- Home >
- Books >
- Gene Machine
Share this title
Gene Machine : The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
₹ 699.00 inclusive of all taxes
- Or from your local bookseller.
Warning: Undefined variable $productid in /var/www/html/harper_staging/wp-content/themes/harpercollins/woocommerce/content-single-product.php on line 399
Warning: Undefined variable $productid in /var/www/html/harper_staging/wp-content/themes/harpercollins/woocommerce/content-single-product.php on line 407
About the book
Everyone knows the term DNA: it is the essence of our being – it determines who we are and what we pass on to our progeny. Mention the ribosome, on the other hand, and you will usually be met with blank faces, even from scientists. And yet without the ribosome, nothing lives. For if DNA is data then the ribosome is the machine that processes that data. Unlocking the secrets of this gene-reading molecule was once among the most fundamental problems in molecular biology. Gene Machine is the thrilling story of how three scientists including Dr Ramakrishnan succeeded in decoding the ribosome, later winning the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Pages: 288
Available in:
Language: English
Venki Ramakrishnan
Venki Ramakrishnan is a structural biologist, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the structure and function of the ribosome. He was knighted in 2012, and in 2015 was elected as President of the Royal Society. He works at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
"It is [Ramakrishnan's] full embrace of the role of the antihero that makes Gene Machine so much fun to read and also serves as a reminder to us all of the beating human heart that lies at the center of every advance in science." - Wall Street Journal
"An engaging and witty memoir... This profoundly human story is written with honesty and humility... This lucid and highly readable account will be enjoyed by students in any of the sciences, by those interested in the history of science, or who love reading memoirs. But really, I think that anyone who is captivated by an absorbing story well told will find much to appreciate in this fascinating book." - Forbes
"[An] absorbing account." - Scientific American
"In Gene Machine, [Ramakrishnan] thoughtfully embeds his trajectory in a wider meditation on how scientists make the decisions that lead to success or failure--and on how they struggle to solve complex problems... anyone who wants to know how modern science really works should read it. It's all here: the ambition, jealousy and factionalism--as well as the heroic late nights, crippling anxiety and disastrous mistakes--that underlie the apparently serene and objective surface represented by the published record." - Nature
"An enchanting and invigorating work, Gene Machine casts a many-angled light on the world of science, the nature of discovery, and on one of the deepest mysteries of twentieth-century biology. Ramakrishnan, one of the key players in deciphering the molecular basis of protein translation, gives us both a rollicking scientific story and a profoundly human tale. In the tradition of The Double Helix, Gene Machine does not hesitate to highlight the process by which science advances: moving through fits and starts, often underscored by deep rivalries and contests, occasionally pitching towards error and misconception, but ultimately advancing towards profound and powerful truths. An outsider to the world of ribosome biology--an Indian immigrant, a physicist by training--Ramakrishnan retains his 'outsider's' vision throughout the text, reminding us about the corrosive nature of scientific prizes, and the intensity of competition that drives researchers (both ideas, I suspect, will have a munificent effect on our current scientific culture). Ramakrishnan's writing is so honest, lucid and engaging that I could not put this book down until I had read to the very end." - Siddhartha Mukherjee
"If someone had told me that one of the most witty and enthralling books I'd read this year would be on the quest to understand ribosomes, I believe I would have laughed in his face, but I would have been quite wrong. Gene Machine is beyond superb." - Bill Bryson
"The ribosome, a structure of astonishing complexity, 'lies at the crossroads of life' and Venki Ramakrishnan played a key role in revealing its biological mysteries. His superb account lays out the science with great lucidity, but he also grants us the human face of science--the hard work and brilliant insights, of course, but also the role of luck, of personalities, jealousy, money, the roulette of major awards, and the further rewards heaped upon the fortunate. Science, in his glorious telling, becomes 'a play, with good and bad characters.' Competition and collaboration can appear inseparable, crucial figures get overlooked. It's a wonderful book and a great corrective to the notion of science as dispassionate, untainted objectivity." - Ian McEwan
"The ribosome is the central processor that decodes the universal machine-code of life, and the history of its unravelling is on a par with that of DNA itself. You could think of Venki Ramakrishnan as a sort of 'nice Jim Watson.' His meticulously detailed and generous memoir has the same disarming frankness as The Double Helix. His personal honesty about the competitive ambition that drove him is tempered by his deeply thoughtful reflections on the potentially corrupting effect of big prizes. Gene Machine will be read and re-read as an important document in the history of science." - Richard Dawkins
"Gene Machine is a must-read for anyone interested in a glimpse of the messy business of how science happens." - Times (UK)