Recent radical scientific developments focus on a revolutionary new type of "synthetic" biology, which aims not just to understand how living things work, but to build them from scratch. At the same time, new research shows that Neanderthal man was a distinct type of human--but not our ancestor. The DNA record is an imperfect time machine but it can help reconstruct our past--and will probably soon be able to redesign itself. But how will such work be guided What is needed is a manifesto for life, which acclaimed author Adrian Woolfson delivers in An Intelligent Person's Guide to Genetics, his examination of life and its future possibilities.