Steve Jones - The Language of the Genes

Nevertheless, most social changes are conspiring to slow down human evolution. Mutation, selection and random change have all lost much of their power. As a result, the biology of the future will not be very different from that of the past. Axonomic advance and medical progress may even mean that humans are almost at the end of their evolutionary road, as nearto the biological Utopia as they are likely to get. Fortunately, nobody reading this book will be iiround to see if L am right.

'A swashbuckling romp though a subject that normally delights only in its technical opacity.'

Richard Horton , Literary Review

'In literate and highly readable style Jones explains genetics and uses it to take us on a tour of human existence.'

a. c. grayling, Financial Times

'An inspired grand tour of what genetics can and cannot tell us about ourselves and our evolutionary history. wittily written.' david con car, New Scientist

This urbane, inrelligent and informative book deserves to be read widely, since it provides a vivid demonstration of what a remarkable and fragile product of evolution our species is.'

Christopher wills, Nature

'Very wiity, very accessible and very smart' Bite 'A witty tale of curious mutations, molecular clocks, and genetic bottlenecks; it illustrates biological principles with memorable examples from everyday life.'

DOROTHY bonn, Lancet

'In an age of genetic rriumphalism, Jones is that rare thing — a geneticist who is modest about his subject.. Though ultimately optimistic about the potential of modern genetics, the book disarms sceptics by repeatedly warning of the dangers of over-selling molecular biology as a cure-all for human ills.'

john durrant, Observer

'Jones is one of the best storytellers around today. His thoroughly enjoyable book is scientifically authoritative yet personal, and has a wonderfully dark sense of humour.'

STEVE Connor, Independent on Sunday

'Jones thoroughly demolishes the old myth that human races are distinct genetic entities, arguing that there is almost as much variation between neighbouring countries as between races.. The nature-nurture debate also receives an infusion of sense, this time with the help of the Siamese cat. Ask Jones whether the cat's coat is the work of nature or nurture and you are likely to be told, with more than a hint of exasperation, that the question is meaningless.'

Stephen young, Guardian

'Few scientists write well for a general audience, but Steve Jones is exceptional.'

beverley anderson, Books of the Year, Observer

'Good science for thinking people, wide-ranging and informa tive.'

A.s. BYATT, Books of the Year, Daily Telegraph STEVE JONES

The Language of the Genes

Biology, History and the Evolutionary Future

Revised Edition

Flamingo

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London w6 8jb

www.&eandwater.com

Fully revised edition published by Flamingo 2000 5

First published in paperback by Flamingo

with amendments and supplementary bibliographic essay, 1994

Reprinted nine times

First published in hardback in Great Bnuin by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993

Copyright © Steve Jones 1993, 1994, 1000

Steve Jones asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

Author photograph by Sally Soames ISBN 0 OO 655243 9

Set in Linotype Sabon by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives pic

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission.

This book is sold subject to thVcemdftion that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published iitul without.1 similar condition including this condition being imputed on the subsequent purchaser. To my parents and my brother who share my genes and my affection

A fully revised edition of the classic work on modern genetics, updated to coincide with the new map of human DNA, cloning, and genetically manipulated foods.

'Not so much divination as demystification… Aim attempt to bring genetics and evolution more into the public domain. If, for instance, you ever wondered just what genetic engineering is about, here is as good a place as any to discover. Few have Jones's ability to communicate a difficult idea with such humour, clarity, precision and ease.fe LAURENCE HURST, Times Higher

Trying to keep up with the scientific literature is like running up a down escalator. However much one reads, more and more is published until at last one is forced to give up from mere exhaustion, to be plunged into the Basement of Ignorance. Genetics moves so quickly that it is necessary to sprint upwards to stay in the same place. Although the fundamentals of the subject have not changed, many of the discoveries described here — cloned sheep, the complete human DNA sequence, and much more, were made in the late 1990s and the early months of the millennium.

Papers at the cutting edge soon go out of date. With the exception of a few key research papers, I have not tried to refer to all the sources used in writing The Language of the Genes. For those with access to a library, the British journal Nature and its American equivalent Science publish almost every week new discoveries in human genetics and evolution, accompanied by reviews that put the findings into context. Scientists used to read them from the back (where the job advertisements are). It is a sign of the excitement of genetics that more and more now study Science and Nature as they are written, from the first to the last page.

Human genetics has many specialist journals. The pace setter is The American journal of Human Genetics. The Annals of Human Genetics and Nature Genetics are aiso important. The American journal of Physical Anthropology approaches human evolution from a less genetical angle. New Scientist and Scientific American provide up-to-date information on genetics and evolution, published almost as it happens. Sometimes, even the newspapers get it right.

Genetics and evolution have inspired a number of outstanding books. One of the best is The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by J a red Diamond {Vintage Books, London, 1992. and HarperPercn-nial, New York, 1993). His title comes from the discovery that chimps and humans share most of their DNA sequences. Diamond uses this to build an engaging history of what we can learn about ourselves from our living relatives. A more sedate account of human genetics is in The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project, edited by D.]. Kevles and L. Hood (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Ma., 1991). Matt Ridley's Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in Twenty-Three Chapters. (Fourth Estate, London, 1999) is up to date and comprehensive, taking our chromosomes one by one. John Avise's 1998 book The Genetic Gods: Evolution and Belief in Human Affairs (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Ma.) covers a wider field and puts it into a humanistic context. For a more pessimistic view of the subject's possible dangers — which may perhaps have been downplayed in my own pages — there is Perilous Knowledge. The Human Genome Project and its Implications by Tom Wilkie (Faber and Faber, London, 1993). Richard Lewontin lives up to his title {Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA, Penguin Books, London, and HarperPeren-nial. New York, 1993) w' tn aprovocative onslaught directed at the self-righteousness which once pervaded much of human genetics. The confidence of the early geneticists was quite misplaced and Lewontin argues that the same is often true today.