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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Fields, Stanley.

Title Genetic twists of fate / Stanley Fields and Mark Johnston.

Publication Info. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2010]
©2010

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (ix, 222 pages) : illustrations, map
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Summary How tiny variations in our personal DNA can determine how we look, how we behave, how we get sick, and how we get well.News stories report almost daily on the remarkable progress scientists are making in unraveling the genetic basis of disease and behavior. Meanwhile, new technologies are rapidly reducing the cost of reading someone's personal DNA (all six billion letters of it). Within the next ten years, hospitals may present parents with their newborn's complete DNA code along with her footprints and APGAR score. In Genetic Twists of Fate, distinguished geneticists Stanley Fields and Mark Johnston help us make sense of the genetic revolution that is upon us.Fields and Johnston tell real life stories that hinge on the inheritance of one tiny change rather than another in an individual's DNA: a mother wrongly accused of poisoning her young son when the true killer was a genetic disorder; the screen siren who could no longer remember her lines because of Alzheimer's disease; and the president who was treated with rat poison to prevent another heart attack. In an engaging and accessible style, Fields and Johnston explain what our personal DNA code is, how a few differences in its long list of DNA letters makes each of us unique, and how that code influences our appearance, our behavior, and our risk for such common diseases as diabetes or cancer.
Local Note MIT Press Direct MIT Press Direct Open Access
Subject Medical genetics -- Popular works.
Medical genetics.
Genre/Form Popular works.
Subject Human genetics -- Popular works.
Human genetics.
Indexed Term BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES/General
Added Author Johnston, Mark, 1951-
ISBN 9780262289382 (electronic book)
0262289385 (electronic book)
1282899201
9781282899209
9780262014700
026201470X
Standard No. 9786612899201