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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 155.7
EAN num: 9780521640640
ISBN number: 0521640644
Label: Cambridge University Press
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 341
Printing Date: October 15, 2000
Publishing house: Cambridge University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 596459
Studio: Cambridge University Press
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Product Description:
What makes us react or feel the way we do? If you have ever asked yourself this question, then let gifted writer John Medina take you on a fascinating tour of the questions involved in the quest to understand the biological basis of human behavior. By describing the gap that exists between a human behavior and a human gene, this captivating book both clarifies and debunks ideas about the genetic roots of behavior, from the genes of divorce to the tendency to eat chocolate. Using Dante's The Divine Comedy as an organizing framework, The Genetic Inferno explains each of the 'seven deadly sins'--lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride--in terms of twentieth century genes and brains. Written by a practicing research scientist, this book is not only for biologists, but for literature majors, business people, and parents--indeed anyone interested in how our genes work to make us behave the way we do.
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Rated by buyers 
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I gave this book four stars since sometimes it was a little tedious to read. However, the conception of the book is original, and the author anecdotes are well placed and very famlilar. He makes you feel as if you are really getting to know him. I liked his style and his original view, although personally I don't like Dante that much. This is a very good book for the layman, and might not be that interesting for someone with fair background in neurosciences.
Rated by buyers 
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John Medina is a molecular biologist, bioengineer, and award winning teacher with a talent for metaphor and an unusual flair for explaining extremely technical ideas in understandable terms without losing the meaning in the details. His writing is clear and precise, his organization and diagrams are inspired.
"The Genetic Inferno: Inside The Seven Deadly Sins" is a new release from Medina for November, describing using the metaphors of Dante's books what is known about the molecular machinery underlying the human experience. While it becomes awkward in parts, it works magnificently through most of the book, transporting the reader back and forth between purgatory and the mundane vices and virtues of everyday life, all tied together by those tiny invisible molecular processes most of us never even think twice about.
The Genetic Inferno compares to Matt Ridley's "Genome" in that they are both about the genetics of human nature, but they approach it in very different ways. "Inferno" spends much more time elaborating clearly what is known about mechanisms lying between gene and behavior, while "Genome" samples particular genes and often speculates on their relevance to human life. Medina has a minimum of the kind of interesting digressions that make Genome so fascinating, but makes complex biochemistry and behavioral genetics highly accessible and puts them into good perspective.
One of the most interesting things about this book is that in spite of its heavy emphasis on the biological basis of human life, it mostly avoids reliance on evolutionary theory in order to emphasize the molecular mechanisms themselves and their relationship to behavior and experience. Yet it isn't an "anti-evolution" book, so much as it is one that explains human genes and behavior in a way that avoids evolution in favor of its strong metaphor and clear explanations for genes and behavior.
With great artistry, Medina accomplishes the difficult feat of at once making clear the gap between genes and behavior and making us aware that we are physical, chemical entities rather than puffs of spirit residing in a physical shell. At the same time, he makes the reader aware of the of how complex and wondrous the whole process is and how little we can claim to understand with certainty about its underlying higher order principles. He ends the book with:
"When one encounters a mysterious masterpiece filled with unknown but thrilling complexities, one is not left with the answer, one is simply left with a point of view."
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