The Epigenetics Revolution
Nessa Carey

Book Reviews

• "  A book that would have had Darwin swooning...Nessa Carey, science director for a leading epigenetics biotech company and a lecturer in genetics at Imperial College, writes brightly and humanely and is full of optimism for this exciting new dawn – both for the deep understanding of life and the potential for medical applications... Carey's book is the first to set out the epigenetics stall for the general reader, and anyone seriously interested in who we are and how we function should read this book. "
  The Guardian
• "   Just over a decade since Matt Ridley's seminal Genome, Nessa Carey presents a hugely compelling explanation of the very latest from the frontline of modern biology... The Epigenetics Revolution traces the thrilling path this discipline has taken over the last twenty years."
  Artswrap
• "  a lively and up-to-date tour of what's known about epigenetic mechanisms and their implications for ageing and cancer. "
  Focus Magazine
• "Nessa Carey, a molecular biologist, explains all clearly, while sucking in the uninitiated with intriguing tales of queen bees, tortoiseshell cats, un-identical identical twins and lots more."
  The Australian
• "Her book combines an easy style with a textbook’s thoroughness... Carey’s book is full of illustrations and entertaining metaphors. She describes the nucleosome as DNA wrapped around “eight ping-pong balls … like a long liq­uorice whip around marshmallows”, and sees DNA as a film script, with plenty of room for interpretation and retakes. Carey’s experience of the biotechnology industry shows in her concluding remarks on the pros and cons of our growing understand­ing of epigenetics for drug discovery, and on understanding the impact of diet and environment on disease.  "
  Nature
• "Without doubt this is a fascinating subject, and Carey provides plenty of examples of how epigenetics effects our development, our diseases and the way we inherit characteristics. I was genuinely surprised and delighted by many of the revelations. This is really significant stuff, that hasn't made its way into many of the popular science genetics titles. What's more Carey's style is highly approachable and readable... a truly eye-opening and exciting book on an important and under-reported topic. For some reason so many books on human biology concentrate on emotions and morality and other aspects on the edge of brain science - it was great to find a book that really took us back to basics, but in a new way."
  Popular Science
• "British virologist Carey tackles epigenetics with a passion to explain a rapidly developing and complex field.... An exhilarating exploration of an exciting new field, and a good gift for a bright biology student looking for a career choice. "
  Kirkus
• "an enlightening introduction to what scientists have learned in the past decade."
  Wall Street Journal
• "...intriguing reading for pharmacists interested in the emerging sciences concerning genetic health and disease."
  Pharmaceutical Journal
• "Nessa Carey has a gift for the expression of complicated scientific concepts in clear and simple terms and brings to life the personalities responsible for key advances. She reveres the philosophies of science, in particular the principle of hypothesis and test, the crucial importance of a well-chosen experimental system, and the power of incisive thought. This something-for-everyone book cohesively spans the range between professional and popular readership."
  Otago Daily Times
• "   I would recommend The Epigenetics Revolution highly to anyone seeking an introduction to epigenetics. It is comprehensive in its coverage, generally well written and introduces basic information and concepts as they are required, rather than having a tedious ‘genetics 101’ chapter early on in the book, a feature of popular science books that often leads me to abandon them prematurely. It gives a sense of both the promise and the challenge of epigenetics in a way that is useful to people with a peripheral engagement with the field. It is up to date and the occasional errors (e.g. it is suggested that techniques for assessing DNA methylation mistake 5 hydroxymethylated for unmethylated DNA, whereas the misreading is to classify both 5-hydroxymethylcytosine and 5-methylcytosine as methylated 7) are at a level of technicality that means the primary literature would need to be read before any use could be made of the concepts. All in all, this is a book to buy and read.    "
  International Journal of Epidemiology
• "  A clear and very readable survey of current research in epigenetics...An excellent and largely accurate account of a fascinating and fast-moving area of modern biology."
  Times Literary Supplement
• "As an introduction to this emerging field, The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey is a must-read for every intelligent person who likes to know what is going on in modern science. Dr. Carey does an excellent job of relating the history of the subject with all the key ideas clearly laid out and all the necessary background in genetics and cell biology carefully included. You don’t need to be a biologist or chemist to enjoy this book. Everything you need to follow the argument is succinctly provided, without distracting excursions into other fields. There are even genuinely helpful diagrams, many with cute mice in them, to illuminate some of the more complex ideas.... this book is well worth reading. The science of epigenetics is going to be huge in the 21st century, and The Epigenetics Revolution is a very supportive way to become acquainted with its fundamentals. Dr Carey writes well and clearly. The pace is easy and the overall story she tells is coherent and convincing. Not every single facet of the science is covered (no mention is made of the the modification of RNA—as opposed to DNA—by one of the key epigenetic mechanisms, for example), but epigenetics is already a large field and is growing fast.  The Epigenetics Revolution isn’t meant as a textbook or a comprehensive survey. It is an introductory text for the layperson and as such, does its job brilliantly."
  New York Journal of Books
• "Epigeneticist Nessa Carey brings the emergent and controversial field of epigenetics to a wide audience. Carey’s lively vision of how DNA works resembles a film script, with “plenty of room for interpretation and retakes."
  Nature