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The Hope, Hype,
and Reality of Genetic Engineering
By John C. Avise
$35
Oxford University Press |
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Book explores genetic engineering
In The Hope, Hype, and Reality of
Genetic Engineering, John Avise, UGA professor of genetics,
takes readers on an introductory tour into the stranger-than-fiction
world of genetic engineering.
Eager researchers are intent on fashioning a prodigious medley of
genetically modified organisms to serve human needs. By swapping
genes among many forms of life—humans included—scientists
are trying to creating such implausible outcomes as: wild rabbits
engineered for self-contraception and genetically modified bacteria
engineered to detect hidden landmines.
Intended for a general audience of professional biologists, an interested
public, and university students of both the humanities and the sciences,
this book uses simple but evocative language to explain the histories,
techniques, goals, successes and failures of more than 50 of the
most compelling stories in genetic engineering.
This book is for readers who want to know more about the transgenic
items on their dinner table, how barnyard animals are cloned for
pharmaceuticals and foods, how wild creatures from mosquitoes to
endangered species are being genetically modified and what genetic
engineering holds for the future of medicine and the human species. |
