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Now she investigates the immense challenges humanity faces as we scramble to reverse, in a matter of decades, the effects we've had on the atmosphere, the oceans, the world's forests and rivers - on the very topography of the globe. In Under a White Sky, she takes a hard look at ...the new world we are creating.
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From the first dog to the first beefalo, from farming to CRISPR, the human history of remaking nature When the 2020 Nobel Prize was awarded to the inventors of CRISPR, the revolutionary gene-editing tool, it underlined our amazing and apparently novel powers to alter nature. But ...as biologist Beth Shapiro argues in Life as We Made It, this phenomenon isn't new. Humans have been reshaping the world around us for ages, from early dogs to modern bacteria modified to pump out insulin. Indeed, she claims, reshaping nature--resetting the course of evolution, ours and others'--is the essence of what our species does. In exploring our evolutionary and cultural history, Shapiro finds a course for the future. If we have always been changing nature to help us survive and thrive, then we need to avoid naive arguments about how we might destroy it with our meddling, and instead ask how we can meddle better. Brilliant and insightful, Life as We Made It is an essential book for the decades to come.
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A unique blend of the science of de-extinction, cloning and comedy
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A leading biologist looks at how humans have meddled with evolution throughout history - and what we will do next
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You know what went wrong. This is the untold story of what went right. Few were ready when a mysterious respiratory illness emerged in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. Politicians, government officials, business leaders and public-health professionals were unprepared for the most d...evastating pandemic in a century. Many of the world's biggest drug and vaccine makers were slow to react or couldn't muster an effective response. It was up to a small group of unlikely and untested scientists and executives to save civilization. A French businessman dismissed by many as a fabulist. A Turkish immigrant with little virus experience. A quirky Midwesterner obsessed with insect cells. A Boston scientist employing questionable techniques. A British scientist despised by his peers. Far from the limelight, each had spent years developing innovative vaccine approaches. Their work was met with scepticism and scorn. By 2020, these individuals had little proof of progress. Yet they and their colleagues wanted to be the ones to stop a virulent virus holding the world hostage. They scrambled to turn their life's work into life-saving vaccines in a matter of months, each gunning to make the big breakthrough - and to beat each other for the glory that a vaccine guaranteed. A number-one New York Times bestselling author and award-winning Wall Street Journal investigative journalist, Zuckerman takes us inside the top-secret laboratories, corporate clashes and high-stakes government negotiations that led to effective shots. Deeply reported and endlessly gripping, this is a dazzling, blow-by-blow chronicle of the most consequential scientific breakthrough of our time. It's a story of courage, genius and heroism. It's also a tale of heated rivalries, unbridled ambitions, crippling insecurities and unexpected drama. A Shot to Save the World is the story of how science saved the world.
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In the wondrous tradition of Sagan, Feynman, Kahneman, Dubner and Levitt, Gladwell - a vision of the future that uses cutting-edge biotech to explore the most challenging mysteries of the 21st century.
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This work focuses on biotechnology broadly conceived to include the development of genetically engineered plants and animals, genetically altered animal organs for human transplant, genetic testing and therapy for human beings and, finally, animal and human cloning.
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An authoritative yet easy-to-read description of molecular biology, genetics, and the ethical implications of genetic engineering.
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This multi-disciplinary book presents the current state of stem cell science in society, twenty years on from the first cultivation of human embryonic stem cells and ten years after the invention of genetically altered human stem cells.
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In the eyes of the world, efforts to develop an AIDS vaccine were a failure, as there is still no cure today. The companies involved saw their fortunes fall as quickly as they had risen. Under the radar, however, infectious disease scientists were learning how to isolate neutrali...sing antibodies, how to conduct trials during international crises, and how to understand the human immune system. These lessons would prove crucial almost forty years later, when another epidemic would spark another race to find a vaccine. 333 Days is the incredible story of the coronavirus vaccination, as you've never heard it before. Award-winning journalist Greg Zuckerman dives into the complex history that links the AIDS and Covid-19 epidemics, and details how the lessons learned during the perceived failures of the former were the catalysts for unprecedented scientific success during the latter. He reveals the twisting fates of the companies that were never supposed to last long enough to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, and examines the experiences of the people behind the science, and their relentless persistence in pursuit of a better world.
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