In the final chapter of this book Tudge asks “What shall we do with all this power?” Genetics and the technologies which have, will, or may spring from it do indeed confer on mankind the power to do extraordinary things – if we decide to do so. We already have GM crops and in the future we could, perhaps, have GM people. As Tudge says everything is possible now or in the future limited only by the basic laws of physics. In a single century genetics has become probably the most potentially revolutionary agent for change that we have ever had. Already there are prophets of doom, those opposed to “genetic determinism”, rushing into print to forecast a kind of Brave New World – only worse. All too often such forecasts are based on a poor understanding of the science behind the biotechnologies they fear. Whichever side of the argument people find themselves at present they would do well to read this book.

In it they will find a balanced account of just how Mendel started the science we now call genetics, almost by accident. We are told his life story, about the society in which he lived, and how his work remained undiscovered by the biologists of his day, and why. Several people, including Galton, came close to founding genetics but it was the simplicity and elegance of Mendel’s experiments with peas which raised them into the genius class. Later Tudge explains how Mendelism and Darwinism were combined to form the basis of modern biology. In a real sense everything since then has been footnotes to their work. Darwin has been written about exhaustively; Mendel much less so and this book does something to redress the balance.

Darwin’s theory of evolution, descent with modification, changed dramatically our view of the natural world and our place in it. With the exception of the last-ditch creationists evolution is no longer a matter of debate. However, Mendel’s offspring, genetics, and its offspring, molecular biology, have quite recently become frontpage news and seem likely to remain controversial as the general public are regaled with stories about the Human Genome Project, discoveries of genes for all kinds of conditions, and the horrors or benefits of GM food.

Mendel would surely have been astounded at the interest now being shown in the science he founded. Tudge’s book is, therefore, timely and can be recommended to all who would like to know where and how genetics started, what it has achieved so far, what it might enable us to do in the future, and the kinds of decisions we, the human race, will need to take in the not-too-distant future.

John Timson