The Conversation on Biotechnology

The Conversation on Biotechnology PDF

Author: Marc Zimmer

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2023-06-06

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1421446154

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From the contributors to The Conversation, this collection of essays by leading experts in biotechnology provides foundational knowledge on a range of topics, from CRISPR gene sequencing to the ethics of GMOs and "designer babies." In The Conversation on Biotechnology, editor Marc Zimmer collects essays from The Conversation U.S. by top scholars and experts in the field, who present a primer on the latest biotechnology research, the overwhelming possibilities it offers, and the risks of its abuse. From an overview of CRISPR technology and gene editing in GMOs to the ethical questions surrounding "designer babies" and other applications of biotechnology in humans, it highlights the major implications biotechnology will bring for health and society. Topics range from the spectacular use of light to fire individual neurons in the brain to making plant-based meats; from curbing diseases with genetically modified mosquitoes to looking back on 40 years of opinions on IVF babies. The Critical Conversations series collects essays from top scholars on timely topics, including water, biotechnology, gender diversity, gun culture, and more, originally published on the independent news site The Conversation U.S. Contributors: Nathan Ahlgren, Ivan Anishchenko, Trine Antonsen, Jennifer Barfield, Pedro Belda-Ferre, Ari Berkowitz, Adeline Boettcher, Jason Delbourne, Kevin Doxzen, Mo Ebrahimkhani, Eleanor Feingold, J. Benjamin Hurlbut, Cecile Janssens, Samira Kiani, Amanda Kowalczyk, Mariana Lamas, Andrew Lapworth, Rebecca Mackelprang, Kathleen Merrigan, Saman Naghieh, Sean Nee, Dimitri Perrin, Christopher Preston, Jason Rasgon, Penny Riggs, Jason Robert, Oliver Rogoyski, Gary Samore, Sahotra Sarkar, George E. Seidel, Patricia A. Stapleton, Craig W. Stevens, Paul B. Thompson, Christopher Tuggle, Vikramaditya G. Yadav, Marc Zimmer

The Conversation on Biotechnology

The Conversation on Biotechnology PDF

Author: Marc Zimmer

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2023-06-06

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1421446146

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"Written specifically for readers with little to no knowledge of the field, the articles within this collection cover everything from a basic overview of CRISPR technology and gene editing in GMOs to the ethical questions surrounding "designer babies" and other applications of biotechnology in humans"--

Creating Life from Life

Creating Life from Life PDF

Author: Rosalyn W. Berne

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2014-12-19

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 9814463590

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This book is a collection of essays by scientists, historians, philosophers of science, and students. The essays meld biotechnology into science fiction stories and thereby open a conversation about the morality of what we may be one day, and what it may mean to be human as our biotechnological endeavors continue to evolve. The biotechnology "revol

From Breakthrough to Blockbuster

From Breakthrough to Blockbuster PDF

Author: Donald L. Drakeman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0195084004

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"Beginning in the 1970s, several scientific breakthroughs promised to transform the creation of new medicines. As investors sought to capitalize on these Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, the biotech industry grew to thousands of small companies around the world. Each sought to emulate what the major pharmaceutical companies had been doing for a century or more, but without the advantages of scale, scope, experience, and massive resources. How could a large collection of small companies, most with fewer than 50 employees, compete in one of the world's most breathtakingly expensive and highly regulated industries? This book shows how biotech companies have met the challenge by creating nearly 40% more of the most important treatments for unmet medical needs. Moreover, they have done so with much lower overall costs. The book focuses on both the companies themselves and the broader biotech ecosystem that supports them. Its portrait of the crucial roles played by academic research, venture capital, contract research organizations, the capital markets, and pharmaceutical companies shows how a supportive environment enabled the entrepreneurial biotech industry to create novel medicines with unprecedented efficiency. In doing so, it also offers insights for any industry seeking to innovate in uncertain and ambiguous conditions. Looking to the future, it concludes that biomedical research will continue to be most effective in the hands of a large group of small companies as long as national healthcare policies allow the rest of the ecosystem to continue to thrive"--

