★★★☆☆ Too much personality and DNA

In the Beginning Was the Worm

Andrew Brown

I read this eleven years ago (10-Nov-2011), and was not super impressed. It didn't tell me much I didn't already know, and I am not so enamored of the personalities on which the book focuses.

I worked on the worm (C elegans) for most of my professional life -- from 1984 until 2015. My first International Worm Meeting was 1985. Thus, although I was not there for most of the events recounted here, I was there shortly after, and I heard about them from people who had experienced them first-hand. Thus, I didn't read this book expecting to learn more about C elegans research and researchers -- I read it to find out what people such as Andrew Brown have to say about it all. The focus on genome sequencing feels off to me. It was a big deal when it happens, but it isn't what most worm researchers care most about. We are mostly there for the biology. We LOVE the worm itself.

I know and respect most of the people involved, some more than others, but hardly any of them as much as Brown appears to want me to.

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