.06.21 — Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA, Neal Shubin

What it is?

A detailed tracing of the evolution of both life and our collective understanding of it. Shubin focuses this work on a series of illuminative species in the fossil record. He also explores the complex genetic borrowing, and outright theft, between organisms. Some of the most richly detailed passages in the book come when Shubin explains the ideas and research process that led to advances in our understanding of how life works. Two particularly interesting sections detail the experiences of an amateur statistics student who spent years painstakingly coloring proteins in a lab before making a critical finding, and a geneticist who meticulously weighed chromosome cutouts to make estimated DNA measurements.

My thoughts

This is a book I wish I had read in physical format instead of listening to the audiobook. The information is engaging, yet meaty, and there were a number of moments where I wished I had the ability to easily flip back and scan a page to make sense of where I was at. Shubin does an excellent job enlivening his writing by sharing anecdotes about his own personal encounters with key researchers in the field. These little anecdotes reveal the level of devotion many researchers have to their work. For instance, one researcher was so upset about a disagreement that decades later he is still unable to calmly speak about it. Hearing about this passion, and the brilliant minds burning with it, makes you certain that we are only at the cusp of understanding the coding of life, and that rapid near term progress is all but certain.