The other luminary in the field of biology in the early 19th century was Charles Darwin, born into a family of physicians who grew up to study theology as well as natural history in England. Unfortunately, Gregor Mendel’s work went unnoticed by the scientific community for close to 150 years, and he died a sad man until the laws on heredity was finally brought out to the world, by the likes of Carl Correns, Erich von Tschemark and Hugo de Vries, strangely, thrice the very same year in 1900! Anyone would be surprised to know that when Mendel applied to become a high school teacher attending to Math, Natural Sciences and Greek, he failed the exam in the field of Natural Sciences, not once but twice! In order to improve his grasp over the subject, he applied to the University of Vienna, to pursue a degree in Natural Sciences, and that was the turning point in his life. Through Mukherjee’s eyes, we glimpse into the monastery life of Gregor Johann Mendel in Brno, credited to be the founder of the modern science of genetics.
The book being arranged chronologically and thematically makes it easy to go back to excerpts that one will find fascinating to re-read. By broaching upon the streak of mental illness that runs in the paternal side of his family, he urges the reader to contemplate on the genes that are the blueprint of all living beings, orchestrating many of our own behaviour and illnesses. The way the writer introduces the protagonist – the gene – to the reader is interesting. This book on the history of genes is engrossing to the layman and scientist alike. To students of science, it is like a trip down memory lane, coming face to face with the scientists and researchers that have sat inanimate inside textbooks.
‘The Gene – an intimate history’ by Siddhartha Mukherjee comes a long way in setting the record straight about the concept of genes and its nature. The only role of the mother was to provide nourishment to the growing foetus.
This information was transmitted into the female’s body during intercourse and once inside the womb, it matured into a foetus. The Greek philosopher and mystic Pythagoras popularized the idea that hereditary information (“likeness”) was carried by male semen.
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