This book is
titled Genetics: Principles and Analysis, Fourth Edition, because it
embodies our belief that a good course in genetics should maintain the right
balance between two important aspects of the science. The first aspect is that
genetics is a body of knowledge pertaining to genetic transmission, function,
and mutation. This constitutes the Principles. The second aspect is that
genetics is an experimental approach, or a kit of "tools," for the
study of biological processes such as development or behavior. This is Analysis.
The overall aim
of Genetics: Principles and Analysis, Fourth Edition, is to provide a
clear, comprehensive, rigorous, and balanced introduction to genetics at the
college level. It is a guide to learning a critically important and sometimes
difficult subject.
Genetics:
Principles and Analysis, Fourth Edition, incorporates many special features
to help students achieve these learning goals. The text is clearly and
concisely written in a somewhat relaxed prose style without being chummy or
excessively familiar. Each chapter is headed by a list of Principles that
are related at numerous points to the larger whole. Each chapter contains two
or three Connections in which the text material is connected to excerpts
of classic papers that report key experiments in genetics or that raise
important social, ethical, or legal issues in genetics. Each Connection has a
brief introduction of its own, explaining the importance of the experiment and
the historical context in which it was carried out. At the end of each chapter
is a complete Summary, Key Terms, GeNETics on the web exercises
that guide students in the use of Internet resources in genetics, and several
different types and levels of Problems. These features are discussed individually
below.
In recent
decades, both the amount of genetic knowledge and its rate of growth have
exploded. Many of the new discoveries have personal and social relevance
through applications of genetics to human affairs in prenatal diagnosis,
testing for carriers, and identification of genetic risk factors for complex
traits, such as breast cancer and heart disease. There are also ethical
controversies: Should genetic manipulation be used on patients for the
treatment of disease? Should human fetuses be used in research? Should human
beings be cloned? There are also social controversies—for example, when
insurance companies exclude coverage of people because of their inherited risks
of certain diseases.
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