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Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts
Scientific American
March 2013
On Sale: March 12, 2013
256 pages
ISBN: 0374158592
EAN: 9780374158590
Kindle: B008PBYVGU
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
For centuries, we’ve toyed with our creature companions,
breeding dogs that herd and hunt, housecats that look like
tigers, and teacup pigs that fit snugly in our handbags. But
what happens when we take animal alteration a step further,
engineering a cat that glows green under ultraviolet light
or cloning the beloved family Labrador? Science has given us
a whole new toolbox for tinkering with life. How are we
using it? In Frankenstein’s Cat, the
journalist Emily Anthes takes us from petri dish to pet
store as she explores how biotechnology is shaping the
future of our furry and feathered friends. As she ventures
from bucolic barnyards to a “frozen zoo” where scientists
are storing DNA from the planet’s most exotic creatures, she
discovers how we can use cloning to protect endangered
species, craft prosthetics to save injured animals, and
employ genetic engineering to supply farms with
disease-resistant livestock. Along the way, we meet some of
the animals that are ushering in this astonishing age of
enhancement, including sensor-wearing seals, cyborg beetles,
a bionic bulldog, and the world’s first cloned
cat. Through her encounters with scientists,
conservationists, ethicists, and entrepreneurs, Anthes
reveals that while some of our interventions may be trivial
(behold: the GloFish), others could improve the lives of
many species—including our own. So what does biotechnology
really mean for the world’s wild things? And what do
our brave new beasts tell us about ourselves? With
keen insight and her trademark spunk, Anthes highlights both
the peril and the promise of our scientific superpowers,
taking us on an adventure into a world where our grandest
science fiction fantasies are fast becoming reality.
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