Prophets of the Posthuman

Prophets of the Posthuman PDF

Author: Christina Bieber Lake

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess

Published: 2013-09-30

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 026815869X

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Prophets of the Posthuman provides a fresh and original reading of fictional narratives that raise the question of what it means to be human in the face of rapidly developing bioenhancement technologies. Christina Bieber Lake argues that works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, Marilynne Robinson, Raymond Carver, James Tiptree, Jr., and Margaret Atwood must be reevaluated in light of their contributions to larger ethical questions. Drawing on a wide range of sources in philosophical and theological ethics, Lake claims that these writers share a commitment to maintaining a category of personhood more meaningful than that allowed by utilitarian ethics. Prophets of the Posthuman insists that because technology can never ask whether we should do something that we have the power to do, literature must step into that role. Each of the chapters of this interdisciplinary study sets up a typical ethical scenario regarding human enhancement technology and then illustrates how a work of fiction uniquely speaks to that scenario, exposing a realm of human motivations that might otherwise be overlooked or simplified. Through the vision of the writers she discusses, Lake uncovers a deep critique of the ascendancy of personal autonomy as America’s most cherished value. This ascendancy, coupled with technology’s glamorous promises of happiness, helps to shape a utilitarian view of persons that makes responsible ethical behavior toward one another almost impossible. Prophets of the Posthuman charts the essential role that literature must play in the continuing conversation of what it means to be human in a posthuman world.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology PDF

Author: Larry V. McIntire

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1996-03-22

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 0309052823

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Biotechnologyâ€"the manipulation of the basic building blocks of lifeâ€"is rapidly advancing in laboratories around the world. It has become routine to refer to DNA fingerprints and genetically engineered foods. Yet the "how to" of biotechnology is only the beginning. For every report of new therapies or better ways to produce food, there is a Jurassic Park scenario to remind us of the potential pitfalls. Biotechnology raises serious issues for scientists and nonscientists alike: Who will decide what is safe? Who will have access to our personal genetic information? What are the risks when advanced science becomes big business? In Biotechnology, experts from science, law, industry, and government explore a cross-section of emerging issues. This book offers straightforward explanations of basic science and provides insight into the serious social questions raised by these findings. The discussions explore five key areas: The state of the art in biotechnology-including an overview of the genetic revolution, the development of recombinant DNA technology, and the possibilities for applying the new techniques. Potential benefits to medicine and the environment-including gene therapy, the emerging area of tissue engineering and biomaterials, and the development of therapeutic proteins. Issues in technology transfer-focusing on the sometimes controversial relationship between university research centers and industry. Ethics, behavior, and values-exploring the ethical issues that surround basic research and applications of new technology, with a discussion of scientific misconduct and a penetrating look at the social impact of genetic discoveries. Government's role-including a comparison of U.S., European, and Japanese policies on pharmaceutical and biotechnology development. Biotechnology is here to stay, and this volume adds immeasurably to understanding its multiple aspects and far-reaching implications. This book will be of interest to scientists and industry leaders involved in biotechnology issues-and it will be welcomed by the concerned lay reader. Frederick B. Rudolph, Ph.D., is a professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University and is executive director of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering. Larry V. McIntire, Ph.D., is the E. D. Butcher Professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Rice University and is chair of the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering.

The Vital Question

The Vital Question PDF

Author: Nick Lane

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781781250372

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A game-changing book on the origins of life, called the most important scientific discovery 'since the Copernican revolution' in The Observer.

Fables and Futures

Fables and Futures PDF

Author: George Estreich

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 0262351803

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How new biomedical technologies—from prenatal testing to gene-editing techniques—require us to imagine who counts as human and what it means to belong. From next-generation prenatal tests, to virtual children, to the genome-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9, new biotechnologies grant us unprecedented power to predict and shape future people. That power implies a question about belonging: which people, which variations, will we welcome? How will we square new biotech advances with the real but fragile gains for people with disabilities—especially when their voices are all but absent from the conversation? This book explores that conversation, the troubled territory where biotechnology and disability meet. In it, George Estreich—an award-winning poet and memoirist, and the father of a young woman with Down syndrome—delves into popular representations of cutting-edge biotech: websites advertising next-generation prenatal tests, feature articles on “three-parent IVF,” a scientist's memoir of constructing a semisynthetic cell, and more. As Estreich shows, each new application of biotechnology is accompanied by a persuasive story, one that minimizes downsides and promises enormous benefits. In this story, people with disabilities are both invisible and essential: a key promise of new technologies is that disability will be repaired or prevented. In chapters that blend personal narrative and scholarship, Estreich restores disability to our narratives of technology. He also considers broader themes: the place of people with disabilities in a world built for the able; the echoes of eugenic history in the genomic present; and the equation of intellect and human value. Examining the stories we tell ourselves, the fables already creating our futures, Estreich argues that, given biotech that can select and shape who we are, we need to imagine, as broadly as possible, what it means to belong.

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