Herding Hemingway's Cats : understanding how our genes work / Kat Arney.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-279) and index.

It's all about that base -- It's not what you've got, it's what you do with it that counts -- Taking out the garbage -- A bit of dogma -- Throwing the switch -- The secret's in the blend -- Cats with thumbs -- Fish with hips -- Mice and men and mole rats, oh my! -- Party town -- Pimp my genome -- Cut and paste -- Nature's red pen -- Ever-increasing circles -- Silence of the genes -- Night of the living dead -- On the hop -- Opening a can of wobbly worms -- Everyone's a little bit mutant -- Opening the black box -- Blame the parents -- Meet the Mickey Mouse mice -- In search of the 21st-century gene.

The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. The media tells us that our genes control the risk of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism or Alzheimer's. The cost of DNA sequencing has plummeted from billions of pounds to a few hundred, and gene-based advances in medicine hold huge promise. So we've all heard of genes, but how do they actually work? According to legend, Ernest Hemingway was once given a six-toed cat by an old sea captain, and her distinctive descendants still roam the writer's Florida estate today. Scientists now know that the fault driving this profusion of digits lies in a tiny genetic control switch, miles away (in molecular terms) from the gene that 'makes' toes. And it's the same mistake that gives rise to multi-toed humans too. There are 2.2 metres of DNA inside every one of your cells, encoding roughly 20,000 genes. These are the 'recipes' that tell our cells how to make the building blocks of life, along with myriad control switches ensuring they're turned on and off at the right time and in the right place. But rather than a static string of genetic code, this is a dynamic, writhing biological library. And figuring out how it all works - how your genes make you, you - is a major challenge for researchers around the world. Drawing on stories ranging from six-toed cats and stickleback hips to wobbly worms and zombie genes, geneticist Kat Arney explores the how our genes work, creating a companion reader to the book of life itself.