It Ain't Necessarily So : The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions

About this book

Biology makes the headlines practically every few weeks as geneticists claim they have accounted for yet another human trait or ailment. However out of complex research have come exaggerations and misunderstandings about what biology especially genetics can tell us. In this collection of essays from The New York Review of Books Lewontin demystifies some of the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. On topics ranging from Darwin to Dolly the sheep including genetic determinism heredity and natural selection evolutionary psychology and altruism sex surveys cloning and the Human Genome project he offers both sharp criticisms of the "overweening pride" of scientists and lucid expositions of the exact state of scientific knowledge. In each case he casts an ever-vigilant and deflationary eye on the temptation to overstate the power of biology to explain everything we want to know about ourselves.