The Language of the Genes

The Language Of The Genes is a popular-science book by Steve Jones about genetics and evolution. The book introduces all different aspects of genetics and molecular biology, and the new editions contain information about the frontiers of the field, such as the Human Genome Project. The first edition was published in 1994 and won the Rhône-Poulenc Science Book Prize.

The title of the book is partly the result of Jones' regular use of a metaphor of nucleotides as letters, codons as words and genes as sentences, but also reflecting Jones' short explanation of language's role in human evolution.