The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, language, and music, as told by our own DNA. In The Disappearing Spoon, bestselling author Sam Kean unlocked the mysteries of the periodic table. In The Violinist's Thumb, he explores the wonders of the magical building block of life: DNA. There are genes to explain crazy cat ladies, why other people have no fingerprints, and why some people survive nuclear bombs. Genes illuminate everything from JFK's bronze skin (it wasn't a tan) to Einstein's genius. They prove that Neanderthals and humans bred thousands of years more recently than any of us would feel comfortable thinking. They can even allow some people, because of the exceptional flexibility of their thumbs and fingers, to become truly singular violinists. Kean's vibrant storytelling once again makes science entertaining, explaining human history and whimsy while showing how DNA will influence our species' future.
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Community Reviews
PART I
A, C, G, T, AND YOU: HOW TO READ A GENETIC SCORE
1. Genes, Freaks, DNA: How Do Living Things Pass Down Traits to Their Children?
7/10
The intro is dry, weird, and creepy. Didn't like it. Chapter 1 is fine. reminds me of Moral Animal, but maybe less deep and more character focused. About Gregor Mendel and Friedrich Miescher. Both are interesting men, but the chapter feels short and lacks deeper science insight. Curious stories.
[bc:The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology|681941|The Moral Animal Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology|Robert Wright|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430864612l/681941._SY75_.jpg|668334]
2. The Near Death of Darwin: Why Did Geneticists Try to Kill Natural Selection?
7/10
Fruit fly experiments in USA by a team who later individually won some Nobel Prizes. Fun writing for sure. This is stuff I didn't know much about and I liked the historical experiments. It's hard to really understand why it's so important. Seems like they just did simple observations? So what did they actually uncover and discover? I guess they were some of the first to do such studies. But this all seems very simple so I'm not sure what the big deal is.
3. Them’s the DNA Breaks: How Does Nature Read—and Misread—DNA?
7/10
A small story about a man who experienced both the atomic bombings in Japan. Then some points about how radioactivity destroys cells and how there was absolutely no negative genetic outcome from the atomic bombs which is quite curious.
4. The Musical Score of DNA: What Kinds of Information Does DNA Store?
6,5/10
A more complicated chapter as it is about DNA itself. Quite complicated ideas that are hard to fully figure out from an audiobook alone. It's still good writing, but I'm not sure how much I can remember from this. If I had a visual guide to go along with it then it would be stronger.
PART II
OUR ANIMAL PAST: MAKING THINGS THAT CRAWL AND FROLIC AND KILL
5. DNA Vindication: Why Did Life Evolve So Slowly—Then Explode in Complexity?
6/10
Largely about 2 weird women, Sister Miriam Michael Stimson and Barbara McClintock. It's mostly about how wrong McClintock was about most of her claims. But some claims were correct and she later won a Nobel Prize. Largely it shows how right James Watson and Francis Crick were. He is also a bit too creative in his explanations about personal conflicts here where a weird personality is made into some battle against the crude world. The actual reason for these conflicts is simple: she steals ideas from other researchers and publishes them as her own. There is no battle with a lone vulnerable woman here. She's clearly an arrogant ass and people just dislike her.
6. The Survivors, the Livers: What’s Our Most Ancient and Important DNA?
6,5/10
About groups stuck in the Arctic eating bear livers and getting ill because of Vitamin A poisoning. A bit messy chapter that jumps from group to group. And the main Holland group is not getting a full story. It's also interrupted with science about DNA I don't fully get. Or rather can't fully visualize.
7. The Machiavelli Microbe: How Much Human DNA Is Actually Human?
6,5/10
How foreign bacteria or parasites interact with animals to make them act a certain way or change overall DNA. Rats made to seek out cats explained via a story about a couple who kept 600+ cats even though their cats weren't sick. The couple is a crazy guy who strangled a stripper on a roof and his wife. As you can see it just jumps from story to some semi-relevant science and then jumps back again.
