And Other Lost Tales of Love, War and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean is a fascinating book about the genetic stories hidden within DNA. It explores how genes influence everything from evolution to disease and illuminates how small changes lead to big differences in our lives.
In Tübingen, Germany in the 1860s, Swiss biologist Friedrich Miescher was hard at work studying white blood cells at the behest of his mentor, Felix Hoppe-Seyler.
After analyzing the white blood cells gleaned from pus in hospital bandages, Miescher discovered an entirely new kind of substance: deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.
Unfortunately for Miescher, nobody appreciated the importance of this discovery at the time. Even Hoppe-Seyler only mockingly lauded him for “enhancing our understanding of pus.”
Meanwhile, not 400 miles away from Miescher’s lab, a monk by the name of Gregor Mendel was pursuing agricultural experiments to increase crop yields.
Mendel was studying the heritability of traits in the common pea plant because the plant seemed binary in many of its traits: for example, it either produced yellow or green peas, and had either long or short stalks, but nothing in between. This made experimentation simpler.
Through his experiments, Mendel discovered first of all that when plants with opposing traits, say yellow and green peas, were crossed, the end result was never a mix of the two. This alone was significant, since scientists had always assumed the traits would blend together into a yellowish/greenish pea.
What’s more, Mendel found that some traits were dominant, while others were recessive. In the case of peas, yellow color was dominant, meaning that when purebred yellow peas were crossed with purebred green ones, the offspring in the second generation were all yellow.
However, in the third generation of plants, Mendel found that one out of every four plants did have green peas again, so it seemed the recessive green gene lurked in the background even though it wasn’t visible.
Finally, Mendel also found that the traits were separate from each other: one plant could have the dominant yellow pea trait and the recessive short stalk trait. Though he didn’t use the term “gene,” this is basically what Mendel had discovered: discrete, separate factors that controlled traits.
Disappointingly, the scientific community didn’t recognize the importance of these findings in Mendel’s time.
The Violinist’s Thumb is an exploration into DNA, the double-helix of life itself. The following blinks chronicle the scientific discoveries that led us to understand DNA and the major role it’s played in the emergence of life on earth.
Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.
Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.
Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll
Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.
Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.
Hol dir mit Blinkist die besten Erkenntnisse aus mehr als 7.000 Sachbüchern und Podcasts. In 15 Minuten lesen oder anhören!
Jetzt kostenlos testen
Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
