Nature After the Genome Sarah Parry and John Dupré (eds.) Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2011

This volume comprises 10 essays that draw on the diverse set of meanings of genomes. Since genomic science covers a wide range of activities, it is hard to say unambiguously what genomics is. In the introductory chapter, Sarah Parry and John Dupré argue that a lot of confusion is created by the fact that there are two different ways to think about the genome: either in an abstract way, namely as a body of information, or as a material thing. A second reason why genomics is surrounded by confusion is that this concept is not always construed narrowly, but is sometimes used to refer to a broad range of contemporary biomolecular investigations.