Also parts about Human DNA having foreign virus genes. Then a story about cancer in chickens being caused by virus.
Quite fine. A bit too much for me at times with all those too specific details about parasites and sickness. Still maybe the most scientifically relevant chapter so far.
8. Love and Atavisms: What Genes Make Mammals Mammals?
6/10
About cancer spreading from moms to fetus'. Bit vague. He never quite explains what is true or not in these stories. It can be true.
9. Humanzees and Other Near Misses: When Did Humans Break Away from Monkeys, and Why
7/10
Very basic stuff about chimpanzee and human genes and a single Soviet researcher trying to inseminate women with chimpanzee sperm. It jumps from point to point still, but it's not as bad. And I learned about chromosomes.
PART III
GENES AND GENIUSES: HOW HUMANS BECAME ALL TOO HUMAN
10. Scarlet A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s: Why Did Humans Almost Go Extinct?
7/10
Super basics stuff about human evolution and Neanderthals.
11. Size Matters: How Did Humans Get Such Grotesquely Large Brains?
6,5/10
Brain size. Largely focused on Einstein's brain and it's hard to really understand what the main scientific points are.
12. The Art of the Gene: How Deep in Our DNA Is Artistic Genius?
7/10
A bit about James Watson and Francis Crick and how they described DNA. Complicated.
The violinist Niccolò Paganini and his weird frail bendy body that made him the greatest violinist ever. The painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was an inbred midget with various physical illnesses and died young. The Spanish Hapsburg king, the pitiful Charles II.
With this mix of overly simplified stories and deep science I don't feel like I quite understand how inbreeding works. It's either too irrelevant to the science or way too complicated. Nothing in-between.
PART IV:
THE ORACLE OF DNA: GENETICS IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
13. The Past Is Prologue—Sometimes: What Can (and Can’t) Genes Teach Us About Historical Heroes?
6,5/10
More historical figures and their sicknesses. Some are heritable. Lincoln, Darwin, JFK, Tut.
14. Three Billion Little Pieces: Why Don’t Humans Have More Genes Than Other Species?
7,5/10
Human chromosome sequencing focused on the drama of private companies finding genes and then applying for patents right away before even uncovering what the genes do. James Watson and Craig Venter worked for these companies, but both fought against these parent goals and were pushed out. This was at the very early days of sequencing right before we sequenced all of the human genome.
I relistened to the chapter as I'm a huge fan of James Watson and felt I didn't quite understand the story here. But even the second time around I felt like I didn't quite get it. It's not me. I even read in the text book and even there I didn't get some main story points. The book can be a tad too focused on clever spins and stories and forget to inform about the basics.
15. Easy Come, Easy Go? How Come Identical Twins Aren’t Identical?
7/10
Epigenetics. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck just wrote weird claims without showing any of it was real.
Paul Kammerer was a later larmarchian who went against proper evolutionary theories. But it was found that he injected a salamander with ink to fake the research. Or someone else did in his lab, but he had faked data before so it's likely him.
The author claims that epigenetics is a new and groundbreaking research area. But since the book was written the field has met with some extreme critique. So the chapter is a bit hot and cold. He is fairly attacking the old research yet ignoring or overlooking the holes in the modern research.
16. Life as We Do (and Don’t) Know It: What the Heck Will Happen Now?
6/10
Potentially resurrecting dead species. A bit vague again.
Epilogue: Genomics Gets Personal
5/10
More personal stuff. I'm very much not a fan of these weird stories he has a need to tell about his own life. Just like many of the stories in the book that don't quite understand where to draw the line. He refuses to swear and instead uses weird creepy stories to fulfil his need for shock. I rather read a few swear words than read details about some sickness. But that's just me.
