Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code

by Matthew Cobb

Overview

Everyone has heard of the story of DNA as the story of Watson and Crick and Rosalind Franklin, but knowing the structure of DNA was only a part of a greater struggle to understand life's secrets. Life's Greatest Secret is the story of the discovery and cracking of the genetic code, the thing that ultimately enables a spiraling molecule to give rise to the life that exists all around us. This great scientific breakthrough has had farreaching consequences for how we understand ourselves and our place in the natural world, and for how we might take control of our (and life's) future.

Life's Greatest Secret mixes remarkable insights, theoretical dead-ends, and ingenious experiments with the swift pace of a thriller. From New York to Paris, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Cambridge, England, and London to Moscow, the greatest discovery of twentieth-century biology was truly a global feat. Biologist and historian of science Matthew Cobb gives the full and rich account of the cooperation and competition between the eccentric characters — mathematicians, physicists, information theorists, and biologists — who contributed to this revolutionary new science. And, while every new discovery was a leap forward for science, Cobb shows how every new answer inevitably led to new questions that were at least as difficult to answer: just ask anyone who had hoped that the successful completion of the Human Genome Project was going to truly yield the book of life, or that a better understanding of epigenetics or "junk DNA" was going to be the final piece of the puzzle. But the setbacks and unexpected discoveries are what make the science exciting, and it is Matthew Cobb's telling that makes them worth reading. This is a riveting story of humans exploring what it is that makes us human and how the world works, and it is essential reading for anyone who'd like to explore those questions for themselves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465062676
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	07/07/2015
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	679,766
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.50(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester, where he studies olfaction, insect behavior, and the history of science. He earned his PhD in psychology and genetics from the University of Sheffield. He is the author of five books: Life's Greatest Secret, Generation, The Resistance, Eleven Days in August, and Smell: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

1. Genes before DNA
2. Information is everywhere
3. The transformation of genes
4. A slow revolution
5. The age of control
6. The double helix
7. Genetic information
8. The central dogma
9. Enzyme cybernetics
10. Enter the outsiders
11. The race
Update
12. Surprises and sequences
13. The central dogma revisited
14. Brave new world
15. Origins and meanings
Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

05/11/2015
English biochemist Lane, whose previous book, Life Ascending, won the 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books, combines elegant prose and an enthusiasm for big questions as he attempts to peer into a "black hole at the heart of biology." Scientists "have no idea why cells work the way they do," nor "how the parts evolved," though as Lane points out, eukaryotic cells—the building blocks of all multicellular life—share multiple complex structural and functional features. With impeccable logic and current research data, he makes a case for a common ancestor of all multicellular life—one created by a singular endosymbiotic event between a bacterial cell and an archaon cell that became the cell-powering mitochondrion. Lane walks readers through the details of how bacteria alone could have become metabolically diverse but not structurally complex. He then shows how the addition of mitochondria to the equation allowed a shift in energy flow through the cell, and how the migration of DNA introns from mitochondria DNA to the cell nucleus provided a wealth of new genetic material on which evolution could operate. The science is both a puzzle and a dance; Lane retains a sense of wonder as he embraces a bold hypothesis and delights in the hard data that gives it weight. (July) Cobb (Eleven Days in August), a professor of zoology at the University of Manchester (U.K.), simply and comprehensively explains the history and basics of modern genetics. In the first half of his book, Cobb explores the personalities and the experiments that led to the discovery of the genetic code and how it works. He offers insight into the nature of science, how hypotheses are created and tested, and the collaborations and antagonisms that are common among scientists. Cobb follows breakthroughs up through the 1966 Cold Spring Harbor symposium, which "was entirely devoted to the genetic code." In the second part of the book, he covers the story from 1967 to the present, discussing how much more scientists have learned about the intricacies of DNA, RNA, and protein synthesis. Cobb touches on both pure and applied research, the complexities of epigenetics and gene regulation, possibilities arising from knowledge learned through the Human Genome Project, the use of DNA for computing and data storage, and prospects associated with synthetic biology. His optimism is well grounded and he offers appropriate cautions and calls for regulatory controls. Cobb covers well-plowed ground, but he does so in a manner both thoroughly engaging and truly edifying. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"[T]he cracking of the code of life is a great story, of which this is an accomplished telling."—Economist

"Readers of Mr. Cobb's book will learn much about the history and current state of modern biology."—Wall Street Journal

"A lucid explanation of the science and the stories of key players."—Nature

"An authoritative but nevertheless thrilling narrative.... In short, this is a first-class read."—Observer

"[A] masterly account.... Cobb's book is a delight. Even those who know parts of the story quite well will find fresh, intriguing vignettes."—Guardian

"Cobb covers well-plowed ground, but he does so in a manner both thoroughly engaging and truly edifying."—Publishers Weekly

"Like Cobb's other titles, this scholarly work reflects extensive research and draws upon primary documents. Upper-level students and researchers in biology or the history of science are best equipped to appreciate this detailed book."—Library Journal

