The human genome, the
complete set of genes in 23 pairs of chromosomes, is
nothing less than an autobiography of our species.
Spelled out in a billion three-letter words using the
four-letter alphabet of DNA, the genome has been
edited, abridged, altered and added to as it has been
handed down, generation to generation, over more than
three billion years. This generation is the first to
read this extraordinary book, and to gain hitherto
unimaginable insights into what it means to be alive,
to be human, to be conscious or to be ill. By picking
one newly discovered gene from each of the 23 human
chromosomes, and telling its story, Matt Ridley
recounts the history of our species and its ancestors
from the dawn of life to the brink of future
medicine.
