Biotechnology and Society
An Introduction
With "Biotechnology and Society", Hallam Stevens offers an up-to-date primer to help us understand the interactions of biotechnology and society and the debates, controversies, fears, and hopes that have shaped how we think about bodies, organisms, and life in the twenty-first century. Stevens addresses such topics as genetically modified foods, cloning, and stem cells; genetic testing and the potential for discrimination; fears of (and, in some cases, hopes for) designer babies; personal genomics; biosecurity; and biotech art. Taken as a whole, the book presents a clear, authoritative picture of the relationship between biotechnology and society today, and how our conceptions (and misconceptions) of it could shape future developments. It is an essential volume for students and scholars working with biotechnology, while still being accessible to the general reader interested in the truth behind breathless media accounts about biotech's promise and perils.
About the Author
Hallam Stevens is associate professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the author of "Life Out of Sequence: A Data-Driven History of Bioinformatics".
Reviews
"Stevens's whirlwind tour of bioworlds past and present becomes the proverbial tour de force by managing to make meaningful stays almost everywhere in between – Bt corn, designer babies, GMOs, Henrietta Lacks, patenting, plasticity, stem cells, terrorism by virus, wearable technologies, and more. At each stop, we're also expertly guided to scholarship that can push readers further into this fascinating but challenging terrain. 'Biotechnology and Society' is both authoritative and friendly, and it will be eagerly inserted into syllabi for teachers everywhere who are generating a fresh population of historically grounded, scientifically informed, and politically savvy students capable of critically questioning their way into our collective biofuture" – Mike Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
"Written in a clear and accessible style, 'Biotechnology and Society' will be an important text for classes devoted to biotech, science, and technology studies, as a primer for scholars just moving into the subject area and for the intellectual community interested in the variety of different perspectives that Stevens collects together" – Nathan Crowe, University of North Carolina Wilmington
