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Genes, in more context: a reply to a review of How Life Works

Philip Ball · 18 Apr 2024

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Lazy, outdated narratives about genes are hurting public understanding of genomics, medicine and genealogy.

    Their wordsIn particular, they have often been given lazy, outdated and misleading narratives about genes that are now causing problems for public understanding of genomic technologies, medicines, and genealogies.

  2. Our reading

    The role of genes is not that of a blueprint or an instruction book.

    Their wordsI want rather to examine exactly what that role is. I suggest that it is not a “blueprint” role, nor an “instruction book” role.

  3. Our reading

    Agency in biology is not a mysterious property that goes where mechanism cannot.

    Their wordsAgency is not about that! It is not some mysterious property that goes where mechanism cannot.

  4. Our reading

    Biologists' failure to recognize agency, the central property of living things, is an extraordinary gap in biology.

    Their wordsmany biologists struggle even to recognize what agency – the central property of all living things – can mean. As I say in the book, this is an extraordinary lacuna in biology.

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