a mother, it has become mixed up with the abortion debate. In the United States, the "Pro-Life" lobby has succeeded in denying funds from government sources for such work. Genetics is always mixed up with politics. It has been used both to blame and to excuse human behaviour. The claim (in the end not confirmed) of a "gay gene" led to two distinct responses among the homosexual community. Some feared that the gene would be used to stigmatize them, but most welcomed the idea that their behaviour might be coded into DNA, as it meant that they could not be accused of corrupting those not already "at risk". Such opposing views apply just as much to the supposed genes that predispose to crime - are they evidence that the criminal cannot be reformed and must be locked away for ever, or should they be used in mitigation to argue that he was not acting according to his own free will? Science has no answer to such questions, and in the end the most surprising result of the new genetics may be how little it tells us about ourselves.
Further Reading
There are many excellent textbooks on genetics. One of the best is An Introduction to Genetic Analysis by Anthony Griffiths and others (Freeman, 1998). Matt Ridley's book Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (Fourth Estate, 1999) is a first-rate general introduction to the subject. Finally, for one man's view of human genetics and evolution, there are Steve Jones' own books The Language of the Genes (HarperCollins, 1993) and In the Blood (HarperCollins, 1997).
About the Author Steve Jones is Professor of Genetics at University College London. He obtained his first degree and PhD at the University of Edinburgh, and has held positions in various universities in Britain, the United States, Africa and Australia. He gave the 1991 BBC Radio Reith Lectures on "The Language of the Genes", and his book of the same title was published in 1993.
About the Illustrator Borin Van Loon has illustrated seven other titles in this series: Introducing Mathematics, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Buddha, Eastern Philosophy and Darwin and Evolution. He is a surrealist artist whose work ranges from oil paintings to a cut-out book on DNA.
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