The Book Prize Index

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

Matt Ridley

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters is a 1999 popular science book by the science writer Matt Ridley, published by Fourth Estate. The chapters are numbered for the pairs of human chromosomes, one pair being the X and Y sex chromosomes, so the numbering goes up to 22 with Chapter X and Y couched between Chapters 7 and 8. The book was welcomed by critics in journals such as Nature and newspapers including The New York Times. The London Review of Books however found the book "at once instructive and infuriating", as "his right-wing politics lead him to slant the implications of the research".

ScienceScience · medium confidenceScience81 signalsLlm Classifier: Science -> ScienceKeyword Classifier: Biography -> BiographyKeyword Classifier: Nature & Environment -> Nature & EnvironmentScience & DiscoveryTechnology, Computing & AIMedicine, Health & the Body

Award History

0 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionMajor2000FinalistSecondary source
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and TechnologyMajor2000FinalistSecondary source
Royal Society Science Book PrizeMajor2000ShortlistSecondary source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 52%.