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The Epigenetics Revolution

How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance

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The Epigenetics Revolution

By: Nessa Carey
Narrated by: Donna Postel
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Nessa Carey’s THE EPIGENETICS REVOLUTION looks at how modern biology is rewriting our understanding of genetics, disease and inheritance.

At the beginning of this century, enormous progress had been made in genetics. The Human Genome Project finished sequencing human DNA. It seemed it was only a matter of time until we had all the answers to the secrets of life on this planet. The cutting-edge of biology, however, is telling us we still don't even know all the questions. The Epigenetics Revolution traces the thrilling path that epigenetics has taken over the last twenty years. Biologist Nessa Carey deftly explains such diverse phenomena as how queen bees control their colonies, why tortoiseshell cats are always female and why we age, develop disease and become addicted to drugs. Most excitingly, Carey reveals the amazing possibilities for humankind that epigenetics offers for us all.

“A book that would have had Darwin swooning - anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this.” GUARDIAN Biological Sciences Biotechnology Evolution & Genetics Genetics Physical Illness & Disease Science Genetic Disease
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After 6 hours of listening, I am thoroughly impressed by the way the author is able to articulate the biochemical mechanisms.
Though a little lengthy, it it’s a great resource for anyone who wants to know more about the relationship between inheritance, environment, and disease 🤔

Very Technical

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I nearly gave up about half way through this, as I was cooking dinner and listening to stuff like: DNA methylation is catalyzed by a family of DNA methyltransferases (Dnmts) that transfer a methyl group from S-adenyl methionine (SAM) to the fifth carbon of a cytosine residue to form 5mC. Dnmt3a and Dnmt3b can establish a new methylation pattern to unmodified DNA…. (I note, this section isn''t actually from the book, I got it from Wikipedia, but it's full of this kind of stuff.) Epigenetics is a fascinating topic and I expected this to be a high-level overview for the general, educated reader. Oh no! There's the occasional interesting paragraph but long tracts of this are indigestible biochemistry: Fine if you're a specialist, but is a specialist really going to listen to an audio book? Plus, if it's for specialists, why does the author feel she has to explain basics, like what the frontal cortex is, which she does all the time? So who's she writing for? It's as if she started off trying to write an ideas book - the intro is quite engaging - but then got bogged down in detailed scientific accounts of how it all works. We don't need this! It's like writing a book about a journey to France by describing what's happening under the bonnet of the car! Plus, the narrator (I felt pretty sorry for her) reads this as she's reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' to a group of four year olds, and while she gets points for trying, her 'wow! Wasn't that exciting!" style is completely at odds with the often blindingly dull descriptions of strings of chemicals. Yes, the subject can be specialised, but if this was meant for the lay person, then it should have focused on the big ideas and themes, and generalised the chemistry, including only what was needed to make the point. The only interesting part was the introduction, but it trailed ideas that were never really picked up or got lost in the detail. This book needed a ruthless editor - or to be rewritten as two books - a short, high-level ideas book, and whatever the one with all the long, long alphabet spaghetti sections was meant to be. Sigh. Well, the dinner was good, anyway..

Who's the reader???

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The content of this books is very interesting. The trouble is all the abbreviations. It became hard to follow when all the abbreviations were used together. It might be easier if you were reading the book but as an audiobook it was quick difficult

Good but lots of abbreviations

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I like the streaming of information.I liked nearly every thing there is nothing really to dislike

Explanation of definitions

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As a layperson I found this audio book interesting but heavy going at times. Enjoyed the historical outline which also informed the bases for research. Has provided me much food for thought.

A Fascinating Subject

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