Scope: Each cell of an organism contains strands of DNA and protein. There are about 80,000 different genes on a human cell that determine features of an individual. Genes account for a relatively small percentage of DNA sequence. In 1953 biologist James Watson and chemist Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) which led to continued scientific studies including the Human Genome Project which hoped to create a type of “genetic map” to explore all the genes in a living organism. (Newton, David E. Social Issues in Science and Technology)

OVERVIEW SOURCES:

REF Q175.5.N49 1999 Social Issues in Science and Technology
REF Q175.46.S35 2000 Science and Its Times
REFQ173.S427 1999 Science Desk Reference

CIRCULATING BOOKS

Cooper, Necia Grant, ed. The Humane Genome Project: Deciphering the Blueprint of Heredity. Mill Valley, California: University Science Books, 1994.

Cranor, Carl F. Are Genes Us?: The Social Consequences of the New Genetics. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Doyle, James M. True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science, and the Battle Against Misidentification. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Gee, Henry. Jacob’s Ladder: The History of the Human Genome. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.

Hazene, Robert M. Gen.e.sis: The Scientific Quest for Life’s Origin. Washington, DC. Joseph Henry Press, 2005.

Krawczak, M. & J. Schmidtke. DNA Fingerprinting. New York: Bios Scientific Publishers Ltd, 1998.

Lee, Dr. Henry C. & Frank Tirnady. Blood Evidence: How DNA is Revolutionizing the Way We Solve Crimes. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2003.

Lewontin, Richard C. Biology as Ideology. New York: HarperPerennial,
1992.

Pollack, Robert. Signs of Life: The Language and Meanings of DNA. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994.

Ridley, Matt. The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nuture. Fourth Estate,
2003.

Ridley, Matt. Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us
Human. New York: HarperCollins, 2003.

Watson, James. The Double Helix. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968.

Watson, James D. DNA: The Secret of Life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
2003.

Watson, James D. & John Tooze. The DNA Story. San Francisco: W.H.
Freeman and Company, 1981.

PERIODICALS, JOURNALS, & TRADE PUBLICATIONS

Open Access Journals in Genetics

WEB SITES

DNA: The Instruction Manual for All Life
http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/genome
An interactive and very informative exhibit created by the Tech Museum of Innovation

DNA Forensics
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/forensics.shtml
Human Genome Project Information with links, publications, glossary, etc. simply everything you always wanted to know about genetics.

Tour of the Basics(University of Utah)
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/basics/tour/

Updated 11/26/2007