Genetic Alchemy: A Social History of the Recombinant DNA Controversy

By Sheldon Krimsky

Book Overview

Genetic Alchemy summarizes and clarifies the background of policy and ethical issues, the debates engendered by uncertain risks to researchers and the population at large, and the roles played by scientists involved in one of the most prominent and controversial new technologies, gene splicing. The author, Assistant Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy at Tufts University, brings to the topic his experience on the Cambridge Review Board as it considered the siting of a recombinant DNA research facility, and on the NIH's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262610388
• ISBN13: 9780262610384
• Release Date: November 1984
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 458 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.9" x 9.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

An excellent account of an important chapter in the regulation of science

Krimsky tells the story of the regulation of recombinant DNA in the years 1972 or so through 1982, when this book was written. It is a quick read, written in a journalistic style: much of the storytelling is done via quotes from key participants in the events. Biological regulation was different in this era: the biogists were just realizing that they had enough potential to create dangerous organisms with recombinant DNA, particuarly strains of E. coli (the most commonnly engineered bacterium, and a resident of the human gut) with various other genes in them. The scientists themselves to try to regulate the new technology, and are to a certain degree successful, but various federal agencies and even local governments (starting with the city of Cambridge, MA) get involved. The level of historical and scientific detail can sometimes slow the pace a bit: but those same features make the book fascinating, since Krimsky is able to show how the scientists, as people and as a segment of society, have to deal with the balance between public safety and the advancement of science.