The Hunt for FOXP5

Preface.- Part I: The Novel.- Part II: The Science behind the fiction.

David Deamer is Research Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California (Santa Cruz). He recently published First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began (University of California Press, 2011). Deamer's primary research interest focuses on nucleic acid molecules as they are driven electrophoretically through a nanoscopic channel, or nanopore, embedded in a lipid-bilayer membrane. The presence of the polynucleotide in the channel affects the ionic conductance in a manner related to chain length, concentration and base sequence. This observation has considerable potential for characterizing DNA and RNA in microscopic volumes of nucleic acid solutions. In 2014, Oxford Nanopore Technology introduced the MinION, a portable nanopore sequencing instrument that is now undergoing testing by early users. These include NASA scientists who will send MinIONs to the International Space Station.


Wallace Kaufman is a science writer whose fiction, non-fiction, journalism, and poetry have appeared in major magazines and newspapers in the U.S., England, and Kazakhstan. He is a graduate of Duke University and he earned an M.Litt. from Oxford University. His research and reporting has taken him to Central and South America and to the arctic and Pacific coasts of Siberia. In Latin America he helped indigenous writers establish themselves and translated the first two books by Mayan writer Victor Montejo. In Kazakhstan he worked with Kazakhs on translations of their principal writers. His own translations of German, French and Spanish poetry and fiction have appeared in several magazines. His books include Invasive Plants: Guide to Identification and the Impacts and Control of Common North American Species, co-author with Dr. Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman, Stackpole Books, 2nd edition, 2013, Coming Out of the Woods, a memoir, Perseus Books, 2001, No Turning Back, Basic Books, 1994, Amazon, Gallery Books, Image Bank, 1991 and The

"This is a fun read! ... The authors add genuine authenticity with their own thorough scientific research and personal knowledge of Kazakhstan - it's believable and a great combo: an intriguing international plot, an exotic location, well-drawn characters you care about and a mystery that keeps you intrigued and guessing from beginning to end. A good read for yourself or a great gift for a friend who appreciates well-written mysteries." (Deborah Wood, Amazon.com, February, 2017)

"This title by Wallace Kaufman and David Deamer, I would say, is the best I've ever read in terms of achieving a balance of the two. ... enjoyed the adventure, which hovered between adult and young adult in apparent audience level, and felt I was really gaining something from the science content - so a good thumbs up to Messrs Kaufman and Deamer." (Brian Clegg, Popular Science, popsciencebooks.blogspot.de, July, 2016)