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A rich depiction of DNA's ongoing scientific and social revolution.

About the Author

Israel Rosenfield received an M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine and a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is a professor at the City University of New York and his books, which have been translated into a number of languages, include The Invention of Memory: A New View of the Brain; The Strange, Familiar, and Forgotten: An Anatomy of Consciousness (revised and expanded French edition, 2005); and the satirical novel Freud's 'Megalomania', a New York Times notable book of the year. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a longtime contributor to The New York Review of Books. A frequent speaker at international art/science events, he has written essays and satirical pieces for a number of exhibition catalogues of contemporary artists. Edward Ziff studied Chemistry at Columbia University and received his PhD in Biochemistry at Princeton University. He then joined the laboratory of DNA sequencing pioneer Fred Sanger in Cambridge, where Ziff helped to develop the first DNA sequencing techniques. He has worked on problems of animal virus gene control at the London Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories and transcriptional regulation in animal cells at the Rockefeller University in New York. Ziff has also been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and his research includes many "firsts" in the areas of gene structure and control, cancer biology, and, more recently, brain function. He is professor of biochemistry and neural science at the New York University School of Medicine. Borin Van Loon has been a freelance illustrator since 1977. He has designed and illustrated fifteen documentary comic books on subjects from Darwin to Psychotherapy and Buddha to Statistics. He created an eclectic collage/cartoon mural on the subject of DNA and genetics for the Health Matters Gallery in London's Science Museum.

Reviews

The book is novel, easy to read and combines excellent cartoons with good personal vignettes and history. I spent many years mastering genetics and yet learned new and valuable things from this book. Take a look, you will not be disappointed. -- Robert Trivers, Rutgers University A unique, richly detailed, and fun biography of DNA grounded in deep historical and philosophical knowledge--Rosenfield, Ziff and Van Loon give us everything we need to know about biology's most important molecule. -- Oliver Sacks Right now, you may not know the difference between a prokaryote and a eukaryote, but read this richly detailed work and that could be your next cocktail party opener. Toronto Globe & Mail A clear summary of the DNA story with a lighthearted approach. CHOICE