genetics books

	The GenoType Diet: Change Your Genetic Destiny to live the longest, fullest and healthiest life possible
	By: Peter J. Dr D'Adamo, Catherine Whitney ISBN: 0767925246 Publisher: Broadway Release Date: 26 December, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 2528	After five years of blood type dieting, I basically dropped it because there wasn't enough information to support a continuous following of blood type dieting and frankly the subject became quite boring. And when I read some reviews of this diet I was concerned about it being valid; I knew about this diet coming out around November and passed it up because I didn't have time to read another book; I passed on the blood type diet for 2 years in 2001 and 2002 before I had the inner strength to curiously fetch it off a bookshelf. I knew I would eventually by this book but luckily, I was at a bookstore and found the CD version and I bought it, and for my good fortune. The book is nothing but a masterpiece of good information and it makes complete sense and has already helped me in the first couple of weeks by directing me to better my diet habits. Dadamo has put in years of research and effort into the subject; he is truly an artist who is trying to help you. There are several tests that are quite interesting that will enlighten you as to your past and its fun at the same time. I spent about 20 minutes flipping through at the bookstore. <br /> <br />I came away wondering if he believes what he put together and the con is by his agent/publisher? Or if the doc is "in on it". <br /> <br />I feel sorry for the people who spent $25 to read the literary version of the 3am diet infomercial... complete with the "!" to relate his excitement. <br /> <br />Don't get me wrong---he doesn't push any bad diets, so no one is going to experience any bad results from the information. Let me sum up the diets---whatever you are eating now, cut out the junk, and remove one major component you were previously eating that's linked to being "bad" for your genetic type (could be beef or it could be dairy or whole grains) divide all the remaining ingredients in half. You can only eat the stuff from one side, and the other things in moderation. Congrats, great way to lose weight. <br /> <br />The basis behind how he's pushing The GenoType Diet" makes me think of the crows giving Dumbo the "magic" feather that he held with all his might while he did all the work to fly. Only rewrite the story so that the crows make Dumbo fork over some green in payment for the magic feather THEN they laugh at seeing an elephant fly. <br /> <br />Cheers. While I believe there is probably some good information to be gleaned from this book, it was a disappointment to me in that I expected a more straightforward method of determining one's genotype. Say, a blood test that could be ordered? The many gyrations the author puts you through to get to his conclusions left a lot of room for error -- and doubt. Were my measurements correct? Was I seeing what I needed to see in the fingerprints? Too much detective work for me. And, when I finally did get through it all, the description it led me to did not really seem to fit me at all. So, yes a disappointment and I do not recommend the book.
	Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland
	By: Bryan Sykes ISBN: 0393330753 Publisher: W. W. Norton Release Date: 10 December, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 6186	Although there was some very interesting information in this book, there was not nearly as much as I had hoped for. Not an easy read. Perhaps it's the subject, not the author. The book, "Saxons, Vikings, and Celts," is a fantastic "read," and not just for quasi-amateur genealogists or DNA-obsessed readers like me. Because it is down-to-earth and includes just the right amount of technical vocabulary, usually well-defined, it will suit the popular taste and those who love a taste of mystery, science, and suspense. As a member of the Hawley Society, a group dedicated to researching the Hawley surname and the descendents of one Joseph Hawley who left England and arrived in America possibly around 1630, I found the answers to some nagging questions about the movements of my ancestors, where they came from and how they dispersed. The "story" was enlightening, exciting, and exhilerting--but informative, most of all. I read the british version called the 'blood of the isles',it is still one of my favourite books.It couples science very nicely with ancient history,archheaeology and is also a nice intro to bioanthroplogy. <br />Sykes is the best man for the job,he has the right amount of reason and imagination,and is both a scientist and a storyteller - very rare these days.He provides not just plain facts or dry logic but real hypothesis with creative and original theories/ideas alongside them. I really hope he goes on to write more books in this vein.As one of the world's first genetic archaeologists - I found him and his work very inspiring.
	Genetics For Dummies (For Dummies (Math & Science))
	By: Tara Rodden Robinson ISBN: 0764595547 Publisher: For Dummies Release Date: 02 September, 2005 Bioscience book rank: 10163	Genetics for Dummies is a wonderful resource and quick reference in the area of genetics. The authors makes the reading easy and interesting by including tidbits of both applicable and real-world cases of how genetics touches our lives. The chapters read quickly and don't have alot of scientific lingo. I am an engineer, and wanted to learn the basics of this interesting subject out of curiousity. This is the perfect book : much more accessible than the textbooks. This book is wonderful. I am taking a genetics course in college, and this has been a lifesaver. It does a wonderful job of teaching the material in a clear, concise, and organized manner. I highly recommend this product!
