The Second Tree: Stem Cells, Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality - Couverture souple

Dewar, Elaine

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0786716835 ISBN 13 : 9780786716838

Editeur : Basic Books, 2005

Synopsis

In the half century since Watson and Crick's discovery of the double helix, genetic scientists have grafted onto the tree of knowledge a body of new science whose growth has slipped the bonds of the divine and nature. Investigative journalist Elaine Dewar chronicles the lives, discoveries, and feuds among these modern biologists, exploring how they have crafted the tools to alter human evolution with unforeseeable, promising, and frightening consequences the rest of us are just beginning to glimpse. Dewar travels the world in the wake of Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants, telling the story of Frederick Sanger who learned how to sequence genes and won two Nobel prizes; and of the computer scientists who put the human genome on the worldwide web. She visits corporations determined to turn cloned sheep into pharmacies, resurrect prize cattle from the dead; and transplant human genes into mice—ultimately striving for immortality while keeping investors happy. As Dewar narrates these tales, we learn how biologists make breakthroughs: tearing mice, worms, flies, and human eggs apart, twining disparate animal cells and genes together—creating clones and chimeras as outlandish as any sphinx from the realm of mythology.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Elaine Dewar is an award-winning investigative reporter whose beats include culture, international politics, science, business, and the environment. About her earlier book, Bones: Discovering the First Americans, also available from Carroll & Graf, historian Peter C. Newman has called Dewar “the Rachel Carson of Canada,” whose work “is aimed always at expanding mental horizons.” She lives in Toronto.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Basic Books
• Date d'édition: 2005
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0786716835
• ISBN 13: 9780786716838
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 512
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible