See more: An illustrated version of this article will be published within the next two weeks on our CultureLab books and arts blog
THE waitress stopped as she passed my table. 鈥淚s that a mystery you鈥檙e reading? Cover looks like it.鈥� 鈥淣o,鈥� I answered. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fast-paced, breezy romp through history using DNA as a unifying theme 鈥� it鈥檚 nerd-vana.鈥�
In truth, it鈥檚 a wonder that I broke away for long enough to converse at all, given the wealth of engaging information contained in every paragraph of this book.
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In it, science writer Sam Kean sets out to explain many human phenomena in the light of DNA, speeding from personality quirks of early geneticists to evidence for interbreeding between Neanderthals and humans.
The book鈥檚 title refers to Kean鈥檚 retrospective diagnoses of medical conditions in historical figures, in this case attributing Ehlers-Danlos syndrome to Niccol貌 Paganini, the violinist. One symptom is double-jointedness, which would help explain his virtuosic abilities.
There are a few problems. When explaining the transmission of leukaemia between a woman and her fetus, Kean asserts that maternal-fetal microchimerism does not happen. In fact, have some of our mother鈥檚 鈥� and, if you are a mother, your child鈥檚 鈥� cells within us. Kean鈥檚 example is just a tragic demonstration of the phenomenon, as cancer cells are among those that cross the placental barrier.
Despite some slips like this, Kean鈥檚 book is engaging. I couldn鈥檛 help scribbling on pages, with comments equally split between 鈥渙oh, interesting!鈥� and 鈥渄ouble check this鈥�. Either way, The Violinist鈥檚 Thumb kept me hooked.
The Violinist鈥檚 Thumb
Doubleday/Little, Brown