Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley, c. 2000 -- February 15, 2026

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters, Matt Ridley, c. 2000.

When reading Genome, every time something interesting pops up (in context), RNA seems to be involved. When you get right down to it, DNA is like the Queen Bee and the RNA represents worker bees. 

Gene mapping: 5p15.33.

• 5: chromosome 5
• p: short arm
• 15: region 1 - band 5
• .33: sub-band 3 -- sub-sub-band 3.

The RNA world. Wiki. 

OMIM. 

Foreword:

• Craig Venter
• Human Genome Project: Jim Watson, one of three to lead the HGP
• 1999: the "moon shot"
• June 26, 2000: President Clinton and UK's Tony Blair announce that first rough draft complete
• Ridley's foreword dated July, 2000 

Introduction

• how Ridley happened upon the idea for this book
• chromosome 19, David Haig, "all sorts of mischievous genes"
• 30,000 to 80,000 genes in the human genome (wouldn't they know exactly how many now?
• not precisely known, but well less than what was initially predicted
• protein-coding genes: 20,000 to 25,000
• total genes, including non-coding RNA genes: ~ 60,000
• part of the problem: definition of a "gene."
• Ridley rarely states "23 chromosomes." More accurately it's 23 pairs of chromosomes - "23 and me" -- 

Chapter 1: Life -- Chromosome #1
life

 

• a linear code, not a QR code -- those the code itself is quaternary -- based on four bases (A, T, C, G or A, U, C, G
• living filaments (Charles Darwin's grandfather)
• amazing how the most important non-biologic word in this book is "information" just artificial information and chatbots are all the rage
• amazing serendipity: the language of life (genetic, DNA, RNA) is written linearly and in a language we can understand; a "bar code" might have worked, but imagine if the language of DNA / RNA had been analogous to a QR code.
• 1953: the year DNA's symmetrical structure was discovered;
• 1943, ten years earlier:
• Francis Crick: working on the design of naval mines near Portsmouth;
• James Watson, 15 years old, precocious, enrolling as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago; determined to devote his life to ornithology (bird-watching, LOL)
• Maurice Wilkins: helping to design the atom bomb in the United States
• Manhattan Project; University of Berkeley; focus: mass spectrometer to separate isotopes of uranium and stockpile uranium-235 for the atomic bomb
• Rosalind Franklin: studying the structure of coal for the British government
• to improve coal as a fuel; and, use of coal in gas masks.
• Josef Mengele: his results (eugenics) are worthless for future scientists
• Erwin Schrödinger: refugee from Mengele's "ilk" -- the Nazis; as a Jew forced to leave his position; in Dublin, series of lectures, on "What Is Life?"
• went down a blind alley; neither quantum physics nor physics (in general) will lead to an answer
• Oswald Avery: New York: 66 y/o Canadian scientist; experiment that will decisively identify DNA as the chemical manifestation of heredity
• p. 15
• Alan Turing; 1943, Colossus, may have been the closest to solving the mystery of life than anyone else;
• Claude Shannon, New Jersey, 1943: 
• information and entropy are opposite faces of the same coin and that both have an intimate link with energy
• the less entropy a system has, the more information it contains
• low entropy: more order, concentrated energy
• high entropy: more disorder, random energy; less energy available for useful work
• "in the beginning was the word. The word was not DNA. That came later." -- p. 16

Chapter 2: Species
Chromosome #2 is a fusion of two chromosomes 

• The reason all apes, except humans, have 24 chromosomes. The non-human apes have 24 chromosomes; humans have 23 pair because two chromosomes fused, making 24 chromosomes 23.  Genes are recipes for both anatomy and behavior.
• Great ape separation (Miocene):
• orangutan-gorilla-chimpanzee-human: 12 million years ago
  gorilla-chimpanzee-human: 10 million years ago
• chimpanzee-human: 7 million years ago

Chapter 3: History
 

• 1902:  "inborn errors of metabolism"
  Richard Dawkins: incredibly computer-like; digital; 
• binary in the sense that there are two strands
• a single boring protein -- see paragraph at bottom of page 52
• both strands have correct gene: 1 - 1
• one strand with correct gene; other not: 1 - 0
• both strands with incorrect gene: 0 - 0
• very binary
• But not exactly binary like computer code
• AI prompt: DNA: both strands have correct gene: 1 - 1 one strand with correct gene; other not: 1 - 0 both strands with incorrect gene: 0 - 0. But having said that, not exactly binary like computer code because 1 - 0 still has a phenotype like 1 - 1. Thoughts?

Chapter 4: Fate

• pitiful that genes are generally known as the disease they cause (if abnormal) 
• Huntington's chorea: gene 4
• a mutated form of the gene: Huntington's chorea -- victims die later
  a complete leak of the gene: Wolf-Hirschhorn -- victims die young 
• the gene is made up of a single word (CAG) repeated over and over and over; most folks have 5 to 35 repeats; more than 35 repeats and one gets Huntington's chorea. Nancy Wexler.

Chapter 5: Environment
pleiotropy and pluralism

• See chapter 14. 
• asthma

Chapter 6: Intelligence
intelligence, chromosome 6, and Robert Plomin

Chapter 7: Instinct
chromosome 7: behavior, instinct

Noam Chomsky
William James, Henry James

X and Y: Conflict 

• reptilian: sex determined by environmental temperature of the egg (temperature of the nest during the middle third time period)
• post-reptilian: genetic determinationsexual antagonism: leading scholar is William Rice at US-Santa Cruz 

Chapter 8: Self-Interest

• reverse transcriptase -- fascinating
• no specific reason for associating this discussion with chromosome #8; there was nothing on chromosome #8 that excited Matt Ridley

Chapter 9: Disease
ABO blood type

Chapter 10: Stress
Chromosome 10: CYP17 -- protein to convert cholesterol into cortisol, testosterone, oestradiol (estradiol)

Chapter 11: Personality
D4DR -- protein -- dopamine receptor

Chapter 12: Self-Assembly
homeobox

• almost science fiction
• genes lined up in a specific order
• absolutely fascinating

Chapter 13: Pre-History
Chromosome 13

• linguistic philology and genetic phylogeny
• genetics of genealogy
• BRCA2 -- second breast cancer gene to be discovered
• [BRCA1 is on chromosome 17]
• geography

Chapter 14: Immortality
Chromosome 14

 

• gene: TEP1: telomerase
• TEP1: contains RNA; similar looking to reverse transcriptase
• TEP1: maps to chromosome 14
• gene: TERT: does the actually transcription to repair the ends of chromosomes
• 5p15.33: TERT: maps to chromosome 5
• TERT/CLPTM1L: maps very, very specifically to 15.33 on the short arm of the chromosome 5
• highly relevant / studied in cancer research 

Chapter 15: Sex
Chromosome 15

• Prader-Willi
• Angelman 
• a missing gene on Chromosome 15 

Chapter 16: Memory
Chromosome 16

• CREB gene 

Chapter 17: Death
on the short arm of Chomosome 17

• TP53 gene: possibly the most talked-about gene since its discovery in 1979.

Chapter 18: Cures
Chromosome 18

• DPP
• colon cancer
• guides the growth of spinal nerves

 

Chapter 19: Prevention
Chromosome 19

•  Fat and triglyceride

 

Chapter 20: Politics
Chromosome 20

• PRP 

Chapter 21: Eugenics
Chromosome 21

• smallest human chromosome
• Down Syndrome

 

Chapter 22: Free Will
chromosome 22 

• 1999: first chromosome to be read from beginning to end
• originally chromosome 22 was thought to be smallest chromosome but it turns out chromosome 21 is the smallest (Down syndrome)