Gene Machine
The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome
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Narrated by:
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Matthew Waterson
About this listen
Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us.
Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.
But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling experiments in a biology lab to being the dark horse in a fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. In the end, Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science.
©2018 Venki Ramakrishnan (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
- The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman, from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science - a life like no other. From his ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will delight anyone interested in the world of ideas.
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Interesting, but material is covered in better book.
- By Erlend on 04-06-16
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The Idea Factory
- Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
- By: Jon Gertner
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Idea Factory, New York Times Magazine writer Jon Gertner reveals how Bell Labs served as an incubator for scientific innovation from the 1920s through the1980s. In its heyday, Bell Labs boasted nearly 15,000 employees, 1200 of whom held PhDs and 13 of whom won Nobel Prizes. Thriving in a work environment that embraced new ideas, Bell Labs scientists introduced concepts that still propel many of today’s most exciting technologies.
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Great story -- horrible pauses
- By Rodney on 01-29-13
By: Jon Gertner
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Robert Oppenheimer
- A Life Inside the Center
- By: Ray Monk
- Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom
- Length: 35 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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A comprehensive biography
- By Jean on 10-17-14
By: Ray Monk
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Great Scientists and Their Discoveries
- By: David Angus
- Narrated by: Benjamin Soames, Clare Corbett
- Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Nine remarkable men produced inventions that changed the world. The printing press, the telephone, powered flight, recording and others have made the modern world what it is. But who were the men who had these ideas and made reality of them? As David Angus shows, they were very different - quiet, boisterous, confident, withdrawn - but all had a moment of vision allied to single-minded determination to battle through numerous prototypes and produced something that really worked. This is a fascinating account for younger listeners.
By: David Angus
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The Strangest Man
- The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
- By: Graham Farmelo
- Narrated by: B. J. Harrison
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Dirac was among the great scientific geniuses of the modern age. One of the discoverers of quantum mechanics, the most revolutionary theory of the past century, his contributions had a unique insight, eloquence, clarity, and mathematical power. His prediction of antimatter was one of the greatest triumphs in the history of physics.
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Excellent biography of great physicist
- By Eileen on 05-09-13
By: Graham Farmelo
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The Day We Found the Universe
- By: Marcia Bartusiak
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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From one of our most acclaimed science writers: a dramatic narrative of the discovery of the true nature and startling size of the universe, delving back past the moment of revelation to trace the decades of work--by a select group of scientists--that made it possible.
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Worth the Effort
- By Roy on 08-13-09
By: Marcia Bartusiak
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13 Things That Don't Make Sense
- The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Science starts to get interesting when things don't make sense. Science's best-kept secret is that there are experimental results and reliable data that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. If history is any precedent, we should look to today's inexplicable results to forecast the future of science. Michael Brooks heads to the scientific frontier to meet 13 modern-day anomalies and discover tomorrow's breakthroughs.
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10 interesting chapters-read epiloge first
- By Stephen on 06-10-09
By: Michael Brooks
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How the Hippies Saved Physics
- Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival
- By: David Kaiser
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In the 1970s, amid severe cutbacks in physics funding, a small group of underemployed physicists in Berkeley decided to throw off the constraints of academia and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued a freewheeling, speculative approach to physics. Some dabbled with LSD while conducting experiments. They studied quantum theory alongside Eastern mysticism and psychic mind reading, discussing the latest developments while lounging in hot tubs.
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Finally, I understand entanglement
- By Gary on 05-27-12
By: David Kaiser
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What Is Real?
- The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
- By: Adam Becker
- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
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Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
- By James S. on 03-31-18
By: Adam Becker
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Decent Overview. Could lose sarcasm.
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What’s the point
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There is a Caveat
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Brilliant. The book was fantastic and level headed. I appreciated also the way he criticized Sinclair.
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Begins Accessible, Then Becomes Too Technical
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Decent Overview. Could lose sarcasm.
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a discredit to women scientists everywhere
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Probably the best audio book available on Deep Learning
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Odd choice of narrator
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Excellent review of Genetics Research
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Epigenetics: How Environment Changes Your Biology
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Epigenetics is the science of living DNA, charting the chemical pathways that spur DNA into action by turning genes on and off. While the Human Genome Project of the early 2000s was hailed as the key to understanding human heredity and disease, that historic effort was just the beginning. It has taken epigenetics to fill in the picture, explaining how the fixed code of our genome is implemented in countless living processes.
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Disappointing.
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The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
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Is a neural circuit like a red or green signal?
