23 pairs of genes contain everything about us!
World-renowned science writer and bestselling author
An exciting genomic journey with Matt Ridley!

Selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2000, #1 in the nonfiction category!

A popular science humanities book written in an easy-to-understand manner for general readers.

Genes and the human genome have now become the stars of science.
Genome already has several fan science journals devoted solely to its work, and it has websites dedicated to its research and its findings, including those of the National Human Genome Research Institute and the private company Celera Genomics.
Even those outside the scientific community have come to anticipate new discoveries about the genome with the same fervor as Madonna's next album.
This is because I was fascinated by the unprecedented and destructive potential of the genome, such as conquering incurable diseases and extending life.
But where there is yang, yin will always follow.
As the codes of the genome, the book that holds the secrets of life's records, began to be deciphered one by one, humans became obsessed with fate and eugenics, and began to disregard life, discriminate against humans, and destroy the ecosystem, which led to serious economic and ethical debates.


That's why now is the time for all of us to re-evaluate our perspective on the genome.
Rather than looking at only one aspect of the genome and discussing its pros and cons, we should take a comprehensive look at the genome's self-portrait, and we should actively take the lead in expressing our personal opinions on how to utilize the genome, rather than leaving it to scientists, doctors, governments, and economic organizations.


At this time, popular and representative science writer Matt Ridley came out with the autobiography of the genome, “The Blueprint of Life: Genome.”
This book does not simply contain technical and analytical content that only scientists need and can understand, such as what a genome is, what its structure is, what its function is, and how to modify and utilize the genome.
To help us gain a better understanding of the genome as a whole, we've chosen one distinctive gene for each of the 23 chromosomes and challenged scientists to explain how it was discovered and what impact it has on humans.
Above all, unlike other existing science books that were difficult for the general public to access due to their technical terminology and difficult writing style, this book increases readers' understanding through a witty and flowing writing style, as if a competent tour guide were personally guiding them through the field.
In a word, it can be said to be a humanistic science book.
Thanks to this, it has been consistently selling well on Amazon for over 15 years since its publication.

In the beginning there was a horse (here, horse can be interpreted as gene - translator).
The words repeatedly and endlessly copied themselves, making the sea a place imbued with the meaning of life.
Horses sustain life by extracting energy from the process of rearranging chemicals.
Those words transformed the dusty surface of this planet into a paradise filled with greenery.
He had created this wonderful, squishy device called the human brain, which could detect and recognize words themselves.
Every time I thought about this, my flabby body got excited.
It is a great fortune to be living in this era in the 4 billion years of Earth's history, and it is a great blessing to be born as a human being with consciousness among the 5 million species of living things.
I also consider it a personal honor to have been born in the country that discovered the secret of language among the 7 billion people on this planet.
In the long history of the Earth, among its diverse life forms, and on this landmass called Earth, two humans of the same species as me discovered a structure called DNA.
--- pp.17-18

We know these facts because they are written in our genes.
In the 1950s, the renowned anatomist Young wrote that it was unclear whether humans descended from a common ancestor with apes or from a separate lineage of primates more than 60 million years ago.
Some people still think that orangutans are our closest cousins.
But now we know that gorillas diverged first from the human family tree, followed by chimpanzees, and that the split between humans and chimpanzees may have been less than 5 million years ago, not 10 million years ago.
(…) The chromosomal differences between chimpanzees and humans are minimal or non-existent, except for the fusion of chromosome 2.
No noticeable differences were found among the 23 chromosomes.
If we were to randomly select a 'paragraph' of the chimpanzee genome and compare it to the same 'paragraph' of the human genome, it would be quite difficult to find any 'characters' that differ.
On average, there are only two or fewer differences in every 100 genes.
We are 98% chimpanzees, and chimpanzees are 98% humans.
If that doesn't hurt your pride, consider that chimpanzees are 97% similar to gorillas.
And humans are 97% similar to gorillas.
In other words, we can say that we are closer to chimpanzees than gorillas.
--- pp.38-40

