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Lead book review

How Siddhartha Mukherjee gets it wrong on IQ, sexuality and epigenetics

We need a readable, authoritative popular guide to the latest developments in genetics. This, sadly, isn't it

28 May 2016

9:00 AM

28 May 2016

9:00 AM

The Gene: An Intimate History Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Bodley Head, pp.543, £25, ISBN: 9781847922632

Darwin came tantalisingly close to understanding them, 20th-century eugenicists obsessed over them, and with modern science, we are poised to control them as never before. Genes are a constant source of fascination, yet ignorance and misunderstanding plague almost every public discussion of their effects on our health and behaviour. How useful it would be, then, if there was a clear, accurate, and up-to-date pop science book on genetics, a book that recounted the history of genetic science and reflected on its implications for the future of medicine and society.

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Stuart Ritchie is a postdoctoral research fellow in cognitive ageing at the University of Edinburgh.

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