	The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey
	By: Spencer Wells ISBN: 0812971469 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Release Date: 17 February, 2004 Bioscience book rank: 13641	I came to know about Dr Wells' work through the PBS documentary and I made sure that I got it on video so that I could slowly digest the information in it. I was amazed at the findings that we all have a common ancestor from Africa and as recently as only 60 thousand years ago! As the documentary stated at the end, any notions of racism and bigotry based on race after this discovery is just plain wrong and parochial and the implications is that we have no excuse to try and segregate but instead it makes more sense to integrate and work to a common cause: the betterment of the human race. <br /> <br />Still, as any movie is constrained by time, I was sure that there must have been more to this than was presented and so I decided to get the book as well. I wasn't disappointed; there are loads more information here that added to my understanding from what I learned from the video. Although it is around 200 pages long, I found it to be an easy read for the layman like myself with little technical jargon used that is not fully explained. <br /> <br />Wells has got a talent for simplifying complex ideas for lay understanding. If you liked the PBS documentary and want to understand further then this book is the one to get. <br /> <br />Highly recommended. I really got a lot out of this book--it's a bit of a dry read at times, and some of the genetic science gets a little bit heavy (particularly in the beginning), but I learned a lot from reading. A lot of quotable new ideas in here that I wanted to talk about with friends immediately--the extinction of Neanderthals, the early advent of modern humans in Australia, the difference between human and animal as appreciated by a simple grammatical structure, and the ability to track lineage from placental and Y chromosom DNA being some things that spring immediately to mind. Worth dipping into. I absolutely loved this book! I think the Genographic Project is amazing. Sadly I wish more people could accept Evolution. It's just hard for some to break away from indoctrination.
	The Case against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering
	By: Michael J. Sandel ISBN: 067401927X Publisher: Belknap Press Release Date: 01 May, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 54519	The book is quite readable and clear to a reasonable extent. It is also very informative and well researched. The author is commended. However, the issue about research into possibilities about medicine and its technology cannot avoid the question of common sense, finality and the exclsuive nature of "human experience". Pure mechanics will be abnormal in matters that concern the human person. The fears of the author are quite shared. The questions one may asked could be: will the drive for recognition and mere scientific aggrandisement consume man or can man apply his creative imagination to promote the respect for and the dignity of the human person? This book is quite interesting, it's written in a readable style, and it presents lots of "food for thought" if you read it carefully. The author attempts (fairly successfully) to be balanced although he does take a side (obviously, based on the title). It's probably one of the better presentations on "big ideas" relevant to the future of eugenics. The conclusion is somewhat perfunctory and there is (seemingly extraneous and unconvincing) preaching in favor of stem cell research, but otherwise it's definitely worth reading if you're interested in genethics. Michael Sandel exhibits a valiant effort at rebuilding the cracking walls of society's dam of morality. His failure is inevitable, due to the materials he uses - he relies solely on nonreligious arguments. <br /> <br />Now, it is admittedly my own prior conviction that reason alone can never stem the tide of relativism - but Michael Sandel has failed to convince me otherwise. <br /> <br />Sandel lists the norms that he wants to maintain in society: unconditional love, openness to all human life, celebration of natural talents and gifts, humility, and social solidarity. He also believes that we should seek and express our freedom not by changing ourselves to fit the world, but the other way around. <br /> <br />Then he explains how we are to maintain these good things: we must view life as a "gift", rather than as something in our control. Of course, Sandel doesn't claim that life really IS a gift - just that we should think of it AS a gift. We should maintain a kind of respect for the near sacredness of the natural - sacredness without a religious basis, giftedness without a giver. He almost seems to be arguing for a kind of primeval respect for the cosmic forces of nature and chance. <br /> <br />I don't disagree with Sandel's list of desirable social norms, or with his view that bioengineering would dull our sense of life as a gift. However, I am entirely unconvinced by his suggested cure. Why should we cling to the view that life is a "gift" if this view is in fact mistaken, if it is merely a useful verbal mirage that keeps us well-behaved? If there is no giver, then life cannot truly be a gift; rather, it is a random, chance occurrence that means nothing. And if that is the case, then why should certain social norms be privileged over others? Regardless of how seemingly good Sandel's norms appear to be, there will always be those who disagree - and who says they can't be right? Why can't we change our social norms and courageously progress into a braver, newer society? <br /> <br />Sandel's prescribed cure falls flat because people aren't too tempted to delude themselves, even for the common good. In a world without a giver, only we can assign true meaning and value. And so, we can't really believe that life has meaning or value other than what we choose to assign to it. We tend to sink into utilitarianism and a struggle for power - not to mention individualism and relativism. <br /> <br />Perhaps the most disappointing part of the book was Michael Sandel's last chapter, which is a defense of embryonic stem cell research. In a book that attempts to convince the reader to respect human beings, this is a disillusioning finish that rather spoils the appetite. <br />
	Thompson & Thompson Genetics in Medicine: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access (GENETICS IN MEDICINE)
	By: Robert L. Nussbaum, Roderick R. McInnes, Huntington F. Willard ISBN: 1416030808 Publisher: Saunders Release Date: 08 June, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 114095	This is a quite comprehensive and general overview of medical genetics, with perhaps more focus on scientific research than clinical practice, although both are well represented. <br /> <br />However, this is a rapidly changing field of research, and some of the newest techniques (such as whole genome association studies) and most informative websites (such as SNPedia) that are insufficiently addressed in this edition will presumably get caught only in the (hopefully frequent) future editions.
