The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee review – intriguing and entertaining

Despite flaws, this lively and accessible history of the gene and its implications for the future is bursting with complex ideas

In 2010, researchers launched a study, the Strong African American Families project, in one of the bleakest, most impoverished areas of rural Georgia, a place overrun by alcoholism, violence, mental illness and drug use. "Abandoned clapboard houses with broken windows dot the landscape," Siddhartha Mukherjee tells us. "Crime abounds. Vacant parking lots are strewn with hypodermic needles. Half the adults lack a high school education and nearly half the families have single mothers." You get the picture.

The scientists wanted to know how an individual's genetic makeup might help or hinder their chances of surviving this grim background, and so began testing local families to determine which variant of a gene known as 5-HTTLRP they possessed. One, known as the short variant, had previously been linked to individuals prone to depression, alcoholism and anxiety. The other, the long variant, was associated with relative "normality".

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