The Book Prize Index

The Language of the Genes

Steve Jones

The Language of the Genes (HarperCollins, ISBN 0-00-255020-2) is a popular science book by Steve Jones about genetics and evolution. It followed a 1991 series of Reith Lectures by Jones with the same title. The book introduces all different aspects of genetics and molecular biology, and the new editions contain information about the frontiers of the field, such as the Human Genome Project. The first edition was published in 1993 and won the Rhône-Poulenc Prize (now known as the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books). The title of the book is partly the result of Jones' regular use of a metaphor of nucleotides as letters, codons as words and genes as sentences, but also reflecting Jones' short explanation of language's role in human evolution. A second revised and expanded edition (ISBN 0-006-55243-9) was published by Flamingo on 18 September 2000.

ScienceScience · medium confidenceScience81 signalsLlm Classifier: Science -> ScienceOpen Library: Evolution, religious aspects -> ReligionOpen Library: Evolution, religious aspects -> ScienceScience & Discovery

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Royal Society Science Book PrizeMajor1994WinnerSecondary source
View all award history (1)
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: 58%.