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Identically Different

Why You Can Change Your Genes

Professor Tim Spector author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Orion Publishing Co

Published:6th Jun '13

Should be back in stock very soon

Identically Different cover

Professor Tim Spector reveals the astonishing new science that is changing everything we thought we knew about genes and identity. 'Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive ... a great read!' Michael Mosley

Professor Tim Spector reveals the astonishing new science that is changing everything we thought we knew about genes and identity - 'Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive' MICHAEL MOSLEY

'This is not simply a book of ideas, it is also a book of stories, most astounding, many heartbreaking' - Bryan Appleyard, SUNDAY TIMES

Since the discovery of DNA, scientists have believed that genes are fixed entities that cannot be changed by environment - we inherit them, pass them on to our children and take them with us when we die.

Professor Tim Spector reveals how the latest genetic research and his own pioneering studies on epigenetics are rewriting everything we thought we knew about genes, identity and evolution. Conceptually, he explains, our genes are not fixed entities but more like plastic, able to change shape and evolve, and these changes can be passed on to future generations.

Tim Spector's dazzling guide to the hidden world of our genes reveals the complex role they play in shaping our identities, and will make you think again about everything from sexuality to religion, cancer to autism, politics to pubic hair, clones to bacteria, and what it is that makes us all so unique and quintessentially human.

Tim Spector's book turns genetics on its head. Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive. it is a great read! -- Michael Mosley
It is a complex concept, but Spector drifts easily through difficult scientific explanations, offering lucid, easy-to-follow prose... a provocative read. * SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
This science book guides us, via artful storytelling and ground breaking research using identical twins, to reconsider the flexibility and power of our genes. -- Ijeoma Onweluzo * THE LADY *
It is provocative stuff, but all couched in the fresh and fast-paced style of popular science. * GOOD BOOK GUIDE *
Spector will get you through many dinner parties. But, much more importantly, he will show how a certain kind of scientific fundamentalism collapsed under the burden of its inability to explain the world as it is - complex, flowing, changing - rather than as they would like it to be - simple and clear. Read him. * SUNDAY TIMES *
A fascinating and provocative book...Spector is a talented story-teller, weaving real-life accounts of identical twins into each chapter...This is an informative and thought-provoking tour of some of the most exciting areas in biology right now. Spector concludes by inviting us to imagine a future in which we see our genes as malleable, rather than as masters of our biological destiny - just one part of the endlessly complex and fascinating story of what makes each of us unique. * NEW SCIENTIST *
Identically Different is a fresh and though-provoking book on how the environment affects epigenetics. * BBC FOCUS MAGAZINE *
In Identically Different, Tim Spector, a world-renowned authority on twins, introduces us in an entertaining, eloquent and expert way to the new (yet old) science of epigenetics: the study of how the environment can influence our genes and how those influences can be passed on to future generations. * TES *
This book is a fascinating exploration of our current understanding of what makes us what we are: health, behaviour, and personality. * JOURNAL OF TWIN RESEARCH AND HUMAN GENETICS *
Tim Spector's book turns genetics on its head. Lucid, surprising and with a very human face. It brings epigenetics alive. it is a great read! -- Michael Mosley
It is a complex concept, but Spector drifts easily through difficult scientific explanations, offering lucid, easy-to-follow prose... a provocative read. * THE SUNDAY BUSINESS POST *
This science book guides us, via artful storytelling and ground breaking research using identical twins, to reconsider the flexibility and power of our genes. -- Ijeoma Onweluzo * THE LADY *
It is provocative stuff, but all couched in the fresh and fast-paced style of popular science. * THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE *

ISBN: 9781780220901

Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 26mm

Weight: 240g

352 pages