Reddit reviews Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

The fantastic book Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters has a great chapter on the Y chromosome: basically, the male fetus 'hacks' the mother antagonistically in ways that a female fetus never does. It sends out chemical signals to the mother, telling her that it's starving, so that the mother sends more nutrition than is required. In response, the mother seems to take potshots at the hack-filled Y chromosome. Over eons, this has resulted in a chromosome evolved for total war: it's rugged and simple, and either achieves total victory or catastrophic failure.

The actual formula seems to be: every new son has a 10% higher chance of being gay.

My next door neighbor growing up had 3 sons; the youngest was gay.

In the book Genome by Matt Ridley, the evidence and speculation suggests that it may have to do with the mother's very immune system fighting the "maleness" of the parasite (aka male fetus), and she simply gets better at it over time. It's an extremely interesting book.

It's part of a larger theme in the book that there is a very real war between the sexes happening at the biological level. It's just that most of the time it is a stalemate.

I'm saying that claiming DNA being "perfect" is even possible misunderstands the realities of DNA so much that it is about equal to someone thinking demons cause chickenpox. There is no perfect state of DNA, there never was, and there never will be, because we evolve according to our ever-changing environment and every change has trade-offs. If you really want details I suggest a book on the topic... this one isn't bad:

http://www.amazon.com/Genome-The-Autobiography-Species-Chapters/dp/0060932902

To add to my other reply, here is a good book if you actually want to learn about it:

http://www.amazon.com/Only-Theory-Evolution-Battle-Americas/dp/067001883X

I just finished this one, it's also very good:

http://www.amazon.com/Genome-Matt-Ridley/dp/0060932902

If you want a 2 hour lecture by a Catholic Biologist on ID/Evolution, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVRsWAjvQSg

I recommend these.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

http://www.amazon.com/Genome-Autobiography-Species-23-Chapters/dp/0060932902

Genome is one of those casual science books, but it's pretty interesting.

If you have no knowledge of Biology though, I would start with a 100 level college textbook.

His use of the 'mutation' as negative for one. He seems to think of a mutation like he thinks of sin.

If anyone wants to know more about genetics, this is an entertaining book for beginners.

http://www.amazon.com/Genome-The-Autobiography-Species-Chapters/dp/0060932902

> Are you really going to stand up and state categorically that it is impossible for all humans to be descended from two original humans with a perfect and complete genome?

There is no perfect genome.