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Posted: June 30, 2000 Book Reviews
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As
befits a former science writer for The Economist, Matt Ridley,
with consummate literary skill, leads the reader through 23 chapters (get
it? 23 haploid chromosomes!) distantly, if at all, related to the Human
Genome. Much of the discussion gravitates into the Nature versus Nurture
dichotomy, with frequent tangents into Evolutionary Biology. (It will
not, unfortunately, be read in Kansas elementary schools.) On page 154
he reaches the jolting conclusion that "The Human Genome Project is founded
upon a fallacy. There is no such thing as 'the human genome'. Neither
in space nor in time can such a definite object be defined." One can hardly
argue that the Genome is a constant, since it quite obviously changes
with each generation. His cited references are eclectic and cover a vast,
but at times disjointed biological landscape. He acknowledges that ignorance
(of a subject) can drive science. But he fails to recognize the Mount
Everest ("because it's there") motivation for Gene Structure analysis.
My perception is that Mr. Ridley expects more out of the Genome Project
than its participants promise or even suggest. I am aware of no one who,
in toto, predicts close genetic insights into speciation, fate, intelligence,
instinct, conflict, self-interest, stress, personality, immortality, sex,
memory, politics, death, prevention, politics, eugenics, and free will,
the subtitles of many of Ridley's chapters. Not that these are not, in
themselves, very interesting topics for discussion—they are in fact
absolutely fascinating in their own right. But the linkages to genes and
gene structural analyses are tenuous. Several of the chapters are, in
fact, spell-binding. I was totally absorbed by his discussion of the origins
and substance of the eugenics movement, and the horrors it has begotten,
both in the United States and abroad, and why it never took hold in Britain.
Ridley's description of prion diseases like scrapie, kuru, and bovine
spongioform encephalopathy is riveting and, in Britain, most timely.
His recurring mantra is: "Genes are not there to cause disease".
But who would/could claim such, even though the target of localizing disease-causing
genes constituted a large part of the motivation which prompted the undertaking
of the Human Genome Project? He carefully, but tentatively, delves into
Gene Therapy, if there is such a nascent entity in the brave new world
we now inhabit.
I would much rather sit and chat with Matt Ridley about his ideas, than
try to follow his complex reasoning in written form. I have no doubt that
this book is amply provocative to encourage gene researchers to re-evaluate
their motives, if there existed any cogent suggestion that their motivation
is to be questioned, though I suppose such is always to be expected.
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Ridley, Matt. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. HarperCollins, 2000.
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