It Ain't Necessarily So: The Dream of the Human Genome and Other Illusions - Softcover

'The sweep and scepticism of his arguments is always exhilarating and usually spot-on. This is a fine and important book, and a very necessary corrective to all sorts of popular fallacies.' Guardian; 'The painstakingly, highly accessible, but penetrating quality of his work is essential reading. Lewontin is one of the most sensible exponents in a field plagued by hype and hysteria.' Sunday Times; 'Lewontin...is a working biologist and a wonderfully stylish writer. If you read only one book on genetics this year, make sure it is this one.' The Times; 'It Ain't Necessarilly So is an elegantly written and lucidly argued critique of the myth that genes are fate. Lewontin is one of the great unsung figures of post-war science.' New Statesman; 'Few writers, and even fewer scientists, possess Lewontin's strength of vision, breadth of knowledge or stylistic poise.' New Statesman; 'A cool, impressive intelligence presides over It Ain't Necessarily So.' Daily Telegraph; 'Richard Lewontin...provides a valuable antidote to the current hyperbole surrounding the Genome Project.' Scotland on Sunday; '...brilliantly provocative essays on matters of the science industry and biology...written with an elegance that won't tolerate grandiose claims, but they're also the work of a practising scientist, He is the sensible, accessible, essential expert.' The Scotsman

This work demystifies some of the most controversial issues in the life sciences today. It looks at topics ranging from Darwin to Dolly the sheep, including biological determinism, heredity and natural selection, evolutionary psychology and cloning. Biology now dominates scientific enquiry and the headlines, as geneticists claim to have accounted for yet another human trait or ailment. However, exaggerations and misunderstandings about what biology can tell us are common. This collection of essays offers observations on the exact state of scientific knowledge. Lewontin casts an eye on the temptation to overstate the power of biology to explain everything we want to know about ourselves.