''Exploding the Gene Myth: How Genetic Information is Produced and Manipulated by Scientists, Physicians, Employers, Insurance Companies, Educators, and Law Enforcers'' is a 1993 book by biologist

Ruth Hubbard Ruth Hubbard (March 3, 1924 – September 1, 2016) was a professor of biology at Harvard University, where she was the first woman to hold a tenured professorship position in biology. During her active research career from the 1940s to the 1960s ...

and her son

Elijah Wald Elijah Wald (born 1959) is an American folk blues guitarist and music historian. He is a 2002 Grammy Award winner for his liner notes to ''The Arhoolie Records 40th Anniversary Box: The Journey of Chris Strachwitz''. Life Wald was born in 1959 ...

, published by

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James ...

. The book is critical of many potential and actual uses of human genetic information, such as attempts to develop personalized medical treatments for

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

s based on an individual's

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

. A second edition was published in 1999, adding discussions of

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

and

pharming Pharming is a cyberattack intended to redirect a website's traffic to another, fake site by installing a malicious program on the computer. Pharming can be conducted either by changing the hosts file on a victim's computer or by exploitation of a ...

, among other subjects.

Reviews

In his review of the book's first edition,

Alan H. Goodman Alan H. Goodman is a biological anthropologist and author. He served as president of the American Anthropological Association from 2005 to 2007. With Yolanda Moses, he co-directs the American Anthropological Association's Public Education Proje ...

praised it as a "worthwhile read" and "an antidote to the rise of geneticization", while also admitting that he did not consider it to be "categorically the best book it could have been". In another mixed review, William J. McIntyre criticized the authors' biased presentation of the role played by DNA in human traits, while also describing the book as "good and valuable reading". Behavior geneticist David Rowe praised the book's discussion of socially controversial aspects of human genetics, but claimed that it failed to provide "either an evenhanded or accurate treatment of

molecular A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

and

behavioral genetics Behavioural genetics, also referred to as behaviour genetics, is a field of science, scientific research that uses genetics, genetic scientific method, methods to investigate the etiology, nature and origins of Differential psychology, indivi ...

References

1993 non-fiction books Beacon Press books Genetics books {{genetics-book-stub