Gene Machine Audiobook By Venki Ramakrishnan cover art

Gene Machine

The Race to Decipher the Secrets of the Ribosome

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Gene Machine

By: Venki Ramakrishnan
Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
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Everyone has heard of DNA. But by itself, DNA is just an inert blueprint for life. It is the ribosome - an enormous molecular machine made up of a million atoms - that makes DNA come to life, turning our genetic code into proteins and therefore into us.

Gene Machine is an insider account of the race for the structure of the ribosome, a fundamental discovery that both advances our knowledge of all life and could lead to the development of better antibiotics against life-threatening diseases.

But this is also a human story of Ramakrishnan's unlikely journey, from his first fumbling experiments in a biology lab to being the dark horse in a fierce competition with some of the world's best scientists. In the end, Gene Machine is a frank insider's account of the pursuit of high-stakes science.

©2018 Venki Ramakrishnan (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books Biological Sciences Evolution & Genetics Genetics History History & Philosophy Professionals & Academics Science Science & Technology Inspiring Thought-Provoking
Fascinating Scientific Journey • Honest Personal Reflections • Great Narrator • Accessible Complex Science
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Not that much about Ribosome processing and it’s biology more about authors life story. Quasi interesting a bit of a Yanning experience

Very slow, more life story

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This book was well done, but I thought it would be an overview for those not familiar with the field. I found it way more technical than I expected.

Highly technical, way over my head

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Journey of an Indian Nobel prize chemist. Story is very dry, disappointing and lacks humor and insight. The author comes across as honest, very bright and hard working. Explains the many errors that occurred and the competition between labs to be first to publish.

Shared Nobel prize winner

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This audible book has been a decades long history of research in finding and showing the genome be accessible. Especially the Ribosome . I now want to learn more, though I am a 78 year old musician and retired computer scientist. just enjoy learning about life.

Exciting Review of Excellence in Science

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When I started this book, I imagined it would give me a solid definition of the gene machine. What I learned is that with our current technology, as good as it is, we have not been able to yet complete the definition or the entire process. This is a like getting on roller coaster that won't stop, but you don't want to stop either. There are so many details and the more you learn, the more there is to learn. The cell, the basic unit of life is more complex in it's parts and functions and is truly the atom of biology. The genes are just the beginning of the gene machine. Imagine a complete manufacturing facility producing a product that runs on it's own 24/7, then consider this is what happens inside each cell more than a trillion in each of us. More than than just one manufacturing facility, now imagine there are 100's or 1000's or more of these manufacturing plants maintaining an almost perfect output of products. Now you begin to understand the complexity of a single cell, much less all the individual parts that make us who we are. I highly recommend this book and narration, it will keep you engaged, and if like me, you will listen more than once. What is most amazing to me is that all these processes are internally driven. Other than our eating and sleeping habits, the gene machine moves on.

The Force of Life!

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The true story of a Nobel prize winner and his struggles and thoughts while working was the best part. Even though I am a biologist, the language was difficult. But the science is not as much the story as is the life of the scientist.

The honest look at a research scientist and his work

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Gene Machine is an entertaining view of the scientific forays of a Nobel Prize recipient. He gives detailed explanation of crystals and their role in building understanding of the ribosome. Though technical, the story of the teams, personalities and struggles encountered adds humor and interest to the book.

Dense, chatty story

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I loved this book. First, Dr. Ramakrishnan makes mind-boggling science easy to understand. Second, he turns it into a detective story, a mystery as captivating as the translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics or the race to set foot on the moon. But most of all, I love how he shares credit with all the people who helped him achieve the pinnacle of scientific success. He's not only a great scientist. He is a great human being.

Loved it!

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The beginning of the book was a bit harder to get into but it was worth continuing on. it's great to see how much work went into something that not many people know about.

slow start but it picked up

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Gene Machine is an interesting story on the process of winning the Noble Prize for the authors work on the Ribosome.
I enjoy historical fiction and while this is actual history I found it more interesting than a historical fiction story. It is an exciting true life story.
While I didn’t understand half of it I could follow it and the people and how their efforts have affected scientific history.
The author is up front about what he was thinking in spite of feelings like fear, jealousy of others works & romance with his wife. I really enjoyed how he was positive in how he described his competitors and gave them credit for their work. I admired Vera and how her contribution as a spouse helped the author win the award.
I would really enjoy a biography about Ada. She sounds like a very interesting woman with strong emotions whose focus is on the advancement of science above advancement of self interest. I also enjoyed how well the author could laugh at himself. I thank audible for helping me find this book.

A fascinating human interest story about discovery, collaboration & competition.

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