In Pursuit of the Gene: from Darwin to DNA

IN PURSUIT OF THE GENE: FROM DARWIN TO DNA; James Schwartz; Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press, 2008; 370 pp. Nonfiction.

Schwartz's book presupposes a fair amount of knowledge of genetics, and will be a bit of a slog to the degree that one's brain has misplaced the principles of Heredity 101. However, there is still much enlightenment here, as Schwartz takes us way back past Watson and Crick to when Darwin and his cousin Francis Galton hoped to prove that genetic traits were transmitted through the blood, to the discovery of Gregor Mendel's published works and the battle royal over Mendelism vs. all other possibilities. One of the most interesting aspects of this book is its portrayal of scientific enquiry not as a united search for truth but as a kind of "I'm the King of Bunker's Hill" mentality which hopes to promote one's own views by pushing everyone else's off a cliff. In Pursuit of the Gene requires a paced and deliberate reading, but it is worth it.

LW