My final opinion on the book
It's hot and cold. 3,5 stars, I can't rate it that so I'll have to settle for 3 or 4. Overall it's quite fine and good enough if you listen to it on audiobook while doing other stuff. There are some interesting stories here told very well. But there are some iffy things in it too. Some creepy too personal stories for example. The author loves to explore illness, sickness, various human sufferings. It's too much. It's still fine writing, but it's not really what I prefer listening to in an audiobook.
The technical parts are quite hard to understand. I never understood DNA via writing anyhow. What is a C or A? Who knows? So that's very much on me as I'm a visual learner when the topic is biology or people. But even so the book did in fact get overly technical. And the level of technicality jumped all over the place as we moved from simple human stories to research. The human stories were detailed and emotional. The science was overly technical and too complicated.
It was largely unbiased. He didn't dare to tackle controversial topics and maybe could have been more critical of epigenetics and other out there claims. Human epigenetics was something everyone fell for a few years ago though so it's just a topic that will feature in all biology books from this point in time. Especially as it's used by blank slaters to dismiss heritability found in twin studies.
Overall it's a mix. It gets fairly okay/good in the best parts. Never fascinating, but quite well-written. It jumps from topic to topic though and as it jumps from science, biography to sickness it's at times hard to follow the stories or fully engage with ideas. A single story can be split up in 3 parts all interrupted by long technical pages. I wish the single chapters were just about full topics. Like 3 chapters only about DNA and nothing else. Then a bunch of chapters about biographies. It's a harder sell entertainment wise, but at least I could focus my attention more clearly. He refuses to focus his attention on anything.
I'm not sure I learned a whole lot from it. It's one of those books I respect because it contains so much deep technical info. But as I think back on the chapters I'm not sure I learned much at all. Many of the stories are of course stuff I already knew because it's sorta close to social science hence stories I've heard about. I'm not sure how to feel about the book. It's not bad at least. But it's certainly not among my favorites books on DNA. James D. Watson's "DNA: The Secret of Life"
is on the other hand a masterpiece. Clear and direct explaining the basics in an understandable way without pulling punches.
This book is a hit and miss. Yet I'm not sure how simple any writer can make it? There are hundreds of books on DNA out there and many others, besides Watson, surely succeeded in writing a coherent and accessible tale. But I assume they don't have all these detailed biographies in them.
[bc:DNA: The Secret of Life|540346|DNA The Secret of Life|James D. Watson|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320518632l/540346._SX50_.jpg|527731]
A, C, G, T, AND YOU: HOW TO READ A GENETIC SCORE
1. Genes, Freaks, DNA: How Do Living Things Pass Down Traits to Their Children?
7/10
The intro is dry, weird, and creepy. Didn't like it. Chapter 1 is fine. reminds me of Moral Animal, but maybe less deep and more character focused. About Gregor Mendel and Friedrich Miescher. Both are interesting men, but the chapter feels short and lacks deeper science insight. Curious stories.
[bc:The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology|681941|The Moral Animal Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology|Robert Wright|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1430864612l/681941._SY75_.jpg|668334]
2. The Near Death of Darwin: Why Did Geneticists Try to Kill Natural Selection?
7/10
Fruit fly experiments in USA by a team who later individually won some Nobel Prizes. Fun writing for sure. This is stuff I didn't know much about and I liked the historical experiments. It's hard to really understand why it's so important. Seems like they just did simple observations? So what did they actually uncover and discover? I guess they were some of the first to do such studies. But this all seems very simple so I'm not sure what the big deal is.
3. Them’s the DNA Breaks: How Does Nature Read—and Misread—DNA?
7/10
A small story about a man who experienced both the atomic bombings in Japan. Then some points about how radioactivity destroys cells and how there was absolutely no negative genetic outcome from the atomic bombs which is quite curious.
4. The Musical Score of DNA: What Kinds of Information Does DNA Store?
6,5/10
A more complicated chapter as it is about DNA itself. Quite complicated ideas that are hard to fully figure out from an audiobook alone. It's still good writing, but I'm not sure how much I can remember from this. If I had a visual guide to go along with it then it would be stronger.
