Cartoon Guide to Genetics by Larry Gonick

Cartoon Guide to Genetics Reviews

• 
  Mohammed Abbas

  كتاب رائع يشرح مسائل علمية معقدة باسلوب بسيط، وإن كانت بعض المعلومات بحاجة إلى تحديث
• 
  Farhana

  I had been looking for this book for a while. Another best addition to my this year's nonfiction graphic books. The book is so well-written, well-sketched, well-organized, comprehensive, and cohesive. I love its way of teaching along with some fun yet retaining the full essence of the original concepts. Cheers to this big 5 star book!
• 
  Radwa

  ألا ليت الزمان يعود يوما
  
  ليه محدش كان بيشرح علوم بأسلوب مبسط زي كده وأنا في ابتدائي وإعدادي؟
  
  الكتاب رائع ومبسط وسهل حتي على واحد مش عارف حاجة في العلوم بالمرة
  والميزة فيه الانتقال من نقطة لأخرى بشكل سلس
  
  محاولات العلماء واكتشافاتهم كانت جديدة تماما بالنسبة لي
  وخصوصا محاولاتهم لعلاج مرض الثلاسيميا
  
  ولكن حقا إلى أين تأخذنا الهندسة الوراثية؟
• 
  Rex Hurst

  Larry Gonick, author of the wonderful Cartoon Guide to the Universe, has found his niche with educational comics and this book is a great example of it. He’s tackled many subjects and I found this to be thoroughly researched and presented in an easy to understand manner. And a bibliography is provided if you want to delve deeper into the subject- which I did not.
  
  This is as much a history of genetic research as it is about the basics of the subject. He begins with primitive man, moving on to the early philosophers such as Aristotle, before arriving at the real breakthrough moment with the research of Gregor Mendel- the Catholic monk, gardener and scientist.
  
  The book is a good primer and the basics of genetics- DNA, amino acids, proteins etc.- are not going to change. When I was a middle school English teacher I used to stock up my classroom library with his books: The Cartoon Guide to the Universe, to the Modern World, Statistics, Biology and so on. And they were always well received by my students, often being one of the first ones stolen from classroom.
  
  What I disagree with in this text is that he promotes the “theory” that “primitive man”, whether he means homo sapiens or an ancestor species is unclear, could not differentiate between sex and procreation. After reading his source material, this is about as spurious a theory as I’ve ever read. Evidence is nearly nonexistent and conjecture abounds. It’s almost conspiracy level leaps the author takes to piece this together.
  
  The other problem with the book is that often the information is out of date or, most common, there are discoveries and breakthroughs not recorded by the text. The version I have is from 1991 so there is a gap of 16 years of information. For instance it states that it was believed by scientists to be over 200,000 genes, but it is now known to be only around 20 to 30,000 of them.
  
  Still as a beginning delve into the subject, this would be a good place to start and, apart from what I mentioned earlier, the bibliography is solid. Offering a person a good point to keep learning if they are so inclined.
• 
  Katra

  I've always wanted to have a grasp of genetics but was frankly afraid to poke my nose in the intimidating books on the subject. The cartoon approach was inviting and amazingly packed with a great deal of information. I'm certainly not ready to start splicing genes at this point, but the fact that I now know basically what that entails gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I would definitely recommend this book as an introduction to the subject.
• 
  Nigel McFarlane

  Hairy tomatoes, a human strawberry and some very cute enzymes. A hilarious yet comprehensive introduction to genetics. Essential entertainment for anyone interested in biology.
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  Zoe's Human

  An entertaining and informative but sadly out of date book. The complicated science is well presented, but a new edition is desperately needed to catch the science up-to-date.
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  Drmkk

  An interesting approach. However, jokes were not that funny and it is a little dated at this point.
• 
  Douglas Larson

  I appreciated the cartoon aspect of the book which made the understanding easier. But even so being a non-scientist, non-biologist, non-geneticist there are still huge gaps in my understanding. They covered the overall history of genetics mentioning the major scientists, which I appreciated. But I still had many questions about how these scientists know the things they discovered. Especially all the biochemical interactions with the DNA, RNA and enzymes. How did they discover that these biochemical structures behaved the way they described?
  
  So I enjoyed it overall and while I did gain a better grasp of genetics overall, it was still quite a bit over my head even though it had cartoons and cartoon humor sprinkled throughout. And finally, I was hoping for a more current book since I believe genetics has made strides and breakthroughs since the 1985 publication of this book.
  The authors have written other cartoon books about a variety of subjects.
• 
  Aleisha Zolman

  this was a bit better than the the cartoon guide to chemistry. maybe i know more about it so that it makes it so, but it was definitely less formula driven. a good review for me in some areas, enough knowledge of key experiments and people and concepts to take a test to certify in Biology. I hope.
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  Vera Maharani

  This is awesome.
  
  Ever think biology sucks? And genetics...what the hell is that?
  
