The book content is great and well worth reading for an overview of the state of genetics in the animal world. The editing in the book is terrible with vast stretches of run on words without appropriate spacing. Took a while to figure out a few sentences-try reading an entire sentence without spaces! very annoying
I am a biology graduate student and was thrilled to get back to reading science for a general audience when I got this book. The book delivered great stories of how our understanding of biology (mainly genetics and evolution) has grown by real leaps and bounds lately.
Each chapter is a different scientific adventure of the O'Brien lab; the book reads very much like an Odyssey. Sometimes the chapters are closely related (his work on the titular cheetahs clearly helped when he studied lions) and other times only the thinnest of threads brings (the amazingly well-written chapter on HIV seemed a bit out of context). This makes for a great style, as the stories are brief and get right to the interesting meat of the material. If you know academics, everything usually gets stretched out longer and the whole kitchen sink is discussed, but this chapter format avoids those typical traps.
These chapters are not just the science but also the social aspects of conducting science. There's the drama of personality clashes on international collaboration, the sweaty, dangerous work in the Everglades, South America and Africa, and the tragedy mixed with hope in the stories on HIV research. A textbook this is not, it moves and each story is just that: a story, not a summary.
Know nothing about biology? Yes, you can still read this book. While O'Brien does tend to assume some facts are common knowledge, he puts things in context so that you can at least get an idea. At times you can hear O'Brien's editor requesting explanations and these are sprinkled in often enough to get by. These sections are infrequent and short, so even if you just skip them you'll still get an appreciation for how cool the science is. As a biology grad student, I would rate the most technical language as easily understood by a someone with a few biology college courses under their belt, but even a high school understanding should make the majority of the details accessible.
Excellent popular science book on animal (including human) disease
This is a gem of a popular science book. The author uses his first hand knowledge of some older and recent research projects to highlight important principles of the evolution of our immune system.
Humans are mammals, and like other mammals we have co-evolved over millions of years with a large number of bacteria and viruses. Our current genetic makeup reflects this, and our understanding of evolution and the immune system has increased greatly.
The message comes through loud and clear - we can not study the human animal alone, with similar evolutionary pressures having occurred in many species; extremely valuable knowledge will come from the study of disease in many different species. With that knowledge comes the responsibility to conserve the habitat for all species on this amazing planet.
Considering the subject matter, it was an easy read
I've learned so much from Tears of the Cheetah. While the subject is rather deep; (scientific), it was well written and easy to read.
Dr. O'Brian was able to blend history, science and personal experience into a well-written book.
-TJ
Tears of the Cheetah
I liked this book because I am a lover of animals and I like to read further into them. I especially love cheetahs and in the genetic world, cheetahs are a prime example of a species that genetics can be traced and studied because they were almost wiped out.
