
Genetic Twists of Fate
MIT Press
Published on 24. September 2010
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-262-01470-0 (ISBN)
Description
How tiny variations in our personal DNA can determine how we look, how we behave, how we get sick, and how we get well.News stories report almost daily on the remarkable progress scientists are making in unraveling the genetic basis of disease and behavior. Meanwhile, new technologies are rapidly reducing the cost of reading someone's personal DNA (all six billion letters of it). Within the next ten years, hospitals may present parents with their newborn's complete DNA code along with her footprints and APGAR score. In Genetic Twists of Fate, distinguished geneticists Stanley Fields and Mark Johnston help us make sense of the genetic revolution that is upon us.Fields and Johnston tell real life stories that hinge on the inheritance of one tiny change rather than another in an individual's DNA: a mother wrongly accused of poisoning her young son when the true killer was a genetic disorder; the screen siren who could no longer remember her lines because of Alzheimer's disease; and the president who was treated with rat poison to prevent another heart attack. In an engaging and accessible style, Fields and Johnston explain what our personal DNA code is, how a few differences in its long list of DNA letters makes each of us unique, and how that code influences our appearance, our behavior, and our risk for such common diseases as diabetes or cancer.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
42 s/w Abbildungen
42 b&w illus.; 84 Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-01470-0 (9780262014700)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Stanley Fields | Mark Johnston
Genetic Twists of Fate
Book
02/2013
MIT Press
€27.40
Article exhausted; check different version

Stanley Fields | Mark Johnston
Genetic Twists of Fate
E-Book
09/2010
MIT Press
€29.49
Available for download
Persons
Mark Johnston is Professor and Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Genetics.
Author
Professor of Genome Sciences and of MedicineUniversity of Washington
Professor and ChairPrinceton University