Gene Machine

The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome

By: Venki Ramakrishnan

Narrated by: Matthew Waterson

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us.

Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.

But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling experiments in a biology lab to being the dark horse in a fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. In the end, Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science.

©2018 Venki Ramakrishnan (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Very slow, more life story

Not that much about Ribosome processing and it’s biology more about authors life story. Quasi interesting a bit of a Yanning experience

Highly technical, way over my head

This book was well done, but I thought it would be an overview for those not familiar with the field. I found it way more technical than I expected.

Exciting Review of Excellence in Science

This audible book has been a decades long history of research in finding and showing the genome be accessible. Especially the Ribosome . I now want to learn more, though I am a 78 year old musician and retired computer scientist. just enjoy learning about life.

The Force of Life!

When I started this book, I imagined it would give me a solid definition of the gene machine. What I learned is that with our current technology, as good as it is, we have not been able to yet complete the definition or the entire process. This is a like getting on roller coaster that won't stop, but you don't want to stop either. There are so many details and the more you learn, the more there is to learn. The cell, the basic unit of life is more complex in it's parts and functions and is truly the atom of biology. The genes are just the beginning of the gene machine. Imagine a complete manufacturing facility producing a product that runs on it's own 24/7, then consider this is what happens inside each cell more than a trillion in each of us. More than than just one manufacturing facility, now imagine there are 100's or 1000's or more of these manufacturing plants maintaining an almost perfect output of products. Now you begin to understand the complexity of a single cell, much less all the individual parts that make us who we are. I highly recommend this book and narration, it will keep you engaged, and if like me, you will listen more than once. What is most amazing to me is that all these processes are internally driven. Other than our eating and sleeping habits, the gene machine moves on.

Excellent book

It is an amazing book in ribosomes structural biology and Crystallography. I wish many more books will be available on audible in coming months/years.

Thanks

An inside look at the ups and downs of research

It's a fascinating story of the author's own research career. As an autobiography, it's refreshingly more honest and direct than many science biographies. This book demonstrates valuable lessons in persistence and perseverance, with a little synchronicity sprinkled in! In addition to its valuable information about the discovery of the ribosome, this book could be inspiring to anyone who is challenging themselves to solve hard problems.

Great book

As a working scientist, it is wonderful to see how the mind of one of the greats works. Venki plugged along for years and most likely minimized his breakthrough ideas. This is a perfect listen. As a non-biologist, a lot of the concepts were new to me; but I could capture the flow of his work.

Not enough science; lots of name dropping

The science in this book, what little there is, is good but it is lost in boring details of the author's personal life. It reads like an exercise in "look-at-me" and all the people I have known.

Great science book

This book is awesome for any scientist in the field of chemistry/biology/physics or somewhere in between. Great story and good advice.

Interesting on Three Levels

(1) The life of a research scientist, (2) the politics among research scientists (3) the life of a person. The book is not a science book, the author states in the beginning that the book is a memoir (of an entire career in science, it turns out).