Home Books As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age

As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age

As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age

by Matthew Cobb

Basic Books ·2022 ·464 pages
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About This Book

The thrilling and terrifying history of genetic engineering In 2018, scientists manipulated the DNA of human babies for the first time. As biologist and historian Matthew Cobb shows in As Gods , this achievement was one many scientists have feared from the start of the genetic age. Four times in the last fifty years, geneticists, frightened by their own technology, have called a temporary halt to their experiments. They ought to be Now we have powers that can target the extinction of pests, change our own genes, or create dangerous new versions of diseases in an attempt to prevent future pandemics. Both awe-inspiring and chilling, As Gods traces the history of genetic engineering, showing that this revolutionary technology is far too important to be left to the scientists. They have the power to change life itself, but should we trust them to keep their ingenuity from producing a hellish reality?


Reviews

"Wonderful...a thoughtful, lively and evocative exposition of the history of genetic engineering ..."

Adrian Woolfson· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Cobb's focus, however, is not on the science itself but on the social and political context of these discoveries ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"The rush to gene-editing brings Cobb to a kind of crisis of conscience."

Deborah Blum· The New York Times Read review ↗ Near the Top

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