PART II
OUR ANIMAL PAST: MAKING THINGS THAT CRAWL AND FROLIC AND KILL
5. DNA Vindication: Why Did Life Evolve So Slowly—Then Explode in Complexity?
6/10
Largely about 2 weird women, Sister Miriam Michael Stimson and Barbara McClintock. It's mostly about how wrong McClintock was about most of her claims. But some claims were correct and she later won a Nobel Prize. Largely it shows how right James Watson and Francis Crick were. He is also a bit too creative in his explanations about personal conflicts here where a weird personality is made into some battle against the crude world. The actual reason for these conflicts is simple: she steals ideas from other researchers and publishes them as her own. There is no battle with a lone vulnerable woman here. She's clearly an arrogant ass and people just dislike her.
6. The Survivors, the Livers: What’s Our Most Ancient and Important DNA?
6,5/10
About groups stuck in the Arctic eating bear livers and getting ill because of Vitamin A poisoning. A bit messy chapter that jumps from group to group. And the main Holland group is not getting a full story. It's also interrupted with science about DNA I don't fully get. Or rather can't fully visualize.
7. The Machiavelli Microbe: How Much Human DNA Is Actually Human?
6,5/10
How foreign bacteria or parasites interact with animals to make them act a certain way or change overall DNA. Rats made to seek out cats explained via a story about a couple who kept 600+ cats even though their cats weren't sick. The couple is a crazy guy who strangled a stripper on a roof and his wife. As you can see it just jumps from story to some semi-relevant science and then jumps back again.
Also parts about Human DNA having foreign virus genes. Then a story about cancer in chickens being caused by virus.
Quite fine. A bit too much for me at times with all those too specific details about parasites and sickness. Still maybe the most scientifically relevant chapter so far.
8. Love and Atavisms: What Genes Make Mammals Mammals?
6/10
About cancer spreading from moms to fetus'. Bit vague. He never quite explains what is true or not in these stories. It can be true.
9. Humanzees and Other Near Misses: When Did Humans Break Away from Monkeys, and Why
7/10
Very basic stuff about chimpanzee and human genes and a single Soviet researcher trying to inseminate women with chimpanzee sperm. It jumps from point to point still, but it's not as bad. And I learned about chromosomes.
PART III
GENES AND GENIUSES: HOW HUMANS BECAME ALL TOO HUMAN
10. Scarlet A’s, C’s, G’s, and T’s: Why Did Humans Almost Go Extinct?
7/10
Super basics stuff about human evolution and Neanderthals.
11. Size Matters: How Did Humans Get Such Grotesquely Large Brains?
6,5/10
Brain size. Largely focused on Einstein's brain and it's hard to really understand what the main scientific points are.
12. The Art of the Gene: How Deep in Our DNA Is Artistic Genius?
7/10
A bit about James Watson and Francis Crick and how they described DNA. Complicated.
The violinist Niccolò Paganini and his weird frail bendy body that made him the greatest violinist ever. The painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was an inbred midget with various physical illnesses and died young. The Spanish Hapsburg king, the pitiful Charles II.
With this mix of overly simplified stories and deep science I don't feel like I quite understand how inbreeding works. It's either too irrelevant to the science or way too complicated. Nothing in-between.
PART IV:
THE ORACLE OF DNA: GENETICS IN THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
13. The Past Is Prologue—Sometimes: What Can (and Can’t) Genes Teach Us About Historical Heroes?
6,5/10
More historical figures and their sicknesses. Some are heritable. Lincoln, Darwin, JFK, Tut.
14. Three Billion Little Pieces: Why Don’t Humans Have More Genes Than Other Species?
7,5/10
Human chromosome sequencing focused on the drama of private companies finding genes and then applying for patents right away before even uncovering what the genes do. James Watson and Craig Venter worked for these companies, but both fought against these parent goals and were pushed out. This was at the very early days of sequencing right before we sequenced all of the human genome.
