She Has Her Mother's Laugh

The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

By: Carl Zimmer

Narrated by: Joe Ochman

Length: 20 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Finalist

"Science book of the year"—The Guardian

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.

©2018 Carl Zimmer (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Extraordinary...This book is Zimmer at his best: obliterating misconceptions about science with gentle prose. He brings the reader on his journey of discovery as he visits laboratory after laboratory, peering at mutant mosquitoes and talking to scientists about traces of Neanderthal ancestry within his own genome. Any fan of his previous books or his journalism will appreciate this work. But so, too, will parents wishing to understand the magnitude of the legacy they’re bequeathing to their children, people who want to grasp their history through genetic ancestry testing and those seeking a fuller context for the discussions about race and genetics so prevalent today.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Zimmer dispels longstanding scientific misconceptions, introduces facts that may surprise you and brings readers on a delightful journey of genetic discovery."—The New York Times, "Paperback Row"

“Magisterial...In Zimmer’s pages, we discover a world minutely threaded with myriad streams of heredity flowing in all directions, in variegated patterns and different registers.”—The Atlantic

Changed this strict genetic determinist's mind

Zimmer starts by providing a wonderfully complete history of humankind's understanding of heredity. What seems monstrous today about our early understandings will certainly be the same fate as our current understanding of genetics to future generations. Zimmer does an excellent job of providing a wide array of historical scientific tests and studies on subjects ranging from chimps to rodents to humans that keep the discussion interesting and exciting while covering both genetics and environment in great detail. As for current events, Zimmer does a fantastic job of explaining the intricacies in layman's terms for CRSPR CAS 9 with regards to the complex moral, ethical, and scientific challenges and opportunities that the technology presents. I suggest this to anyone wishing to gain conversational intelligence about our modern understanding of heredity who don't mind feeling a bit overwhelmed by the information Zimmer offers for consideration.

it was different from the gene

I was worried when I bought this book that it would be very similar to Siddhartha mukherjee's the gene. I was thinking that this would be another summary of the things that I already knew about genetics. Instead Carl Zimmer wove together an incredible story on the Forefront and history of genetics and what it really means to inherit something. I would highly recommend this book even if you have already read the gene or other works that are more survey like in content about genetics.

If only high school science class could be so interesting

This a fantastic book about our genes DNA and more and how they have developed and what it means to science in the future. The author explains all of this and makes it relatable and interesting. I was listening in my kitchen and my kids, who usually roll their eyes at what I am listening to actually asked if they could please listen when I was done. Cannot recommend enough, truly worth your time.

I already knew racist and their kin are fools

Heredity is the sum of all the previous environments and the current environment we were thrown into. Who we are as a species and as individuals is far more complicated than just our genes. Mendel’s law is a suggestion more than a law. This book lays the ground work for each of those assertions and steps the listener through some of the history of our understanding of the subject and reviews some of the current new research that has been transpiring over the last five years or so.

Humans are special: we culturally pass on racism, bigotry, misogyny and superstition mimetically. The racist premises in the ‘Bell Curve’ or Nicholas Wade’s last book are best ignored rather than refuted since they are groundless. The author doesn’t mention either book or author but he does spend a lot of time refuting their absurdities inherent in their deterministic genetic fallacies.

Racist and their ilk are going to hate. They will always have their reasons for hating the other just for the sake of making themselves appear superior to themselves and their select cohorts. Science has moved past that trash type thinking and this book lays out the case with fairly familiar concepts and stories.

Most of what was in this book seemed to have been in other books that I’ve read recently, and the parts that weren’t in the other books I’ve already read about in Science News or Scientific American. For those who are still in a ‘nature v. nurture’ deterministic paradigm and think biology through genes alone determines destiny this book will give them the background they need to move ahead. For all others, who realize that heredity is dependent on all of our previous environments (both as a species and as individuals and within the genome, the cells, the womb and the polis) and our current environment and experiences this book will be mostly superfluous since that is the main theme for this book.

Not what I was hoping for

The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee is better. Zimmer covers many of the same events - Mendel, eugenics, Watson/Crick, etc, but it's not as interesting in this book. In the latter parts of the book he spends a lot of time speculating about the future which I could have done without - or highly trimmed. It's not without merit - he touches on a few topics that are new, but by the end I was looking forward to my next book.

Endlessly Fascinating

One of my favorite topics is genetics, and so when I discovered this book I was sure I was going to like it. But it turns out that I absolutely love it! It's one of the most interesting books I've read in a long, long time, and I have been reading for a long, long time. One of the things I love about it is the way the writer introduces various interesting stories and then weaves their elements together through the rest of the book. I got the Audible version and I've been listening to it while driving. The one bad thing about that is if you tend to think about things while driving you can miss a lot in a few seconds. So I've had to train myself to stay focused so I don't miss anything. A lot of the information and ideas discussed are ones I'm familiar with, but the author goes into things in depth and added a lot i didn't know about, and pulls all these mysterious and fascinating pieces together to weave a most wonderful story. If you have the slightest interest in heredity, genes, epigenetics, etc., don't miss this book. It's one of the great ones.

Very informative!

If you like reading research on research, this book in incredibly informative! From the philosophical arguments about heredity to the current science and status of genetic engineering, this book is a thorough and interesting investigation into how we perceive WHAT we are is passed on to future generations. Not only is the scientific significance examined, but as well as the ethical and legal ramifications of these findings.

Amazing overview

Highly recommended. May be too much detail for some but still an excellent resource. Worthy of your time :-)

Good

This is a good book. However, as an audiobook format, it is hard to return previous sections. The story is a little dispersed. It requires a content to look at overall organization.

WOW. Really boring and DUMB

It's not science (that's for sure!) It's not history. It's not coherent. It's not interesting.

It's a bunch of long-winded, anecdotal rambling by someone with an ax to grind and a predetermined conclusion that is supported by few facts. It's amazing how he'll quote a study, an observation, or a principle, and in the next paragraph he'll state the OPPOSITE of what that prior information indicates!

Really, really a bad book on this topic. If you want to be informed, look somewhere else.