The Violinist Thumb by Sam Kean

Sam Kean's book, The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code covers the lives of the scientists that discovered the field of genetics and the DNA that makes it possible.

In the section about the effects of radiation exposure on genetic material and health. Sam relays the story of a Japanese man who had the misfortune of being present at precisely the wrong time in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan during late summer in 1945 suffering exposure to both the atomic bomb and the Hydrogen Bomb. Fortunately exposure to high levels of radiation for a short time while carcinogenic does not appear to mutagenic as the children of the survivors can attest.

We meet Gregor Mendel in all of his messy glory. We also get to know a nun wearing a cobra habit working out of a laboratory in a converted bathroom who develops techniques that help determine the structure of DNA.

I was surprised to learn that retroviruses may have shaped up to five percent of the human genome.  Other helpful hints in the book, If you are stuck in the Arctic and short on food, do not eat polar bear liver.  It contains toxic levels of vitamin A. 

Radio interview with Sam Kean - 10 minutes