內容簡介
《紐約時報》2018年度好書、《出版家周刊》2018年度好書、《柯克斯評論》2018年度好書……橫掃各大主流媒體的精彩鉅作
知名的紐約時報專欄作家Carl Zimmer，以獨特的視角來剖析人類代代相傳的傳承。達爾文的研究發在遺傳的議題有推波助瀾的幫助，他把這個議題提升到科學的高度，但他最終還是無法真正回答所有問題，到了20世紀遺傳學的出現開始填補缺口，人類開始以基因語言來解釋自己的源起，到了21世紀，遺傳學開始變得廉價，花錢購買基因測試變得越來越普遍。
Zimmer認為遺傳學並不能解釋人類傳承的一切，我們並非只是從父母、祖先繼承了基因，還有其他環境、科學等讓生活更為舒適的所有事物，我們需要一種更好的方式來解釋遺傳。
Zimmer以科學專欄作家的專業知識、最新的科學發展、和兩位女兒的互動，提出了一個理論，藉此回答人類世世代代都在嘗試破解的問題「我們究竟是誰？」
2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist
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.
