environment to produce the multiplicity of animal forms we see today. And, Carroll goes on to show, the process is endless and at once aleatory and highly constrained.

I recall an episode of the old "Twilight Zone" series where a British World War One fighter pilot flies through a time warp and lands on an American Air Force base, circa 1960. He talks to one of the airman, and says, "We had no idea how advanced you are." The reader of Carroll's book is likely to have the same thoughts about the field of evo-devo. In Thirty years, these people have gone from the discovery of the nature of the DNA molecule to the brink of an ability to create life a test-tube. I had no idea they had advanced so far so fast.

As our western civilization "evolves" our connection with our food supply has diminished to the point where the basic understanding of farming and the processes involved has diminished. One thing we all know despite this is that food comes from seeds. But what if seeds were no longer available or if they were only viable with the purchase of support chemicals? What would happen if the world's food supply were contaminated with a corporate gene that eliminated our ability and right to save seeds? Bob Dylan wrote in one of his apocalyptic songs from the seventies "One day even your home garden will be against the law". This is what is happening in the name of "Feeding the World", the mantra of the corporations bringing us "better living" with genetic engineering. But so far there has not been a genetically engineered crop that has benefited anyone but corporations like Monsanto and Syngenta. Claire has weaved together a compelling call to action and a succinct report of the direction agriculture is heading. I recommend that you arm yourself with this book and prepare to defend.

Uncertain Peril provides a vivid description of the crisis at hand for our food system and the seed source that provides the foundation for all of the ecosystems we depend upon. Claire Cummings describes the crisis in a way that allows for understanding and action, the two ingredients that offer the only solution at hand. The book covers the current socio-political landscape surrounding genetic materials in a fair and factual manner. The book should be on the reading list of all citizens and particularly educators, high school through college, concerned with the interface of science, food, farming and health.

Uncertain Peril provides an excellent depiction of how corporations have gained control of our food supply. It clearly describes ways that the entire global community's inherent right to grow food is under attack by a multinational corporate agenda. Cummings beautifully describes the core connection between Indigenous cultures and food and how everyone's access to seeds is being eroded by premeditated greed that stops at nothing. Claire also provides specific ways out of the peril. An important work for everyone to fully understand how the future of our food supply is at serious risk. [...]

I used to work for Monsanto and thought they were wonderful to work for. i got caught up in their science. as i have got older and switched from conventional to organic farming i have been keenly made aware of just what is going on. Seeing my soil come back to life, diversity in wildlife, beneficial insects and microlife is short of a religous experience. to think i was an addict and they were my dealer!!! what corporations are doing with seeds, chemicals and our freedom to farm is true. Anyone denying this, is either bribed, employed by them, or they own lots of stock and could care less what the agenda is. as our culture transformed from a rural to mostly urban one it's easy to see how most people have tuned out what is going on with their food. what a shame. Claire wrote this book with passion, i read it with passion. God, i wish i could meet her. Claire, thank you for this book, great job.

Young Farmers, urban food activists, locavores and Kingsolverites--those of us who are newly concious about the food we put in our mouths, and the landscape behind that food--> If we've arrived on the scene in recent years, then we never really knew agriculture pre-biotech.

We have learned too late of the gross contamination of our food supply, the 70% of processed foods on our super market shelves that have GMO ingredients, the vast plantations of GMO soybean in Brazil, the open air testing of experimental pharma-drugs and GMOs in Hawaii, the ever more hyperbolus corn fields in our own midwest. These tragedies of monoculture are the result of a deliberate process carried out before our time, and before our involvement in the food system.

While a lot of these biotech developments occurred before my generation got involved in sustainable agriculture, the approval for these technologies and the intellecutal property rights precedents occured at the highest levels. There is a wonderful French film that just came out about Monsanto ( The World According to Monsanto) with a clip of George Bush senior touring the Monsanto research facility and saying "Well if you have any trouble with the FDA let me know, we're in the DEREG business."


With current talk about the 'spike' in food prices funding development for yet another round of "Roundup Ready" crops, with unprecedented hunger pangs, and the recent focus of the Gates Foundation on Biotech for Africa-- what better time to learn what we can from the corrupt history of the Agro-bioscience industry. False promises, superweeds, hegemony and monoculture, lets stop the proliferation of GMO agriculture as soon as we can.

I really enjoyed this book. It was entertaining to know the history and science behind my silly cat's colors.

This is a book about genetics, from the point of view of a cat owner and her rare male calico cat. As the author unravels the mystery of her male calico, the reader learns about the history and science of genetics.

This book is perfect for anyone looking for a beginners approach to genetics and who also likes cats! I'm thrilled to see it back in print.

A male calico so rare that most veterinarians have never seen one - "Cats are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics" is an examination of the strange and off biology of the feline species which work apparently quite a bit differently than that of the common pea. In a second edition, the first published sixteen years ago, is newly enhanced with a lengthy addendum covering all the new discoveries and advances in the study of feline genetics and so much more. "Cats are Not Peas: A Calico History of Genetics" is highly recommended to community library pets/wildlife shelves with a focus on animal biology and for anyone who may be interested in breeding cats or just a plain interest in cats period.

If you love cats, you will love this book, and want to share it with others. Laura Gould has written the charming, witty, delightful story of her male calico cat, George, and his feline pal Max in their California home. That alone would have been a wonderful book. But aren't all calico cats female? The vet turned pale upon seeing George, obviously male and obviously calico. Gould intersperses George's' life story with her own investigation into how he could have come to exist. This makes a gentle, funny, and accurate introduction to genetics, including side trips to libraries with insane librarians preventing the books from being used, to theories of sex before the discovery of genes and DNA, and to rare Japanese sources. Cat lore, history and science are beautifully balanced in this book. The second edition brings the genetics up to date, while keeping all the charm of George. A superb read!

Best explanation of the calico phenomenon I have ever read. SHe explains the basics and the history behind the rare male calico in a clear and enertaining way. The lessons on basic genetics as you go is a unique way of presenting things.