Gene Machine

Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan tells the thrilling story of how scientists unlocked a new window onto how life works ‘Beyond superb.’ Bill Bryson ‘A wonderful book.’ Ian McEwan Everyone knows about DNA, the essence of our being, the molecule where our genes reside. But DNA by itself is useless without a machine to decode the genetic information it contains. The ribosome is that machine . Venki Ramakrishnan tells the story of the race to uncover its enormously complex structure, a fundamental breakthrough that resolves an ancient mystery of life itself.

Nobel Prize winner Venki Ramakrishnan tells the thrilling story of how scientists unlocked a new window onto how life works ‘Beyond superb.’ Bill Bryson ‘A wonderful book.’ Ian McEwan Everyone knows about DNA, the essence of our being, the molecule where our genes reside. But DNA by itself is useless without a machine to decode the genetic information it contains. The ribosome is that machine . Venki Ramakrishnan tells the story of the race to uncover its enormously complex structure, a fundamental breakthrough that resolves an ancient mystery of life itself.

A Nobel Prize-winning biologist's "engaging and witty" ( Forbes ) memoir tells the riveting story of his race to discover the inner workings of biology's most important molecule Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome--an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms--that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the ribosome's structure, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases. But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling lab experiments to his fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science.

A Nobel Prize-winning biologist's "engaging and witty" ( Forbes ) memoir tells the riveting story of his race to discover the inner workings of biology's most important molecule Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome--an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms--that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us. Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the ribosome's structure, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases. But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling lab experiments to his fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science.