The most recommended genetics books

Shapiro’s title is a bait-and-switch. She immediately makes clear in big block letters: "WE CAN’T CLONE A MAMMOTH!" It’s impossible. So what is she doing? Well, we can genetically rejigger Asian elephants to resemble woolly mammoths, and that could be useful. Erzats mammoths might help restore the Siberian tundra, and bioengineered, cold-adapted elephants could expand their range north, which would help them survive climate change. Shapiro has little patience for romantic visions of restoring extinct species, but she makes a compelling—and reassuring—case for how we can use bioengineering to save endangered species while they still exist.

Adriane Raine has been studying the brains of convicted murderers for decades and his fascinating and accessible book uses neuroscience to help explain, though not excuse, their behavior due to anomalies and injuries to their brains. Raine makes a strong case that various impairments to the brain can inhibit the ability to put the brakes on impulsive, antisocial, and harmful behavior.

This is one of those books that you have to read either alone or among tolerant friends, because every few pages you’ll be moved to read some bit of it aloud to everyone around you. Alondra Nelson is a brilliant sociologist of science and technology, and this book tells the story of how genetic science and racial politics intersect, sometimes in surprising ways. I love how this book intertwines cultural and political history with clear-eyed analysis of genomics, genealogy, and the life sciences—it’s a great example of how to write about the human stakes of scientific research and innovation.

I love Michael Connelly’s crime thrillers featuring Harry Bosch and legal thrillers centering on Mickey Haller, but let’s not forget his thrillers focusing on journalist Jack McEvoy, especially this third one.

What gripped me so much while reading this story is how the villain knows more about the protagonist than the other way around, along with the horrifying consequences of genetic information getting into the wrong hands. Combine that with not knowing yet who the villain is, and you have a thriller that is no doubt heart-pounding.

From this book, I learned about a most tragic figure in twentieth-century science and a ruthless political system willing to annihilate its best resources to isolate itself from even the slightest Western democratic influence.

I find it improbable how scientists in the early development of the Stalin regime believed in the power of truth and were willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. I find it sadly relevant how many scientists were willing to close their eyes on injustice or become accomplices.

British author, broadcaster and zoologist Matthew Cobb has written several books about the history of DNA research.

As Gods (the book’s original UK title is The Genetic Age) is a fast-paced analysis of “the thrilling and terrifying” 50-year history of genetic engineering and the rise of the biotechnology complex. But Cobb also asks tough questions regarding our propensity to meddle with nature, including the 2018 CRISPR babies scandal, reaching the unsettling conclusion that “dreams and nightmares must go hand in hand”.

Somewhat paradoxically, this treatise against genetic enhancement starts with the case of a deaf couple who want to have a deaf child.

This is a case I often discuss in exploring the difference between disease, disability, and diversity. Following on from this case description, Sandel asks, “Is it wrong to make a child deaf by design?” And what if the desired trait was not deafness but height, athletic prowess, health, or intelligence, and the aim was to gain a competitive advantage?

Would your answer be the same? In the pages that follow, Sandel builds a case against “reengineering our nature” grounded in an ethic of giftedness (i.e., a reverence for life as a gift).

He eschews the drive to mastery and insists that “[t]o appreciate children as gifts is to accept them as they come, not as objects of our design, or products of our will, or instruments of our… show more.

I pulled this book out not really expecting much, I had read so many zombie stories that they were all starting to blend together at this point. So I was pleasantly surprised to read a new take, a group of terrorists threatening to use a bioweapon to create a race of zombies. This had very few dead spots, plenty of human/human and human/zombie action to keep me interested while still showing humanity and the conflict of morals when you need to take a life. 

A wonderful saga of a cutting-edge research team’s quest to understand and even cure cancer, told with drama, wit and a poetic style.

This was one of the pioneering books that turned science writing into a truly literary pursuit, and the act of reading them into a pleasure like reading a novel.

This book has only just come out, and I couldn’t resist gobbling it up when I saw the similarities between it and my own The Unadjusteds. Green Rising adds the focus of environmental concerns, and what might happen in the future when people develop unique abilities that can harness nature and plants. This book combines my passions for the environment and mental health, with James’ fabulous style and voice. Based in a near future, some of the circumstances cut close to the bone and make me wonder what our future may hold.