Jones is Professor of Genetics at University College London and has worked at universities in the USA, Australia and Africa. He gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 1991, and presented a successful BBC TV series on human genetics and evolution in 1996. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Telegraph and frequently appears on radio and television. His previous books include The Language of the Genes (which won the 1994 Rh"ne-Poulenc Science Book Prize) and In the Blood (shortlisted for the 1997 Rh"ne-Poulenc). He won the 1997 Royal Society Faraday Medal for the Public Understanding of Science.