Have a Nice DNA

Author: Frances R. Balkwill
Publisher: CSHL Press
ISBN: 9780879696108
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Once upon a time you were very, very small. In fact, you were made of just one tiny cell. But the incredible thing about that tiny cell was that all the instructions to make you were hidden inside it. And all because of a very important chemical substance called DeoxyriboNucleic Acid--everyone calls it DNA. Enjoy Your Cells is a series of children's books from the acclaimed creative partnership of scientist/author Fran Balkwill and illustrator Mic Rolph. Once again, they use their unique brand of simple but scientifically accurate commentary and exuberantly colorful graphics to take young readers on an entertaining exploration of the amazing, hidden world of cells, proteins, and DNA. It's over ten years since Fran and Mic invented a new way of getting science across to children. Think what extraordinary advances have been made in biology in that time--and how often those discoveries made headlines. Stem cells, cloning, embryo transfer, emerging infections, vaccine developmentELhere in these books are the basic facts behind the public debates. With these books, children will learn to enjoy their cells and current affairs at the same time. And they're getting information that has been written and reviewed by working scientists, so it's completely correct and up-to-date. Readers aged 7 and up will appreciate the stories' lively language and with help, even younger children will enjoy and learn from the jokes and illustrations--no expert required! Discover all the books in the ENJOY YOUR CELLS series, each available in coloring book and full-color formats!

Enjoy Your Cells

Author: Frances R. Balkwill
Publisher: CSHL Press
ISBN: 9780879695842
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Enjoy Your Cells is a new series of children's books from the acclaimed creative partnership of scientist/author Fran Balkwill and illustrator Mic Rolph. The titles in the series include: Enjoy Your Cells Germ Zappers Have a Nice DNA! Gene Machines Once again, they use their unique brand of simple but scientifically accurate commentary and exuberantly colorful graphics to take young readers on an entertaining exploration of the amazing, hidden world of cells, proteins, and DNA. It's over ten years since Fran and Mic invented a new way of getting science across to children. Think what extraordinary advances have been made in biology in that time - and how often those discoveries made headlines. Stem cells, cloning, embryo transfer, emerging infections, vaccine development...here in these books are the basic facts behind the public debates. With these books, children will learn to enjoy their cells and current affairs at the same time. And they're getting information that has been written and reviewed by working scientists, so it's completely correct and up-to-date. Readers aged 7 and up will appreciate the stories' lively language and with help, even younger children will enjoy and learn from the jokes and illustrations - no expert required! This series is a must for all elementary school students and those who care about educating them to be well-informed in a world of increasingly complex health-related and environmental issues. Fran Balkwill is Professor of Cancer Biology at St. Bartholomew's Hospital and the London Queen Mary School of Medicine. Mic Rolph is a graphic designer with much television and publishing experience. Together, they have created many books for children, and have won several awards, including the prestigious COPUS Junior Science Book Prize.

Grow: Secrets of Our DNA

Author: Nicola Davies
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 1536234648
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 41

Book Description
"The secrets of DNA, unpacked engagingly and accessibly." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Earth is full of life! All living things grow--plants, animals, and human beings. The way they grow, whether it be fast or slow, enormous or not so big, helps them survive. But growing is also about change: when people grow, they become more complicated and able to do more things, and they don't have to think about it, because bodies come with instructions, or DNA. With simple, engaging language and expressive, child-friendly illustrations, Nicola Davies and Emily Sutton, the award-winning creators of Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes and Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth, provide an introduction to genetic code and how it relates to families to make us all both wonderfully unique and wholly connected to every living thing on Earth.

DNA Is You!

Author: Beatrice the Biologist
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1721400184
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Learn all about how your DNA makes you who you are—an awesome, unique individual—in this fun and simple illustrated guide! Did you know your sense of purpose is determined by your genes? And that DNA determines your reaction to poison ivy, and maybe even your sex drive? In DNA Is You!, the author behind Beatrice the Biologist uses her trademark humor to break down the ins and outs of DNA to give you the low-down on each trait, one by one. She provides the answers to questions like: how dependent are traits on your parents’ genes? Are they based on mutations or influenced by the environment? What kind of studies have been performed on genetics, and what have they discovered? Home DNA tests are more popular than ever, and DNA Is You! takes a look at the weird and wild scientific factors that can change your genes—like that dimples are dominant, how someone gets two different eye colors, and which genes determine whether or not you’ll need glasses. Learn more about how you got to be who you are with DNA Is You! and understand yourself—and your family—a little bit better!