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Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying
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For modern science, the transitional states of consciousness lie at the forefront of research in many fields. For a Buddhist practitioner, these same states present crucial opportunities to explore and transform consciousness itself. This book is the account of a historic dialogue between leading Western scientists and the Dalai Lama of Tibet. Revolving around three key moments of consciousness - sleep, dreams, and death - the conversations recorded here are both engrossing and highly listenable.
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was captain Spock not available?
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Immune
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You wake up and feel a tickle in your throat. Your head hurts. You’re mildly annoyed as you get the kids ready for school and dress for work yourself. Meanwhile, an epic war is being fought, just below your skin. Millions are fighting and dying for you to be able to complain as you head out the door. So what, exactly, is your immune system? In Immune, Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind the most popular science channel on YouTube, takes listeners on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses.
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Steve Taylor for the win
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Paradox
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
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By: Jim Al-Khalili
What listeners say about Gene Machine
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- James
- 05-03-19
Very slow, more life story
Not that much about Ribosome processing and it’s biology more about authors life story. Quasi interesting a bit of a Yanning experience
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- Rich H.
- 04-11-20
Highly technical, way over my head
This book was well done, but I thought it would be an overview for those not familiar with the field. I found it way more technical than I expected.
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- John from NorCAL
- 12-05-24
Shared Nobel prize winner
Journey of an Indian Nobel prize chemist. Story is very dry, disappointing and lacks humor and insight. The author comes across as honest, very bright and hard working. Explains the many errors that occurred and the competition between labs to be first to publish.
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- Mary Beth Alban
- 11-28-19
Exciting Review of Excellence in Science
This audible book has been a decades long history of research in finding and showing the genome be accessible. Especially the Ribosome . I now want to learn more, though I am a 78 year old musician and retired computer scientist. just enjoy learning about life.
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- Rick B
- 06-14-21
The Force of Life!
When I started this book, I imagined it would give me a solid definition of the gene machine. What I learned is that with our current technology, as good as it is, we have not been able to yet complete the definition or the entire process. This is a like getting on roller coaster that won't stop, but you don't want to stop either. There are so many details and the more you learn, the more there is to learn. The cell, the basic unit of life is more complex in it's parts and functions and is truly the atom of biology. The genes are just the beginning of the gene machine. Imagine a complete manufacturing facility producing a product that runs on it's own 24/7, then consider this is what happens inside each cell more than a trillion in each of us. More than than just one manufacturing facility, now imagine there are 100's or 1000's or more of these manufacturing plants maintaining an almost perfect output of products. Now you begin to understand the complexity of a single cell, much less all the individual parts that make us who we are. I highly recommend this book and narration, it will keep you engaged, and if like me, you will listen more than once. What is most amazing to me is that all these processes are internally driven. Other than our eating and sleeping habits, the gene machine moves on.
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- wbiro
- 04-30-19
Interesting on Three Levels
(1) The life of a research scientist, (2) the politics among research scientists (3) the life of a person. The book is not a science book, the author states in the beginning that the book is a memoir (of an entire career in science, it turns out).
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- annelise
- 05-13-19
the ribosome rules!
I absolutely loved this book. It's amazing how it takes a scientific story that could be very boring and makes it into a wonderful adventure. I would recommend this to the scientist and the non scientist a like.
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- A Person With An Opinion
- 11-19-19
The 30S Subunit Ribosomes Work With Antibiotics
I thought that this book was a good read after reading James Watson’s personal account of his discovery of the double-stranded molecule structure that forms DNA in his book, Double Helix. This book delved into the ribosomes and how they were used to fight bacteria in mainly a 30S subunit with the use of antibiotics. It explained the electrical bonding that is formed between the antibiotic and the E. coli protein enzyme aka the ribosome. It discusses how color coding the ribosome helped identify the bonding agents that blocked the ribosome from entering the cellular structure and what different agents bonded with different parts of the 30S subunit.
Outside of the topic of ribosomes, Ramakrishnan discussed his journey and opinions on the Noble Prize, the sanctity of the organization that awards it or their lack of it and his experience in winning the Noble Prize for his work in ribosomes. It was a very interesting book that was well worth reading.
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- Adam
- 12-21-22
Not interesting if you want to learn about biology
Hoped to learn more about biological details. Mostly describes the history of the path towards the structure of the ribosome.
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- Sheila
- 04-01-19
Dense, chatty story
Gene Machine is an entertaining view of the scientific forays of a Nobel Prize recipient. He gives detailed explanation of crystals and their role in building understanding of the ribosome. Though technical, the story of the teams, personalities and struggles encountered adds humor and interest to the book.
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11 people found this helpful