The Year of the Genome: A Diary of the Biological Revolution

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Macmillan, 2002 M05 8 - 289 pages
For twelve months beginning in January 2000, celebrated essayist and research physician Gerald Weissmann carefully documented the modern age of enlightenment, charting its scientific marvels and new plagues. Now, this illuminating diary takes us on a literary exploration of laboratories and beyond to see the impact on human life and culture of headliners such as RU 486, AIDS drugs, and other current developments, including the controversial use of stem cells.

Whether calling on Ralph Waldo Emerson to explain Craig Venter's drive to unravel the genome or tracing the effect of Rachel Carson's legacy on the spread of malaria around the world, Weissmann's lively chronicle captures the greatest genetic revolution of all time.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
2000
2
Ever since Galileo Cloning Loses in the House
16
Dr Baltimores Magic Bullet
34
Hitlers Gift and the Price of AIDS
52
The Genome Is Online
65
Dengue and DDT What Would Voltaire Do?
81
The Balkan Syndrome
98
Nobel Prizes the Mouse Genome Project
145
RU 486 Comes to America Hommage à Claude Bernard
152
Pope Says No to Cloning
163
Nicotine and Marijuana Auden and Ginsberg
173
Alzheimers Disease and City Hospitals
181
AIDS in Africa Gene Death in America
190
The Human Genome Is Almost Complete
200
Chronic Fatigue and the Wisdom of the Body
211

Rock of Ages Why We Creak
106
The Great Fear Mad Cows and Englishmen
116
Pesticides The Nader Factor and Heidegger
125
Ebola Out of Africa with the Sanitarians
133
Gene Therapy and Sophia Loren
220
Notes
235
Acknowledgments
275
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Rockefeller residencies at Belaggio, Gerald Weissmann, M.D., is a professor of medicine and director of the Biotechnology Study Center at New York University School of Medicine. His books include "Darwin's Audubon" and his essays and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including "The New York Times Book Review." He lives in New York City and Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

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