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Profile wins gene code story

23.10.12 | Benedicte Page

Profile editor John Davey has beaten off competition from five other publishers to buy the story of the cracking of the genetic code in 1961.

Davey won world English rights in the title, Life's Greatest Secret by zoologist Matthew Cobb, in a deal with agent Peter Tallack. The book will be published in autumn 2014.

Life's Greatest Secret is billed as the first popular book to tell of the race to crack the hugely significant genetic code, involving "competition between some of the 20th century's most outstanding and eccentric minds" including Erwin Schrodinger, Richard Feynman and George Gamow, and spanning the globe and all the main scientific disciplines.

Cobb is professor of zoology at the university of Manchester and the author of The Egg and Sperm Race (Simon & Schuster), as well as scientific advisor to Brian Cox's forthcoming BBC TV series "Wonders of Life".

• Benedicte Page
• John Davey
• Matthew Cobb
• Profile Books
• Rights deal