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Writer's pictureNishant Mittal

10th book of 2019: She has her mother's laugh by Carl Zimmer

I felt I was done with reading for a while and thought it'd be great to invest time in other things, unless something really important or interesting fell my way. I don't know how I stumbled upon this book, but I somehow liked its title a lot. "She has her mother's laugh" is such a beautiful line, right?


This book is basically a not-so-brief history of heredity - which is partly the reason why some people are smart, good looking, kind, and/or total assholes. Countless people throughout the ages have tried to study heredity with the core question being:


How much of ourselves do we owe to heredity? And what can be done about it?


This quest is the reason why horticulturalists could develop better fruits/vegetables and Nazis, better humans (Ha ha). Like all pursuits, history of heredity is sprinkled with episodes of individual passion and genius which is inspiring despite its idiosyncrasies.


Heredity has a terribly interesting future, but will it itself become obsolete? Who knows! With Gene editing becoming possible, humans are trying to outsmart this terrific dance of DNA to make babies with chosen characteristics. But how far into future is that? Let's wait and watch.


Average read.




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