I read on Jason’s blog about how he became interested in biology for the first time, and it brought back fond memories of my own. Why, I was at the Borders in the Huntington Mall in WV during the senior year of my high school days… and I was browsing some books until Genome by Matt Ridley hit me as an interesting title. In 23 chapters he covers the range of topics in and issues surrounding the field of genetics. He goes from the science (in a very layperson friendly manner) to clinical issues to even larger issues such as eugenics and free will.

I was blown away by this book back then, and I realize, it’s still quite an impressive work now (granted some of it is outdated now). It made me want to be a geneticist, and that eventually led me to choose biochemistry as my major. Now, going into my graduate work, I may very well end up working in that field trying to elucidate the gene networks which underlie diseases with complex mechanisms and deceptively oversimplified phenotypes. It would be a cool way to come full-circle, no?