I relistened to the chapter as I'm a huge fan of James Watson and felt I didn't quite understand the story here. But even the second time around I felt like I didn't quite get it. It's not me. I even read in the text book and even there I didn't get some main story points. The book can be a tad too focused on clever spins and stories and forget to inform about the basics.
15. Easy Come, Easy Go? How Come Identical Twins Aren’t Identical?
7/10
Epigenetics. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck just wrote weird claims without showing any of it was real.
Paul Kammerer was a later larmarchian who went against proper evolutionary theories. But it was found that he injected a salamander with ink to fake the research. Or someone else did in his lab, but he had faked data before so it's likely him.
The author claims that epigenetics is a new and groundbreaking research area. But since the book was written the field has met with some extreme critique. So the chapter is a bit hot and cold. He is fairly attacking the old research yet ignoring or overlooking the holes in the modern research.
16. Life as We Do (and Don’t) Know It: What the Heck Will Happen Now?
6/10
Potentially resurrecting dead species. A bit vague again.
Epilogue: Genomics Gets Personal
5/10
More personal stuff. I'm very much not a fan of these weird stories he has a need to tell about his own life. Just like many of the stories in the book that don't quite understand where to draw the line. He refuses to swear and instead uses weird creepy stories to fulfil his need for shock. I rather read a few swear words than read details about some sickness. But that's just me.
My final opinion on the book
It's hot and cold. 3,5 stars, I can't rate it that so I'll have to settle for 3 or 4. Overall it's quite fine and good enough if you listen to it on audiobook while doing other stuff. There are some interesting stories here told very well. But there are some iffy things in it too. Some creepy too personal stories for example. The author loves to explore illness, sickness, various human sufferings. It's too much. It's still fine writing, but it's not really what I prefer listening to in an audiobook.
The technical parts are quite hard to understand. I never understood DNA via writing anyhow. What is a C or A? Who knows? So that's very much on me as I'm a visual learner when the topic is biology or people. But even so the book did in fact get overly technical. And the level of technicality jumped all over the place as we moved from simple human stories to research. The human stories were detailed and emotional. The science was overly technical and too complicated.
It was largely unbiased. He didn't dare to tackle controversial topics and maybe could have been more critical of epigenetics and other out there claims. Human epigenetics was something everyone fell for a few years ago though so it's just a topic that will feature in all biology books from this point in time. Especially as it's used by blank slaters to dismiss heritability found in twin studies.
Overall it's a mix. It gets fairly okay/good in the best parts. Never fascinating, but quite well-written. It jumps from topic to topic though and as it jumps from science, biography to sickness it's at times hard to follow the stories or fully engage with ideas. A single story can be split up in 3 parts all interrupted by long technical pages. I wish the single chapters were just about full topics. Like 3 chapters only about DNA and nothing else. Then a bunch of chapters about biographies. It's a harder sell entertainment wise, but at least I could focus my attention more clearly. He refuses to focus his attention on anything.
I'm not sure I learned a whole lot from it. It's one of those books I respect because it contains so much deep technical info. But as I think back on the chapters I'm not sure I learned much at all. Many of the stories are of course stuff I already knew because it's sorta close to social science hence stories I've heard about. I'm not sure how to feel about the book. It's not bad at least. But it's certainly not among my favorites books on DNA. James D. Watson's "DNA: The Secret of Life"
is on the other hand a masterpiece. Clear and direct explaining the basics in an understandable way without pulling punches.
This book is a hit and miss. Yet I'm not sure how simple any writer can make it? There are hundreds of books on DNA out there and many others, besides Watson, surely succeeded in writing a coherent and accessible tale. But I assume they don't have all these detailed biographies in them.
[bc:DNA: The Secret of Life|540346|DNA The Secret of Life|James D. Watson|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320518632l/540346._SX50_.jpg|527731]
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