Biotechnology is the oldest and most widespread of inventions, providing sustenance for humankind since the beginning of civilization. Until recently, however, its tools were crude and its implementation was opaque. Today new understanding in the life sciences brings both precision and transparency to the process. Modern inventions could alleviate human suffering, feed the world, and, at the same time, stem the tide of earth's ecological degradation. Yet ironically, biotechnology becomes evermore contentious. On the left, New Age secularists rail against genetically modified crops. On the right, religious Americans want embryo stem-cell research to be a felony. While they share seemingly little beyond mutual contempt, Silver argues that both political camps are driven -- consciously or subconsciously -- by a fundamental fear of violating a higher spiritual authority, imagined either as the creator God of the Bible, who rules from above, or a vague Mother Nature goddess here on earth.
In Challenging Nature, Silver offers a provocative look at the collision of science, religion, pseudoscience, and politics. A hands-on scientist who has actually manipulated genes, he leaves the laboratory, traveling the globe in what he calls “one scientist's journey from a cloistered community, in which life is assumed to be combinations of complex molecules and information flow between them, to a world of humanity dominated by soul and spirits, and to the intense chaos of Mother Nature at large.” The result is a fascinating book that could provide a wake-up call for the West, where the economic ramifications of pseudoscience may be enormous: a future in which Asia becomes dominant in biotechnological advances.

Challenging Nature: The Clash of Science and Spirituality at the New Frontiers of Life

Religion & Spirituality

Silver, Lee M.

Religious Studies

Ecco

Stem cell research, genetically modified crops, animals developed with personalized human organs for transplantation, and other previously inconceivable biotech applications could increase the quality of all human lives and maximize the health of the biosphere. But ironically, as the science becomes more precise and transparent, it also becomes more contentious. In Challenging Nature, Silver argues that although they seem to have little in common, Christian fundamentalists opposed to embryo research and New Age organic food devotees are both driven by a deeply rooted fear that biotechnology—in some guise—challenges the sovereignty of a higher or deeper transcendent authority. In the short term, Silver writes, Eastern spiritual traditions will give Asian countries a research advantage. But over the millennia, human nature may have the potential to remake Mother Nature in the image of an idealized world.

Challenging Nature: The Clash Between Biotechnology and Spirituality (Ecco)

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Could a child have two genetic mothers? Will parents someday soon be able to choose not only the physical characteristics of their children-to-be, but their personalities and talents as well? Will genetic enhancement ultimately lead to a split in the human species?
In this brilliant, provocative, and necessary book, Lee M. Silver takes a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago—indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning. In clear, engaging, and accessible prose, Silver demystifies the science behind a myriad of thrilling and frightening new possibilities, in a book that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the hopes and dilemmas of the American family in the twenty-first century.

Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering and Cloning Will Transform the American Family (Ecco)

Self-Help

Genetics: From Genes to Genomes is a cutting-edge, introductory genetics text authored by an unparalleled author team, including Nobel Prize winner, Leland Hartwell. The Second Edition continues to build upon the integration of Mendelian and molecular principles, providing students with the links between early genetics understanding and the new molecular discoveries that have changed the way the field of genetics is viewed.

Genetics: From Genes to Genomes with PowerWeb(OLC Bindin Card)

Science & Math

Goldberg, Michael L.

Veres, Ruth C.

Hartwell,Leland

Hood,Leroy

Reynolds,Ann

Biological Sciences

McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math.

genetics: from genes to genomes 2nd edition

Genetics: From Genes to Genomes, 2nd Edition 2nd edition by Hartwell, Leland, Hood, Leroy, Goldberg, Michael L., Reynold (2004) Hardcover

Reynolds, Ann E.

Veres, Ruth

McGraw-Hill/Higher Education

Mouse Genetics offers for the first time in a single comprehensive volume a practical guide to mouse breeding and genetics. Nearly all human genes are present in the mouse genome, making it an ideal organism for genetic analyses of both normal and abnormal aspects of human biology. Written as a convenient reference, this book provides a complete description of the laboratory mouse, the tools used in analysis, and procedures for carrying out genetic studies, along with background material and statistical information for use in ongoing data analysis. It thus serves two purposes, first to provide students with an introduction to the mouse as a model system for genetic analysis, and to give practicing scientists a detailed guide for performing breeding studies and interpreting experimental results. All topics are developed completely, with full explanations of critical concepts in genetics and molecular biology. As investigators around the world are rediscovering both the heuristic and practical value of the mouse genome, the demand for a succinct introduction to the subject has never been greater. Mouse Genetics is intended to meet the needs of this wide audience.

Mouse Genetics: Concepts and Applications

History

Europe

Oxford University Press

In this brilliant, provocative, and necessary book, Lee M. Silver takes a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago--indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning. Could a child have two genetic mothers? Will parents someday soon be able to choose not only the physical characteristics of their children-to-be, but their personalities and talents as well? Will genetic enhancement ultimately lead to the dominance of a "genetic elite?" In clear, engaging, and accessible prose, Silver demystifies the science behind these and other thrinlling and frightening new possibilities, in a book that is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the hopes and dilemmas of the American family in the twenty-first century.

Remaking Eden

Health, Fitness & Dieting

HarpPeren

On February 27, 1997, a stunning announcement appeared in the British journal Nature: for the first time ever, a mammal--a lamb named Dolly--had been successfully cloned from an adult cell. Less than a week later, scientists reported the successful cloning of a rhesus monkey, a primate whose reproduction and development is almost identical to our own. With two bold and hitherto unthinkable strokes, science fiction was transformed into science fact, preparing the way for a miraculous event that is, in all probability, inevitable: the cloning of a human being. 
A distinguished scientist and professor at Princeton University, Lee M. Silver reveals what awaits us in the brilliant light of the new day that is now dawning. REMAKING EDEN is a fascinating exploration of the future of reprogenetic technologies--a cautiously optimistic look at the scientific advances that will allow us to engineer life in ways that were unimaginable just a few short years ago. Indeed, in ways that go far beyond cloning, and that are at once more thrilling and more frightening. 
This is a brilliant, provocative, and necessary book. For better or worse, it describes the likely future of humankind--beyond fears both reasoned and unreasonable, beyond unrealistic utopian visions--an extra ordinary journey into a rapidly evolving tomorrow that no man or woman can forestall, but that we must all recognize and understand. REMAKING EDEN is an essential primer for that tomorrow.

Remaking Eden: Cloning and Beyond in a Brave New World

William Morrow

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