Robin Marantz Henig

im not gonna finish this beacause im failing the clas i was reading it for anyway but this is a bad book

this is what happens when you don't have enough information on a subject. it feels like some kid whos trying to reach a word count for a school essay but its an entire book.

theres like very little information about mendel's life in this and the author takes unrelated digressions for pages and pages and it's kind of painful to read.

I feel like this could have made a really good like, article, or shortform piece, but to make it into a whole damn book is extremely extra.… (meer)

An outsider’s view of scientific history deems that stories of scientific discovery are boring. After all, how could readers be interested in narratives about how people work in laboratories? To that, Henig pens her eloquent reply in an interesting tale of how an obscure monk in Eastern Europe transformed modern biology… after he died. Thus goes the all-too-human tale of humble Gregor Mendel.

After joining a monastic order in the 1800s, Mendel studied science and grew peas systematically in a monastery’s courtyard. Certain traits would skip a generation and would consistently recur in 1/4 of the offspring. From this observation, he found what are now known as Mendel’s Laws of genetic inheritance. He published his findings… and received no acclaim. Barely anyone even read his publication. He later became abbot of the monastery and then died in obscurity.

A few decades later, he was “rediscovered” by three scientists looking for a means for Darwinian evolution to proceed. Mendel’s Laws soon became a central point of scientific proof for evolution and are now universally taught wherever scientific education occurs. Mendel’s statue is presently erected overlooking the monastery in Brünn, Moravia.

As shown by the book becoming a National Book Critic’s Circle Award finalist, Henig tells this story well. She captures the personalities involved and the human and scientific sides of an interesting tale. This saga is filled with inherent irony, and she does her best in drawing it out from the few historical sources. Obviously, Mendel’s discoveries have had a huge scientific impact as they have led to modern biology and a fount for medical research.

Mendel’s life was lived with little fanfare. Fortunately, Henig’s book does not live in such a state. It is masterfully told, well-received, and reminds us that the “little guy” sometimes wins in the end. Her imagination and creativity impress as she spins this intellectual drama. The human twists and turns about how trait inheritance occurs in species brings the science to life. Her work would make the ever-curious and ingenious Mendel proud.… (meer)