Jeff Wheelwright will be giving a book reading and a talk on his new work “The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion and DNA”.

The wandering gene is a breast cancer mutation, BRCA1.185delAG, which is characteristic of Jews. The book is a historical and scientific investigation that ranges from ancient Palestine and the Spanish Inquisition to the modern DNA lab and the Kingdom Hall of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. At the heart of the narrative is a young Hispano woman who struggles with breast cancer until her proud and untimely death.

Jeff Wheelwright is a freelance journalist and the former science editor of Life magazine. He is the author of “Degrees of Disaster” and “The Irritable Heart”.