Breakthrough!: How the 10 Greatest Discoveries in Medicine Saved Millions and Changed Our View of the World

8. Breaking God’s Code: The Discovery of Heredity, Genetics, and DNA

One fine day at the dawn of civilization, on the beautiful Greek island of Kos in the crystal-clear waters of the Aegean Sea, a young noblewoman slipped quietly through the back entrance of a stone and marble healing temple known as the Asklepieion and approached the world’s first and most famous physician. In desperate need of advice, she presented Hippocrates with an awkward problem. The woman had recently given birth to a baby boy, and though the infant was plump and healthy, Hippocrates needed only glance from fair-skinned mother to her swaddling infant to make his diagnosis: ...