5/15/2023 0 Comments The gene siddhartha![]() ![]() ![]() In his acknowledgments to “The Gene,” Dr. ![]() ![]() “ The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” his dazzling 2010 debut, won the Pulitzer and almost every other species of literary award it became a three-part series on PBS Time magazine deemed it one of the 100 most influential books written in the English language since 1923. Mukherjee’s curse - or blessing, assuming he’s a glass-half-full sort of fellow - to have to follow in his own mammoth footsteps. The abbot in charge, writes the author, acquiesced this time, “giving peas a chance.” “A monk coaxing mice to mate to understand heredity was a little too risqué, even for the Augustinians,” writes Siddhartha Mukherjee in “The Gene: An Intimate History.” So Mendel switched - auspiciously, historically - to pea plants. The experiment scandalized his superiors. But bumbling he was, and he made a rotten university student to boot his failures drove him straight to his room, where he bred mice in secret. Had he shown even the faintest aptitude for oratory or ministering to the poor, he might never have determined the basic laws of heredity. Thank heavens Gregor Mendel was a lousy priest. ![]()
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