In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA by James Schwartz

From the Publisher

The mystery of inheritance has captivated thinkers since antiquity, and the unlocking of this mystery—the development of classical genetics—is one of humanity’s greatest achievements. This great scientific and human drama is the story told fully and for the first time in this book.

Acclaimed science writer James Schwartz presents the history of genetics through the eyes of a dozen or so central players, beginning with Charles Darwin and ending with Nobel laureate Hermann J. Muller. In tracing the emerging idea of the gene, Schwartz deconstructs many often-told stories that were meant to reflect glory on the participants and finds that the “official” version of discovery often hides a far more complex and illuminating narrative. The discovery of the structure of DNA and the more recent advances in genome science represent the culmination of one hundred years of concentrated inquiry into the nature of the gene. Schwartz’s multifaceted training as a mathematician, geneticist, and writer enables him to provide a remarkably lucid account of the development of the central ideas about heredity, and at the same time bring to life the brilliant and often eccentric individuals who shaped these ideas.

In the spirit of the late Stephen Jay Gould, this book offers a thoroughly engaging story about one of the oldest and most controversial fields of scientific inquiry. It offers readers the background they need to understand the latest findings in genetics and those still to come in the search for the genetic basis of complex diseases and traits.

Publishers Weekly

Understanding the nature of genetic inheritance was essential for evolution to be accepted as the dominant paradigm in biology. In a masterful work, science writer Schwartz looks at the science and the personalities behind that understanding, ranging from Darwin's belief in pangenesis to explain the inheritance of physical variations to Hermann Muller's Nobel Prize-winning work on X-rays and genetic mutation. Although he discusses the contributions of such luminaries as Francis Galton, William Bateson, Gregor Mendel, Hugo de Vries and Thomas Hunt Morgan, Schwartz provides far more than character sketches. In a thoroughly accessible manner, he offers insight into the critical experiments each undertook and allows readers to share the excitement of discovery. He also does a fabulous job of demonstrating the social nature of science, showing how competition often leads to unseemly actions and how the unwillingness to part with a favorite theory leads to an idiosyncratic interpretation of data. Schwartz illustrates how, despite all of this, science continues to make progress and our understanding of the world continues to grow. Although the history of genetics has been covered many times before, Schwartz brings unbridled energy, strong writing and a fresh perspective. 42 b&w illus. (Apr.)

Kirkus Reviews

A scholarly history of genetics. Science writer Schwartz first focuses on the early days, beginning with Darwin's "pangenesis" theory, whereby physical particles in the bloodstream were thought to embody hereditable traits. The author then proceeds to Darwin's half first cousin Francis Galton, who dismissed pangenesis, espousing eugenics as the way to improve the human race through selective breeding. Galton's contributions to statistics also led him to believe that evolution could not proceed gradually, but required "sports"-mutations to alter hereditary factors. In turn, Galton's disciples would champion mutational theory, opposing the rules of inheritance developed by Mendel and rediscovered by the turn of the 20th century. Schwartz's sketches of the lives of Mendel, of his rediscoverer William Bateson and of Mendelism critics Hugo De Vries and Bateson's once-best friend W.F.R. Weldon are gems of melodrama framing the complex breeding experiments each side conducted. But the drama really heats up when the focus changes from Europe to America and the celebrated studies of fruit flies in the Columbia laboratory of T.H. Morgan, who emerges as vain, quixotic, stubborn and quick to take all the credit, all the while inspiring students. Out of the fly group would emerge Hermann Muller, whose flashes of insight, ingenious crossing experiments and use of X-rays to induce mutations would resolve many results that seemed to challenge Mendel's laws, and in the end demonstrate their validity. Muller's extremes of behavior-he embraced both communism and eugenics-have clouded his reputation, but the biographical details Schwartz provides are restorative. They point to a brilliance and presciencethat merited Muller's Nobel Prize in 1946, as well as to an emotional life and idealism that led to an almost successful suicide. Schwartz concludes with an epilogue that brings genetics research up to date. Occasionally dense, but the rewards in viewing science as a passionate pursuit that self-corrects over time make this book worth sticking with.

What People Are Saying

Elof Carlson
In Pursuit of the Gene is magnificent and captivating in its use of largely unpublished correspondence to reveal scientists as human beings with feelings, intrigue and emotions riding high. --(Elof Carlson, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook University)

David Altshuler
In Pursuit of the Gene is a wonderful book, and arrives at just the right time. With genetic discoveries being made on a daily basis, Schwartz's book deserves a wide readership and attention.
--(David Altshuler, Director, Broad Institute's Program in Medical and Population Genetics)

Ruth Schwartz
In Pursuit of the Gene is far better than anything now in print for the generalist reader.Schwartz knows the literature on the history of genetics well and he is good at explaining what can sometimes be very abstruse scientific arguments clearly. Even the statistical sections are crystal clear. All of this is conveyed to the specialist reader with a light touch—while at the same time managing not to overwhelm the generalist reader.


--(Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Janice and Julian Bers Professor, University of Pennsylvania)

Matthew Meselson
Through his careful reading of original sources, many previously ignored or unknown, biologist-mathematician-science writer James Schwartz has produced a superb history of the gene and the chromosomes -- from Darwin, Galton, Mendel and the early cell-biologists up to the discovery of the DNA double helix.


--(Matthew Meselson, Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, Harvard University)

In Pursuit of the Gene is far better than anything now in print for the generalist reader.Schwartz knows the literature on the history of genetics well and he is good at explaining what can sometimes be very abstruse scientific arguments clearly. Even the statistical sections are crystal clear. All of this is conveyed to the specialist reader with a light touch—while at the same time managing not to overwhelm the generalist reader.

Adam Hochschild
This is science for the intelligent general reader as it ought to be written and seldom is: where the scientists are flesh and blood human beings who struggle, fail, compete, rejoice, despair, go down wrong paths and finally stumble, in stages, upon a radically new way of seeing the natural world. A fascinating and readable odyssey that ranges from Texas to Holland to Stalin's prisons and reminds us how hard-won scientific knowledge is. --(Adam Hochschild. author of Bury the Chains and King Leopold's Ghost)

Janet Browne
In this sparkling and timely book James Schwartz reveals the remarkable history of the gene from its nineteenth-century origins as an entirely imaginary concept to the modern belief that life itself rests in these awe-inspiring combinations of molecules. Accurate, lively, and packed full with incident, this book is a triumph of science writing. --(Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place)

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