Summary

Scientists are learning to manipulate the genes of plants and animals, changing existing organisms and creating new ones. By taking control of the mechanisms that govern heredity in other species, humans are actively directing their own evolution. Breakthroughs have come so quickly that many people find them strange and frightening. Genetic Engineering traces the history of genetic science up to the present day and proposes some thoughts about how it is likely to affect the future.

This engaging resource describes some of the developments in the first few years of the 21st century and how society is coping with some of the ethical challenges that accompany them. Politicians and the public are now facing tremendously important choices about how genetic engineering and its products should be used. This insightful resource helps put things into perspective and gives an idea of the risks involved in genetic engineering. Ideal for high school and college students and a much broader audience with little or no scientific background, Genetic Engineering tells the fascinating story of where genetics came from, what it has made possible, and where it is likely to take humankind.

Chapters include:

• From Breeding to a Science of Heredity
• Classical Genetics (1900-1950)
• Molecular Genetics: What Genes Are and How They Work (1950-1970)
• The Rise of Genetic Engineering (1970-1990)
• Genetic Engineering in the Age of Genomes
• Ethics and Genetic Engineering.

Specifications

Full-color photographs and line illustrations. Index. Glossary. Chronology. Sidebars. Further resources. Web sources. Tables and charts.

About the Author(s)

Russ Hodge is a writer and science education expert at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin, Germany, one of the world’s leading biology institutes, where he writes books about science for the public and develops new teaching materials for high school students. He has written hundreds of articles for the press, including published interviews with world-renowned scientists such as Nobel Prize winners James Watson, Max Perutz, Roald Hoffmann, and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, as well as Stephen Jay Gould, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Stephen Rose, Philip Campbell, and Harold Varmus.