"[A] fine history of genetics.... [A] gripping, insightful history, often from the mouths of the participants themselves."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Most people think the race to sequence the human genome culminated at the 2000 White House 'Mission Accomplished' announcement. In Matthew Cobb's Life's Greatest Secret, we learn that it was just one chapter of a far more interesting and continuing story."—Eric Topol, professor of genomics and director, Scripps Translational Science Institute, and author of The Patient Will See You Now

"The third of the grand unifying theories of biology was completed in the 20th Century, following Darwin's evolution by natural selection, and Cell Theory a century earlier. DNA, the double helix, and the universality of the genetic code radically transformed our understanding of life: no area in biology has been untouched by this revolution, from cancer to human origins to genetic engineering, and now, to the future of data storage. Cobb, a scientist and thorough historian, is a master storyteller, and recounts the thrilling science, politics, egos of this grand scientific revolution. Essential, definitive reading."—Adam Rutherford, author of Creation: How Science Is Reinventing Life Itself

"Life's Greatest Secret is the logical sequel to Jim Watson's The Double Helix. While Watson and Crick deserve their plaudits for discovering the structure of DNA, that was only part of the story. Beginning to understand how that helix works—how its DNA code is turned into bodies and behaviors—took another 15 years of amazing work by an army of dedicated men and women. These are the unknown heroes of modern genetics, and their tale is the subject of Cobb's fascinating book. Every now and again I had to stop reading because the amazement overload was too great."—Jerry Coyne, professor of ecology and evolution, the University of Chicago, and author of Why Evolution Is True

"Matthew Cobb is a respected scientist and historian, and he has combined both disciplines to spectacular effect in this wonderful book. A compelling, authoritative, and insightful account of how life works at the deepest level. Bloody brilliant!"—Brian Cox, professor of physics, the University of Manchester and author of Why Does E=mc²?

From the Publisher

05/15/2015
Cobb (zoology, Univ. of Manchester; The Resistance) relates the convoluted history of research on DNA, the molecule that carries our genetic data, and its metabolic partner RNA. He explains how the nascent field of cybernetics furnished a metaphor for the encoding and transmission of heritable information. Inspired by this metaphor, an assortment of researchers—some collaborative and others bitterly competitive—determined the structure of DNA and the general mechanism of protein synthesis, proposed a model for operons (genes regulated in a coordinated fashion), and finished deciphering the genetic code by the mid-1960s. The last quarter of the book is an overview of recent research on nucleic acids. Few illustrations appear in the review copy; one hopes more will be added to the published book to explain some of the complex molecular mechanisms described. (Similarly, the index was not seen.) VERDICT Like Cobb's other titles, this scholarly work reflects extensive research and draws upon primary documents. Upper-level students and researchers in biology or the history of science are best equipped to appreciate this detailed book. Other readers should consider Michel Morange's A History of Molecular Biology.—Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono

Library Journal

★ 2015-04-14
Animal breeders have always known that "like breeds like," but no one, Charles Darwin included, knew why offspring resemble parents except, sometimes, when they don't. Cobb (Zoology/Univ. of Manchester; Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris 1944, 2014, etc.) describes how they learned. One of the only defects of his fine history of genetics is the title. There was rarely a race to figure out the genetic code but rather a stream of advances that began with the 17th-century speculation of the great physician William Harvey, sped up after the 1900 rediscovery of Mendel's laws, and accelerated still more in 1943, when Oswald Avery and Maclyn McCarty showed that DNA contained the genetic code. (This was perhaps the greatest discovery that didn't win a Nobel Prize.) The DNA molecule is so simple that many scientists found this hard to accept, but by 1953, when James Watson and Francis Crick revealed its structure, they knew where to look. Details of how this deceptively uniform molecule guides production of a living organism began pouring out with the arrival of computers and the information revolution during the following decades. Genetics is, after all, information. Unraveling the code and putting it to work, writes Cobb, "was a leap forward in humanity's understanding of the natural world and our place within in, akin to the discoveries of Galileo and Einstein in the realm of physics or the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. These comparisons are not the fruit of hindsight, they were made at the time." The greatest milestone in 20th-century biology received an iconic account in Horace Freeland Judson's The Eighth Day of Creation (1979). Much has happened since that publication, and Cobb's gripping, insightful history, often from the mouths of the participants themselves, updates the story, bringing it all the way into the present.

Kirkus Reviews

Absolutely fascinating listening. Narrator John Lee brings his many skills to what might have been dry history. Instead, he makes this a memorable “page-turner,” and his delivery sounds like that of the best professor you ever had. He enlivens the intriguing topic by injecting an urgency into the scientists’ epic quest to understand human genetics in all its fundamentals and complexity. The author does his part, of course. Cobb is a fine practitioner of practical and elegant prose. Both men appear to be entranced by the scientific pursuit. As is the listener. D.R.W. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2015 - AudioFile