Items related to Engineer in the Garden
After nuclear power, genetic engineering is probably the single most controversial idea in science. It is associated with sinister medical schemes and terrible, radical experiments. It provokes passionate argument, because now we have the ability to alter the capacities of living things. One of the difficulties in understanding the issues at stake is the sheer complexity of genes in living organisms. They occur in bewildering permutations and can cause very different effects, depending on their location. Many biologists claim that they are also the irreducible units of natural selection. Colin Tudge attempts to deliver a clear introduction to modern biology and genetics for non-scientists. He argues that because gene behaviour cannot be predicted in new environments, we are engaged in genetic "gardening" not genetic engineering. The dangers of ad hoc tinkering and breeding are dramatically described. The author carrries on to explore the laberatory and utopian possibilities of a new created life. Colin Tudge wrote "Last Animals at the Zoo", which was shortlisted for the 1992 Science Book Prize.
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Review:
"The Engineer in the Garden is an engagingly quirky and broadly informed account of modern genetics, heredity and evolution that teems with the latest facts, briskly and brightly conveyed... If you are concerned about the genetic future, you could do no better than to read this wise and thoughtful book." (Sunday Telegraph)
"In his excellent account of what we are about to let ourselves in for, Colin Tudge unravels the mysteries of genetic engineering and its applications with great skill." (Daily Telegraph)
"A mammoth task at which he succeeds admirably." (Economist)
"Could not be bettered as a popular introduction to genetic knowledge." (Independent on Sunday)
Book Description:
"In his excellent account of what we are about to let ourselves in for, Colin Tudge unravels the mysteries of genetic engineering and its applications with great skill." (Daily Telegraph)
"A mammoth task at which he succeeds admirably." (Economist)
"Could not be bettered as a popular introduction to genetic knowledge." (Independent on Sunday)
Does for genetics what THE BLIND WATCHMAKER did for biology: it explains, it excites, it makes us imagine and think. Nature is the 'garden' of the title; the 'engineer' is the geneticist, far less in control than he or she thinks.
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- PublisherUniversity of California Press
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0520087747
- ISBN 13 9780520087743
- BindingHardcover
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