A Life Decoded

Critics

• Learning the lessons of life

  A Life Decoded: My Genome - My Life by J Craig Venter 390pp, Allen Lane, £25 Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science by James D Watson 347pp, Oxford, £14.99 "Swimming with one arm while being tumbled by 10 to 12ft waves and holdi ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• The Unraveling

  Correction Appended Who is Craig Venter? One answer is that he is the scientist who instigated the celebrated race between the government and his former company, Celera, to produce the first complete transcription of a human genome. By 2000, when the ... (read full critics)

  nytimes published on Sat, 18 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Well Written, Very Interesting

  A very good read. It's an autobiography, which tend to paint the writer in generous terms, but I think that this book paints an accurate and likable picture of Craig Venter for a few reasons. First, his childhood immediately grabs your attention, especially all of the what-ifs. Second, his actions i ... (continue)

  A very good read. It's an autobiography, which tend to paint the writer in generous terms, but I think that this book paints an accurate and likable picture of Craig Venter for a few reasons. First, his childhood immediately grabs your attention, especially all of the what-ifs. Second, his actions in adulthood back up the motives that he writes about, and he comes off as someone who pursued gene sequencing because of its potential and went private because his efforts at the NIH were seen as too risky.

  I read this book while in the middle of 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand. The day before I started reading 'A Life Decoded', my impression of 'Atlas Shrugged' was that it was way over the top with it's simplified view of the world as good and evil, and that new technology isn't demonized to such an extent. 'A Life Decoded' illustrated an individual striking out on their own to pursue something that nobody else believed in and actually succeeded, which fit very nicely. Rand books are still over the top and I don't agree with her most of the time, but this book nicely complements 'Atlas Shrugged'.

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  Joey Doll said on Jun 17, 2008 | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Hardcover 400 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0670063584
• ISBN-13: 9780670063581
• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Pub date: Oct 18, 2007
• Dimensions: 1548 mm x 1032 mm x 258 mm Just how big is that?

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