- Published: 29 August 2013
- ISBN: 9780141972527
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 256
The Compatibility Gene
- Published: 29 August 2013
- ISBN: 9780141972527
- Imprint: Penguin eBooks
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 256
Who am I? What makes me different from everyone else? Daniel Davis recounts the remarkable science that has answered one version of these questions. He makes immunology as fascinating to popular science readers as cosmology, consciousness, and evolution
Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and the author of 'How the Mind Works' and 'The Better Angels of Our Nature'
There aren't many stories of scientific endeavour that have never been told. This is one of them. Ostensibly about a set of genes that we all have and need, this book is really about the men and women who discovered them and worked out what they do. It's about brilliant insights and lucky guesses; the glory of being proved right and the paralysing fear of getting it wrong; the passion for cures and the lust for Nobels. It's a search for the essence of scientific greatness by a scientist who is headed that way himself
Armand Marie Leroi, author of 'Mutants'
Genes help make us what we are, but in the often overstated claims of what DNA can actually say one crucial section of the double helix has largely been ignored. This book fills that gap. The genes behind our system of diversity code for the clues that control tissue transplants, responses to infection and even sexual success. They are complex indeed but the Compatibility Gene cuts through the complexity to reveal the startling truth about perhaps the most important section of the molecule that defines what it means to be human
Steve Jones, author of 'Almost Like A Whale'
Davis weaves a warm biographical thread through his tale of scientific discovery, revealing the drive and passion of those in the vanguard of research ... unusual results, astonishing implications and ethical dilemmas
The Times
Davis makes the twists and turns all count
Guardian
Davis ranges energetically through the research. Cultural references and anecdotes abound
Nature
A fascinating, expertly told story
Michael Brooks, New Statesman
The genes that make you a true individual ... Davis provides a well-written and easy-to-read account of the sometimes complicated biology behind the crucial genes that affect our lives so profoundly
New Scientist
Wonderful pen-portraits of the many scientists involved in this fast-moving field ... 5 out of 5 stars
Henry Gee, BBC Focus magazine
Dr. Davis's readable and informative book takes the reader into unexpectedly interesting corners of both the immune system and the lives of immunologists. It is packed with an insider's knowledge - not just of the field, but of where its bodies are buried
Nicholas Wade, New York Times
An elegantly written, unexpectedly gripping account of how scientists painstakingly unravelled the way in which a small group of genes ... crucially influence, and unexpectedly interconnect, various aspects of our lives... Lab work has rarely been made to seem more interesting or heroic
Bill Bryson, Guardian, Books of the Year 2013