Perhaps the most controversial genetic discovery was that made by Dean Hammer in 1993.
He announced that he had discovered a gene on the X chromosome that influences sexual orientation.
The media began to take interest in this gene and named it the 'gay gene'.
Around the same time as Hammer, several research papers were published, all concluding that homosexuality has a "biological" cause, not cultural pressure or conscious choice.
Some of these studies were conducted by homosexuals who were convinced that their condition was 'innate' and wanted to make this known to the public.
Simon Levay, a neuroscientist at the Salt Institute, is a prime example.
They thought that if people could explain that their way of life was due to innate tendencies rather than 'choices', then people would be less prejudiced.
--- p.150

Humans are very similar to monkeys.
Before it was discovered that monkeys lower in the hierarchy were more likely to have heart disease, it was discovered that the lower the rank of civil servants working in central government buildings in London, England, the higher the incidence of heart disease.
A large-scale, multi-year study of 17,000 government employees yielded a conclusion that was almost unbelievable.
A person's job title was more accurate in predicting their risk of having a heart attack than their weight, smoking, or high blood pressure.
People in low-status jobs, such as cleaners, were four times more likely to have a heart attack than high-status, formal secretaries.
Even if the secretary was fat, had high blood pressure, and smoked, she was less likely to have a heart attack than a cleaner of the same age, who was thin, non-smoking, and had low blood pressure.
This is consistent with the results of a study of one million employees at Bell Telephone Company in the 1960s.
(…) The idea that people with high positions and busy work or lives are more prone to stress and heart disease has become an outdated and unacceptable notion.
Of course, it is true that there are some reasons for this, but they are not that great.
Scientists are now increasingly pointing to external factors, such as location in the workplace, rather than physiological ones.
Your heart depends on your salary.
What on earth is going on? --- pp.198-199

If the genome is eternal, why does the physical body die? Even after four billion years of continuous replication, the messages contained in your genes remain intact, as they are digital codes. However, human skin gradually loses elasticity as we age.
(…) Part of the answer to that question comes from a gene called TEP1, located on chromosome 14. The product of TEP1 is a protein that forms part of a very strange little biochemical machine called telomerase.
Simply put, without telomerase, aging occurs.
Adding telomerase can make some cells live forever.
--- pp.248-249

The human genome is like a book.
A skilled professional could create a perfect human body by carefully reading from beginning to end, taking into account unusual features such as engravings.
Given the right techniques to properly read and interpret this book, a masterful modern-day Count Frankenstein could achieve feats.
What then? He merely created human flesh and injected it with the elixir of life, but to truly live, he must do something more than simply allow it to exist.
(…) the genome doesn't tell us when to beat our hearts, when to blink, or when to think.
Although genes determine personality, intelligence, and the very nature of human beings with remarkable precision, they only do so when they must.
Here on chromosome 16 are the genes that control learning and memory, which can be said to be one of the greatest representatives.
Although we humans are surprisingly determined by our genes, we are even more influenced by what we learn in life.
--- pp.277-278

As the new millennium dawns, we are at the point where we can, for the first time, compile a textbook on the genetic code.
The genetic code is no longer a precious manuscript, but the contents of a disk.
You can edit parts of the content, rearrange sentences, and overwrite new text.
This chapter is about how we can do this, whether we should actually do it, or why, when we try to do it, we feel so discouraged that we want to throw down our word processors (our computers) and declare that documents are sacrosanct.
It's about genetic engineering.
For most people, the ultimate destination, or if you will, ultimate gift of genetic research will be a human being created through genetic manipulation.
This means that one day, centuries from now, humans may emerge with completely new genes.
Currently, it refers to humans who have genes borrowed from other humans, plants or animals.
Is this possible? And if so, is it ethical?

--- pp.309-310