Human molecular genetics

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1. carOct 2018
   Human Molecular Genetics by Strachan and Read
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2. timrJan 2008
   If you just want to read, there are a few books that are detailed, but still accessible. Any one would give you a much better understanding of what's possible:

   * Human Molecular Genetics by Strachan and Read -- this is a tome, but it's a great introductory reference to the field. (A lot of first-year grad students read this book when coming to molecular genetics from engineering and CS, incidentally.)

   * Molecular Biology of the Cell, by Alberts et al. -- an even bigger tome, but one you'll find on every researcher's bookshelf.

   * Genes NN by Lewin (where NN is an ever-increasing roman numeral; you can estimate the amount of time someone has been in the field by the size of the roman numeral on their copy) -- this is more of an undergraduate introduction to molecular genetics. The other books (especially MBC) are more useful as references, but this book is fairly accessible to newcomers.

   * Recombinant DNA by Watson et al. -- I hesitate to include this in the list, because it's now sadly outdated (written in 1992), but I still think it's one of the best-written, most accessible introductions to things like transgenics, genetic engineering, etc. Describes everything in a friendly, Scientific American style. It's also small. If you want a quick, friendly introduction to what was state-of-the-art 15 years ago, this is a great book.

   I know that most of these books are kind of thick, and that you said you didn't want to digest the whole curriculum, but I don't tend to read pop-science books in this field. I don't have much of an opinion on any particular popularization of molecular genetics. But if you want to gain a real understanding of molecular biology, these are the books you'd most likely be told to buy for molecular genetics 101 at your local university.

   PS: the giant metal birds eat Acme brand exploding bird seed, naturally....

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