A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology
The plants and animals who taught us the facts of life
Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2007.
Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for non-fiction.
Published in the UK by William Heinemann (you can order it from Amazon UK using the link on the right).
Published in the USA by Harvard University Press.
Reviews
Endersby brings to life the scientists of the times — their passions, conflicts, successes, and quirks. The book’s bibliography is rich: nearly 50 pages, including publications and personal journals to which he was allowed access. I found the book highly entertaining and enlightening for the geneticist, but it is also written in a fashion appropriate for the well-read lay audience having an interest in science.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation (May 2008)
To read the full review, click here.
"Focusing on organisms allows Endersby to go beyond their purely scientific significance, strolling through broader cultural and natural histories that lend the book great readability and charm...
... Enjoy this book, and then pass it on to a nonscientist relative or friend, and talk about it with them. In doing so, you will build a bridge and act as a citizen-scientist in the best sense of the word."
Lyn Nyhart Nature Genetics (April 2008)
To read the full review, click here.
"Endersby presents an admirably lucid explanation of both the scientific issues at stake and of the human and social factors that influenced the course of the research. In his narrative, the scientists, from the explosive J.B.S. Haldane to the flamboyant Barbara McClintock, come to life in all the grandeur of their genius as well as their quite considerable wackiness. At the same time, he never loses sight of the fact that these remarkable figures worked among a throng of silent and involuntary collaborators. Without the primrose, the guinea pig, the zebra fish, and the ear of corn, even the least of life's secrets might have slipped from our grasp".
New York Sun (30 January 2008)
To read the full review, click here.
"Like all the sciences, biology is rooted in observation, but in order to tease out the principles of reproduction and genetic inheritance, biologists needed to find plants and animals with fast breeding cycles—hence the popularity of guinea pigs, zebra fish and fruit flies as experimental subjects. Endersby's history explains how such life forms have been put to use by scientists from Charles Darwin's age to the present. But the flora and fauna are just a hook for Endersby, a lecturer in history at the University of Sussex, to talk about the scientists, and he's often at his most winning delving into biographical details, like the friendship between science writer Paul de Kruif and Sinclair Lewis, whom de Kruif advised on science and medicine for the novel Arrowsmith. He's also good at spotlighting small events that had sweeping consequences, like the 1847 repeal of a British tax on glass, which led to more greenhouses, which led to an outburst of botanical observation. Later chapters broach hot-button topics like genetically modified food and the backlash against animal testing. Endersby offers a fresh take and surprising conclusions (Mendel did not invent modern genetics) on familiar material".
Publishers Weekly
"Endersby has written a brilliant popular history of modern biology. Having mastered a vast scholarly literature, he expertly sets the science in its cultural context, explains difficult scientific concepts clearly, and offers a wise and entertaining account of some of the most important lines of research in the study of heredity, variation, and evolution over two centuries".
Sharon E. Kingsland
Johns Hopkins University.
"Endersby's engaging book covers a good range of the most important lab beasts, and chooses its stories well. It is an absorbing tale of the way our understanding of genetics has depended on a crucial set of involuntary collaborators, the unsung heroes of the laboratory."
Jon Turney The Independent (29 June 2007)
To read the full review, click here.
The conceit of this engaging
book is to tell how biologists have come to understand heredity
from the point of view of some of the plants and animals that have
been its central subjects. From observations made in the stable and
the greenhouse—of Arabian mares and passionflowers—Endersby
in effect traces the development of a model organisms approach to
biology in the modern laboratory, culminating in chapters on
zebrafish and Arabidopsis. More truly a history of genetics than a
history of biology, the book is illuminating and entertaining
throughout.
Angela Creager Science (29 June 2007)
"A highly entertaining and original book. Science is a collaborative process and by looking at the roles played by unwilling collaborators, from guinea pigs to zebrafish, Endersby provides a new perspective on the history of genetics".
Sunday Times (10 June 2007)
"Eye-opening and entertaining, this is cutting-edge history of science that everyone should read"
New Scientist magazine (issue 2603, 12 May 2007)
To read the full review, click here.
"With an enviable lightness of touch, Endersby weaves his scientific threads into a much broader tapestry of cultural history.
...read this accessible and engaging account to find out how we got here."
Georgina Ferry, The Guardian (Saturday June 2, 2007)
To read the full review, click here
"Jim Endersby’s book is packed with strange lore about the creatures that live in laboratories, but it is no mere miscellany. He has hit upon the bright idea of telling the story of reproduction, inheritance and evolution – and how we learnt about them, by focusing on a handful of creatures that have provided most of our knowledge... Endersby’s technique is a wonderfully roundabout way of telling some of the great stories of modern biology".
Peter Forbes, Daily Mail (18 May 2007)
To read the full review, click here
"Jim Endersby has come up with a fresh and rewarding approach. He illuminates the story of our understanding of life... by focusing on 12 organisms that have been most useful to natural scientists in illuminating one of life's central mysteries, inheritance. The result is a hefty, easily readable account of the remarkable progress biologists have made over the past two centuries to enrich our understanding of life...
A gem of popular science writing, both an entertainment and an education. It demonstrates that a talented historian can illuminate science that has come to appear jaded after too many retellings by authors with a meagre grasp of their subject's past".
Graham Farmelo, Sunday Telegraph (20 May 2007)
To read the full review, click here.
"In this astute, charming and witty book, Jim Endersby follows the careers of passionflowers and fruit flies, mice and fish and helps overthrow a host of myths that have beset the history of biology. He brings uncommon enthusiasm and infectious passion to his accounts of gardeners and travellers, farmers and priests. He shares his joy at gazing through microscopes at zebrafish, offers indispensable information about the roots of genetic modification and vivisection and concludes with a superbly judged exploration of the significance of campaigns around biotechnology and eugenics. This book will become a vital resource for anyone who cares about where our biological knowledge came from and why it matters so much to our future".
Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science,
University of Cambridge
"A Guinea Pig's History of Biology is a fascinatingly different take on the history of evolution, showing how science developed as a complex and fruitful interaction between individuals and the scientific world. As entertaining as it is enlightening".
Judith Flanders, author of Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian Britain
Blogs
A couple of people have mentioned the book in their blogs (thanks); for more details, click here.
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To find out more about some of the organisms (including the people) described in the book, click here.
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