We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Follow the author

Carl Zimmer

Follow

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity Hardcover – 29 May 2018

by Carl Zimmer (Author)

839

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$45.04","priceAmount":45.04,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"45","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"04","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"cESbv7gCX02XYUcx6AQR%2Br8s%2FbIADw6igmfhQR8N3r5F7bpLaD2dWh5woavaDTgxacnFV2IIlCQIt%2FYjN%2FYBzn1Pmwxhsh1neymUEK0xG733%2B%2FhRn1R5q2NukY6%2BPI9pY46k3V0pLPgeNCMoki5c0FPCE8bsAfAbbrMSd2xWWGxnptsTNHcyj5UldcJvFmns","locale":"en-AU","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist
"Science book of the year"—The Guardian
One of New York Times 100 Notable Books for 2018
One of Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Books of 2018
One of Kirkus's Best Books of 2018
One of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018
One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018
“Extraordinary”—New York Times Book Review
"Magisterial"—The Atlantic
"Engrossing"—Wired
"Leading contender as the most outstanding nonfiction work of the year"—Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Celebrated New York Times columnist and science writer Carl Zimmer presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. As the technology for studying genes became cheaper, millions of people ordered genetic tests to link themselves to missing parents, to distant ancestors, to ethnic identities...

But, Zimmer writes, “Each of us carries an amalgam of fragments of DNA, stitched together from some of our many ancestors. Each piece has its own ancestry, traveling a different path back through human history. A particular fragment may sometimes be cause for worry, but most of our DNA influences who we are—our appearance, our height, our penchants—in inconceivably subtle ways.” Heredity isn’t just about genes that pass from parent to child. Heredity continues within our own bodies, as a single cell gives rise to trillions of cells that make up our bodies. We say we inherit genes from our ancestors—using a word that once referred to kingdoms and estates—but we inherit other things that matter as much or more to our lives, from microbes to technologies we use to make life more comfortable. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer’s lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.

Weaving historical and current scientific research, his own experience with his two daughters, and the kind of original reporting expected of one of the world’s best science journalists, Zimmer ultimately unpacks urgent bioethical quandaries arising from new biomedical technologies, but also long-standing presumptions about who we really are and what we can pass on to future generations.

Report an issue with this product

ISBN-10

1101984597
ISBN-13

978-1101984598
Publisher

Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date

29 May 2018
Language

English
Dimensions

15.88 x 4.45 x 24.13 cm
Print length

672 pages
See all details

Frequently bought together

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

$45.04

Get it 9 - 17 Apr

Only 2 left in stock.

Ships from and sold by Amazon US.

+

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human

$49.60

Only 2 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon AU.

+

$36.00

Get it 9 - 16 May

Usually dispatched within 6 to 7 days

Ships from and sold by Retail Maharaj.

Total Price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items dispatch sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Ed Yong
3,663
Paperback
17 offers from $17.70
Carl Zimmer
226
Paperback
16 offers from $19.21
Carl Zimmer
659
Paperback
11 offers from $22.99
Siddhartha Mukherjee
6,961
Paperback
13 offers from $19.25
Siddhartha Mukherjee
2,540
Paperback
8 offers from $30.45
Carl Zimmer
187
Paperback
13 offers from $30.91

From the Publisher

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Publishing Group (29 May 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 672 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1101984597
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1101984598
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.88 x 4.45 x 24.13 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 444,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 365 in Biology Textbooks
- 678 in Genetics (Books)
- 3,191 in Biology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
839

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Carl Zimmer

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Carl Zimmer is the author of fourteen books about science. His latest book is Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive.

Zimmer’s column Matter appears each week in the New York Times. His writing has earned a number of awards, including the Stephen Jay Gould Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Evolution. His previous book, She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, won the 2019 National Academies Communication Award. The Guardian named it the best science book of 2018.

Zimmer is a familiar voice on radio programs such as Radiolab and is professor adjunct at Yale University. He is, to his knowledge, the only writer after whom both a species of tapeworm and an asteroid have been named.

Review this product

Write a customer review

Sort reviews by

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Ralph Monley

Heredity: Way more complex than we knew

Reviewed in Australia on 4 September 2018

Verified Purchase

In the first half, this was a great review of the history of heredity at both a scientific and social level. But in the second half the thing that blew me away was all the more recent discoveries - things like epigenetics, mosaics and the gene editing technology of CRISPR. All these terms are both explained and explored to produce a much more complex and nuanced understanding of how we come to be who we are and the thrilling but potentially dangerous pathways to the future for our species, as well as all the plants and animals with whom we share our planet.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

kat6999

Wow. A stunner

Reviewed in the United States on 1 September 2023

Verified Purchase

Carl Zimmer has produced a masterpiece. From early animal breeding practices, to Mendel, to eugenics and way beyond - he discusses gene inheritance, social experiments, DNA & RNA, mosaics and chimera, mutations and epigenetic inheritance, crispr/gene editing, somatic and germ cell lines, to name a few topics. He deftly entwines his research into his own heredity into the narrative. The historical contexts of many of the theories, beliefs and experiments he describes is also carefully laid out. Would recommend sections for a high school or undergrad honors biology class, or anyone wanting to swim in the "gene ocean". I am in awe of his meticulous and broad research on the topic and his ability to present the information in a readable and engrossing manner. I have enjoyed and learned from a number of his other books, but this one has pride of place on my bookshelf.

6 people found this helpful

Ivanhoe

Gran libro de divulgación científica

Reviewed in Mexico on 9 February 2023

Verified Purchase

Este libro es para las perdonas curiosas acerca del por que somos como somos. Aunque habla con términos de biología qué tal vez para muchos sean nuevos, los explica con tal suavidad y a través de alegorias y ejemplos sencillos qué no es nada complicado seguir el ritmo de lectura.
Otra cosa que me pareció genial, es la forma en que un evento de tipo científico a nivel personal (como hacerse un mapeo genético), el autor puede darmle un sentido literario de suspenso y de expectativa.
Gran autor y aun mejor este libro.

Translate review to English

Brigitte

She has her Mother's Laugh

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2024

Verified Purchase

Only read a few chapters so far but it was well interesting.

Dominika

Ok

Reviewed in Poland on 13 February 2023

Verified Purchase

Book is good.

W. Brian Wanless

Easy read full of facts about heredity.

Reviewed in Canada on 23 November 2019

Verified Purchase

Fascinating book with lots of insights about genetics and heredity. Perfect for someone like me who is not a scientist.

See more reviews

Buy new:

$45.04

Amazon Global Store

Image Unavailable

Follow the author

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity Hardcover – 29 May 2018

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

From the Publisher

Product details

About the author

Carl Zimmer

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new: $45.04

Amazon Global Store

Follow the author

She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity Hardcover – 29 May 2018

Purchase options and add-ons

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

From the Publisher

Product details

About the author

Carl Zimmer

Customer reviews

Review this product

Top review from Australia

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$45.04