	Genetics: From Genes to Genomes
	By: Leland Hartwell, Leroy Hood, Michael L. Goldberg, Ann Reynolds, Lee M. Silver, Ruth C. Veres ISBN: 0073227382 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math Release Date: 09 October, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 88185	This book is decent. It seems like it could be used in a lower-level undergraduate genetics class. One good thing is that it includes the answers to odd problems in the back of the book (it would be better to have the answers to every problem). One bad thing is that the answers in the back of the book are not exact -- it seems like the authors used decimals in their work and carried the rounding errors into the final solution. For instance, an answer like 3/4 will sometimes appear as 0.746. In some cases, two parts of the question should have the same answer, but again, they vary due to rounding errors. This was confusing to me at first and is the main reason why I wrote this review. <br /> <br />Also, this book is way too expensive for what you get. Most of the material in this book is covered in [better] books that you will use later in your studies (i.e. The Molecular Biology of the Cell). If you can avoid buying this book new, then it might be a good deal. Otherwise, save your money because it is not worth it (ask your teacher if you can use a different book for the class -- in many cases, this will be acceptable). This is a good book if you already have a foundation in genetics. Oddly, the book is marketed as your basic undergrad genetics text. Yet instead of just explaining the concepts, it leads you on the path of discovery of how researchers figured all this stuff out. If you are still learning the subject, you may do better with Klug/Cummings/Spencer. If you are going into higher levels of biology and want to learn some research methods, this is a good book. The book came in very quickly and I am very happy with the purchase.
	Babies by Design: The Ethics of Genetic Choice
	By: Ronald M. Green ISBN: 0300125461 Publisher: Yale University Press Release Date: 28 November, 2007 Bioscience book rank: 162096	Babies By Design is one of the few books I've encountered that's not overtly biased either in favor of, or against, human genetic enhancement. Professor Green offers a nuanced analysis of these pressing ethical issues, written in a conversational style that draws upon real-world and fictional material and doesn't require a PhD in biochemistry to decipher. If human genetic enhancement is a subject of interest to you, this one is well worth your time.
	Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
	By: Eva Jablonka, Marion J. Lamb ISBN: 0262600692 Publisher: The MIT Press Release Date: 01 October, 2006 Bioscience book rank: 25600	I loved the book's treatment of genetic and epigenetic inheritance systems (dimensions 1 and 2). I appreciated the discussion of behavioral inheritance systems (dimension 3). I wasn't sold on the fourth dimension (symbolic inheritance systems) being fundamentally different than the third. <br /> <br />All that aside as an undergraduate psych student, without a ton of genetics under my belt, this was an enlightening read. <br /> I was floored by this book. I've had to abandon (or rather enlarge) the gene-centered view of inheritance and evolution that I'd become comfortable with and embrace this new perspective. Nature is far more complex and subtle than the textbooks would indicate. The refreshing part of the book is that Darwin is postulated to trump the Modern Synthesis by offering a broader and vaguer model. Mostly however, allusions and overinterpretations of re-hashed phenomena and a few recent twists like siRNA, are offered as still-unconvincing examples in a systematic attempt to argue epigenetics as having important biological and evolutionary roles. Yes, some aspects of biology and evolution are somewhat complex, but vague hand waving about epigenetics does not clarify them.
	Schaum's Outline Of Genetics
	By: Susan Elrod ISBN: 0071362061 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Release Date: 03 December, 2001 Bioscience book rank: 32816	I agree with Doc Dave in his earlier review that this is in many ways a better text than the standard ones out there. It's clearer, more concise, covers the advanced topics quite well considering its brevity, and as the Doc says, it's a fraction of the price of the actual texts. <br /> <br />I used this book to get thru a genetics course many years ago, and it was worth ten times the price I paid for it. It explained the concepts better than either the professor I had, or his T.A., who had graduated from U.C. Berkeley. <br /> <br />The presentation of classical genetics is the best I know of. You can find explanations of the molecular aspects that are probably as good, but for the classical stuff, and the coverage of the mathematical problems that derive from that approach, this is the best book I've ever seen. <br /> <br />I've used Schaum's outlines for a number of difficult subjects over the years, including electrical circuits and electronics, digital electronics and theory, genetics, differential equations, biochemistry, and applied statistics. They continue to be the best aids outside the classroom itself for the more difficult subject areas. It is very informative and a great reference for the study of genetics and related studies. <br />It is self-explanatory in the theories presented and easy to comprehend. <br /> <br />It is a must-have reference! The Stansfield/Elrod outline remains as comprehensive as any of the intro to genetics textbooks currently available. At about 10-15% the cost of the "standard" texts, this outline delivers the same material with more clarity, and often more accuracy. The concepts of classical genetics, which often prove more challenging for students than molecular aspects, are covered admirably in this book. While those who enjoy colorful illustration and pastel text boxes might be disappointed, the b&w figures in this book are extremely clear, logical and most importantly helpful towards learning the material. No solution manual or supplemental CD-ROM is required. Highly recommended as a reference, or as a text for general genetics classes.