  I find this book funny and helps me a lot to learn genetics. Yes, the 'simpler' one like Mendellian genetics to the 'more complicated' one like molecular genetics! I first read it back in junior high and I could understand it well, even back then. Every so-called 'hard' subjects should be cartooned!
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  Rahul

  Larry Gonick is truly one of the finest educational comic book creator. He makes subjects so fun to read , even a layman can enjoy complex stuffs with humor and fascinating art. Although I could not understand many of the stuffs (my habit of leaving) I came to know about a lot of new things in tthe field of genetics as a layman.
• 
  Lio

  Extra Simplified Introduction to Genetics For Specialists and non-specialists, I recommend It For Every one :).
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  Pietro Poggi-Corradini

  Learned a lot, but I'm afraid it won't stick. I will likely have to return to it again in the future.
• 
  Anthony Faber

  A good overview of the history and some of the workings of genetics. A good introduction to the subject.
  
• 
  Mythreyi Ramesh

  One of the best introductions (and overviews) one can get of Genetics. Since from when I was in school, I liked Genetics (maybe because it was the only Maths part in the Biology we studied).
  
  It started with the basics which most, including me, are familiar with. But it then ventured into a new territory that I had never explored before, namely, "What is it that a gene does and how does it do it?".
  
  The illustrations are going to stick to my head and I loved the whole machinery (if I can use such a mechanised word for something much more beautiful) of making proteins.
  
  This is a book everyone can benefit from and I recommend it to anyone who's willing to see a little bit more into what makes a gorilla a gorilla and a banana a banana.*
  
  *sorry, but this example just had to be lifted off from the book :P
• 
  Zinat Tasnim

  One of the first books I read after taking on Computational Biology as my thesis topic. This book is wonderful for brushing off your rusty biology knowledge. The amazing graphics make even biology an interesting read.
• 
  Debra Golden

  My science background is lacking, but I had friends who got their PhD's in Genetics, so why not read this?
  I did know a lil bit, but it gets really into the proteins and such, so i powered.
  It's engaging and humorous and still raises serious questions.
  
  
• 
  Amy

  We’ve been using this book along with the kids’ science for years. It’s a super fun way to explore biology and genetics, but I’m finding that the format doesn’t work for everybody.
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  Lucas Apsey

  the most fascinating, hilarious, and informative book I have ever read.
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  Dominique Hall

  A little dated by now, but still a fun read and a good reference
  /refresher.
• 
  Emerson John Tiu Ng

  A nice book to understand Genetics
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  Keren Xu

  Fantastic book
• 
  athena

  informational and hilarious, a worth while read.
• 
  Julie

  Intéressant, mais plus historique (surtout au début) que réellement scientifique...
• 
  Yates Buckley

  Actually a handy reference even for those that have studied Genetics previously. The one down-side of the text is that it's uneven in covering theory with text, vs. diagrams and metaphorical situations. Still, the book should be on every shelf as it gives you back much more you put in. And note that not all these illustrated books, even others by Gonik, have the same effectiveness.
• 
  ALI GHARIB

  تعلم الوراثة بالرسوم
  من اروع الكتب التي قرأتها حتى الآن سواء بسبب محتواه العلمي الغزير
  او محتواه الرسومي الممتع والمسلي
  المساعد على تبسيط الفكرة
  وايصالها بطرح مختلفة عن المألوف
  عن طريق تحويل الفكرة العلمية الى نكته نثير الضحك تبقى راسخة في الذهن للأبد
  الكتاب يتحدث عن علم الوراثة منذ ان تشئ والتطورات التي مر بها حتى وصل الى الشكل النهائي الذي نراه اليوم
  بداية من
  كيفية تصور القدماء لعملية التكاثر والانجاب
  عن طريق التناسل التلقائي و تدخل الارواح
  من ثم اختراع لمجهر من قبل ليفنهوك التي اكتشف عن طريقه الحيوانات المنوية
  وصولا الى ان الجنين ناتج عن اتحاد نطفة من الاب مع بويضة من الأم
  وملاحظة ان هذه العملية تتم عند مختلف الكائنات الحية سواء الحيوانات منها او النباتات
  مرورا بالاعمال التي قام بها مندل و تجين حبوب البازلاء �� اكتشافه قوانين الوراثة الأولية واكتشافه للجينات
  ومن ثم الصبغيات و اطوار الانقسامات الخيطية والمنصفة
  
  الفروقات بين الذكر و الانثى الناتجة عن الصبغي واي
  
  بعض الامراض التي تنتقل عن طريق المورث اكس
  
  الطفرات
  
  ومن ثم اكتشاف الحامض النووي او المادة الوراثية
  واكتشاف ماتحويه بداخلها
  من جزيئات و بروتينات
  
  ومن ثم اكتشاف البنية اللولبية للحامض النووي منقوص الاكسجين DNA
  
  وكيفية الانتساخ و الترجمة وصناعة البروتينات داخل الكائنات حقيقية وبداءية النواة والفرق بينهما
  
  ومن ثم اكتشاف الفيروسات والتظيم الجيني و التوهين
  
  وصولا الى اخر ميادين الوراثة الا وهو الهندسة الوراثية
  وتطبيقاتها وفوائدها و مضارها