DNA

Author: James D. Watson
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307521486
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
Fifty years ago, James D. Watson, then just twentyfour, helped launch the greatest ongoing scientific quest of our time. Now, with unique authority and sweeping vision, he gives us the first full account of the genetic revolution—from Mendel’s garden to the double helix to the sequencing of the human genome and beyond. Watson’s lively, panoramic narrative begins with the fanciful speculations of the ancients as to why “like begets like” before skipping ahead to 1866, when an Austrian monk named Gregor Mendel first deduced the basic laws of inheritance. But genetics as we recognize it today—with its capacity, both thrilling and sobering, to manipulate the very essence of living things—came into being only with the rise of molecular investigations culminating in the breakthrough discovery of the structure of DNA, for which Watson shared a Nobel prize in 1962. In the DNA molecule’s graceful curves was the key to a whole new science. Having shown that the secret of life is chemical, modern genetics has set mankind off on a journey unimaginable just a few decades ago. Watson provides the general reader with clear explanations of molecular processes and emerging technologies. He shows us how DNA continues to alter our understanding of human origins, and of our identities as groups and as individuals. And with the insight of one who has remained close to every advance in research since the double helix, he reveals how genetics has unleashed a wealth of possibilities to alter the human condition—from genetically modified foods to genetically modified babies—and transformed itself from a domain of pure research into one of big business as well. It is a sometimes topsy-turvy world full of great minds and great egos, driven by ambitions to improve the human condition as well as to improve investment portfolios, a world vividly captured in these pages. Facing a future of choices and social and ethical implications of which we dare not remain uninformed, we could have no better guide than James Watson, who leads us with the same bravura storytelling that made The Double Helix one of the most successful books on science ever published. Infused with a scientist’s awe at nature’s marvels and a humanist’s profound sympathies, DNA is destined to become the classic telling of the defining scientific saga of our age.

The Code Breaker

Author: Walter Isaacson
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982115874
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 560

Book Description
A Best Book of 2021 by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Time, and The Washington Post The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies. When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled The Double Helix on her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would. Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids? After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is an “enthralling detective story” (Oprah Daily) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

What's in Your Genes?

Author: Katie McKissick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1440567654
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
A crash course in genetics! Everyone knows that if you come from a family of brunettes, you're likely to be born with brown hair. But did you know your hair color may also affect how often you get sunburned? Or how often you need to take vitamin supplements? What's in Your Genes? goes beyond Gregor Mendel and dominant/recessive genes to show you all the ins and outs of what determines your DNA. Each entry provides you with a sneak peek into your DNA sequence and teaches you exactly how your body is able to create that wonderful you-ness that no one else has. From your tastebuds to your eye color to your obsession with clinical-strength deodorants, this book not only guides you through the history and study of genetics, but also shows you how those four little letters in your DNA make you who you are. Complete with imaginative illustrations, What's in Your Genes? reveals all there is to know about heredity--like the science behind vibrant red hair, perfect teeth, and your ability to see in color.

Gene Machines

Author: Fran Balkwill
Publisher: CSHL Press
ISBN: 9780879696115
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 36

Book Description
Summary: An introduction to how genes work, including basic information about cloning and gene therapy.

Learning About Your Genes: A Primer For Non-biologists

Author: Errol C Friedberg
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9813272635
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 125

Book Description
Genes were unknowingly discovered in the 19th century by Gregor Mendel, a Czechoslovakian monk. It was later established that genes are made of DNA, a biological compound found in tiny thread-like structures called chromosomes that are located in the nuclei of all cells in our bodies. DNA consists of chains of entities called bases of which there are four in nature. DNA consists of long chains of bases (sometimes referred to as DNA sequences) that are joined in any order, but the precise order and length of which constitute different genes.Many (but not all) genes carry a code called the genetic code, a code that instructs the synthesis (manufacture) of the many hundreds of proteins that we require to survive and execute the many functions of life. The genetic code was deciphered in relatively recent years and is considered one of the most significant discoveries in the history of biology.Genes that encode instructions for the synthesis of proteins and those that regulate the manufacture of proteins comprise a mere two percent of our DNA. Despite our extensive knowledge of biology and the sub-discipline of molecular biology (the study of biology at the molecular level), the function (if any) of the rest of the DNA in our cells is unknown.Research about genes and DNA has in recent years spawned an endeavor referred to as the Human Genome Project, an international collaboration that has successfully determined, stored, and rendered publicly available the sequences of almost all the genetic content of the chromosomes of the human organism, otherwise known as the human genome.DNA sequences that are unique to every person on earth have been discovered (DNA fingherprints) and are now used for identifying criminals. The book relates a specific example of identifying a criminal who murdered two women.This is the first and only book that we are aware of that educates non-biologists about genes. It is written in a style and uses a vocabulary that can be comprehended by the average reader who knows very little if anything about genes.

Blueprint, with a new afterword

Author: Robert Plomin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262357763
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
A top behavioral geneticist makes the case that DNA inherited from our parents at the moment of conception can predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses. In Blueprint, behavioral geneticist Robert Plomin describes how the DNA revolution has made DNA personal by giving us the power to predict our psychological strengths and weaknesses from birth. A century of genetic research shows that DNA differences inherited from our parents are the consistent lifelong sources of our psychological individuality—the blueprint that makes us who we are. Plomin reports that genetics explains more about the psychological differences among people than all other factors combined. Nature, not nurture, is what makes us who we are. Plomin explores the implications of these findings, drawing some provocative conclusions—among them that parenting styles don't really affect children's outcomes once genetics is taken into effect. This book offers readers a unique insider's view of the exciting synergies that came from combining genetics and psychology. The paperback edition has a new afterword by the author.