Genes Cells And Brains The Promethean Promises Of The New Biology

Our fates lie in our genes and not in the stars, said James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA. But Watson could not have predicted the scale of the industry now dedicated to this new frontier. Since the launch of the multibillion-dollar Human Genome Project, the biosciences have promised miraculous cures and radical new ways of understanding who we are. But where is the new world we were promised? Now updated with a new afterword, Genes, Cells and Brains asks why the promised cornucopia of health benefits has failed to emerge and reveals the questionable enterprise that has grown out of bioethics. The authors, feminist sociologist Hilary Rose and neuroscientist Steven Rose, examine the establishment of biobanks, the rivalries between public and private gene sequencers, and the rise of stem cell research. The human body is becoming a commodity, and the unfulfilled promises of the science behind this revolution suggest profound failings in genomics itself.

Dissecting the hype from the frontiers of bioethics, genomics and neuroscience.

This book argues that neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and behavioral economics often function as a political ideology masquerading as a new science. In looking at works by Antonio Damasio, Steven Pinker, Richard Thaler, Cas Sunstein, and John Tooby, Robert Samuels undertakes a close reading of the new brain sciences, and by turning to the works of Freud and Lacan, offers a counter-discourse to these new emerging sciences. He argues that an unintentional political manipulation of scientific thinking serves to repress the psychoanalytic conception of the unconscious and sexuality as it reinforces neoliberalism and promotes the drugging of discontent. This innovative book is intended for those interested in science, psychoanalysis, and politics and offers a new definition of neoliberal subjectivity.

This text explores a variety of themes developed from successive years of the University of California, Davis, multidisciplinary graduate conference. It draws out connections on a wide array of topics among the arts, humanities, and sciences in history for multidisciplinary study. This text presents a rare forum for multidisciplinary connections researched and presented by junior specialists in their respective fields. It enables both creativity and flexibility in drawing out connections that are frequently overlooked by more specialized senior scholars. This book is a unique exercise in the promotion of junior scholarly achievement and multidisciplinary research.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Stem Cell Research, Second Edition is filled with new procedures and exciting medical breakthroughs, including executive orders from the Obama administration reversing barriers to research imposed under the Bush administration, court rulings impacting NIH funding of research based on human embryonic stem cells, edicts by the Papacy and other religious leaders, and the first success in cloning human stem cells. Stem cell biology is clearly fueling excitement and potential in traditional areas of developmental biology and in the field of regenerative medicine, where they are believed to hold much promise in addressing any number of intractable medical conditions. This updated second edition encyclopedia will expand on information that was given in the first edition and present more than 270 new and updated articles that explore major topics in ways accessible to nonscientists, thus bringing readers up-to-date with where stem cell biology stands today, including new and evolving ethical, religious, legal, social, and political perspectives. This second edition reference work will serve as a universal resource for all public and academic libraries. It is an excellent foundation for anyone who is interested in the subject area of stem cell biology. Key Features: Reader’s Guide, Further Readings, Cross References, Chronology, Resource Guide, Index A Glossary will elucidate stem cell terminology for the nonscientist Statistics and selected reprints of major journal articles that pertain to milestones achieved in stem cell research Documents from Congressional Hearings on stem cells and cloning Reports to the President’s Council on Bioethics, and more

Choice Recommended Read Critical psychology has developed over time from different standpoints, and in different cultural contexts, embracing a variety of perspectives. This cutting-edge and comprehensive handbook values and reflects this diversity of approaches to critical psychology today, providing a definitive state-of-the-art account of the field and an opening to the lines of argument that will take it forward in the years to come. The individual chapters by leading and emerging scholars plot the development of a critical perspective on different elements of the host discipline of psychology. The book begins by systematically addressing each separate specialist area of psychology, before going on to consider how aspects of critical psychology transcend the divisions that mark the discipline. The final part of the volume explores the variety of cultural and political standpoints that have made critical psychology such a vibrant contested terrain of debate. The Handbook of Critical Psychology represents a key resource for researchers and practitioners across all relevant disciplines. It will be of particular interest to students and researchers in psychology, psychosocial studies, sociology, social anthropology and cultural studies, and to discourse analysts of different traditions, including those in critical linguistics and political theory.

We are poised at the doorway to a future which could surpass the Industrial Revolution in its impact on the world. We are beginning to scrutinize genes in order to read the very history of evolution, and to alter plants and animals in ways undreamed of only a few years ago. As the tools of science have become more sophisticated, scientists have been able to delve deeply into the inner recesses of cells. The fruit of their labor, the new biology, promises us an unprecedented understanding of genes, offering an illuminating view into the most intimate operations of living things from microbes to humans - and with that, the potential to gain increasing control over life itself. Our gene future will soon present us with a cornucopia of products by drawing upon a variety of organisms - plants, animals, and even human cells - that will influence the lives and health of us all. As Thomas Lee, a biologist and author of the acclaimed The Human Genome Project: Cracking the Genetic Code of Life, so vividly shows, the new biology is already beginning to make its mark on our lives. Every week newspapers announce that scientists have found the gene for a disease such as cystic fibrosis or a particular form of cancer, or have seized on a gene therapy to try to combat it. The controversy over using DNA fingerprinting as admissible evidence in court has sparked public concern. The injecting of experimental genes into humans and animals has triggered recent debates. Soon genetically engineered tomatoes and other "transgenic" vegetables will be available on the shelves of our local grocers. As Lee so wisely and eloquently cautions, there may be perils along this pathway as well as miraculous discoveries. Do dangers lurk in this new technological approach to nature? May we unwittingly be doing irreparable harm to individuals, not to mention the biosphere? This perceptive author even-handedly assesses the controversies surrounding the perils that may await us as molecular science m

An accessible but rigorous introduction to genes for non-experts, explaining what genes are and what they can and cannot do.