(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
I generally don’t tend to read non-fiction books. I think they remind me too much of school. I probably wouldn’t have chosen to pick up and buy a book like this… but I found it interesting to read; and I think having more of an understanding of how DNA works might give me some help in my writing.
I thought it was interesting to see the theory about how DNA coding might be utilised in the future and also cases of DNA being used now. One thing that I found particularly interesting was the fact that DNA coding has been used in artwork… and that someone has used it to create faces of people. While I have mixed feelings about the ethical nature of doing something like that, it’s still an interesting idea. And the ideas of using Facebook to post pictures of the DNA and in dating profiles are intriguing ones… though everyday people wouldn’t necessarily know how to read the contents of a picture posted like that.
There have been a lot of cases of people getting together romantically, only to find that they’re biologically related… and I thought it was good to see this book touch on those; though I would have liked to see more real-life case examples.
I found it especially interesting to read about how animals’ DNA has been used in investigations… like in the case of Tinker the cat. Of course, the use of DNA testing in crimes was a fairly small part of this book.
I did find some of the scientific language a bit difficult to absorb. I’m not sure this is a good book for beginners… like myself… though I think it suggests future technology that I might be able to make use of in my fictional work. I did think there were too many notes to look up, though. I either had to get to the end of the book to read them (and forget what related to which reference), or keep flicking to the end and then back again.
I plan to pass this book onto my sister, since some of what she’s doing in her course has some relation to the content of this. I do think it’s clear how much research and time went into this book and although I found parts of it hard to read, I imagine there are many people who would find it a useful resource.
Ink of Blood 