The Encyclopaedia Britannica guide to genetics : the most exciting developments in life sciences : from Mendel to the Human Genome Project

Running Press, 2009. — 288 p. — ISBN-10: 0762436204. — ISBN-13: 978-0762436200. From Gregor Mendel's first experiments with peas during the eighteenth century to the announcement of the Human Genome Project in 1998, genetics have become the key to cracking many of the scientific ideas of our age. How much do our genes determine our personalities? What makes us different from other species? What is revealed behind the controversy of genetically modified food or stem cell research? This volume is the ideal companion for students or general popular science readers who wish to know the facts behind the latest research and discoveries. The Britannica Guide to Genetics is the ideal companion for students or general popular science readers who wish to know the facts behind the latest research and discoveries. After the Introduction from bestselling science writer and geneticist Steve Jones the book covers the entire history of genetics from Gregor Mendel’s first experiments with peas at the end of the nineteenth century to the announcement of the Human Genome Project in 1998. Throughout the twentieth century new discoveries about the qualities of our genes have been heralded as essential leaps of progress in modern science forcing us to ask how much do our genes determine our personalities? What makes us different from other species? But as we enter the twenty-first century and we have begun to manipulate genes and the genome the questions have changed. An invaluable introduction to the major ideas, discoveries, and personalities in the history of our quest for the origins of life