As Gods, Matthew Cobb
As Gods, Matthew Cobb
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
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As Gods
A Moral History of the Genetic Age

Author: Matthew Cobb

Narrator: Joe Jameson

Unabridged: 13 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 11/15/2022

Synopsis

The thrilling and terrifying history of genetic engineering  In 2018, scientists manipulated the DNA of human babies for the first time. As biologist and historian Matthew Cobb shows in As Gods, this achievement was one many scientists have feared from the start of the genetic age. Four times in the last fifty years, geneticists, frightened by their own technology, have called a temporary halt to their experiments. They ought to be frightened: Now we have powers that can target the extinction of pests, change our own genes, or create dangerous new versions of diseases in an attempt to prevent future pandemics. Both awe-inspiring and chilling, As Gods traces the history of genetic engineering, showing that this revolutionary technology is far too important to be left to the scientists. They have the power to change life itself, but should we trust them to keep their ingenuity from producing a hellish reality?  

About Matthew Cobb

Matthew Cobb is the author of several books, including The Resistance: The French Fight Against the Nazis, The Egg & Sperm Race: The Seventeenth Century Scientists who Unraveled the Secrets of Sex, Life, and Growth, and Eleven Days in August: The Liberation of Paris, August 1944. He is also the translator of Michel Morange's History of Molecular Biology. He is a professor of zoology at the University of Manchester, where he works on insects and on the history of science. Matthew lives in Manchester, England.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian on September 16, 2022

This big book is a deep dive into the history of a relatively new aspect of science - genetic modification - from the first crude steps to the sophistication of CRISPR-based gene editing. Matthew Cobb takes us through the basics of what is involved in genetic modification technically, from attempts d......more

Goodreads review by Emma on June 06, 2022

This book highlights the critical role that conversations around ethics need to play in the field of science, but especially Genetics. Matthew Cobb takes the reader on a historical journey about self-regulation in the field of Genetics in several different avenues: medicine, GMOs, bioweapons and gen......more

Goodreads review by Maria on November 13, 2022

The title of the book is very evocative: the moment we humans learnt to mess with the genetic code, we somehow put ourselves on the same level as God. Now, religious implications aside, human beings have actually been messing with the genetic code of their fellow travellers, be they plants or animal......more

Goodreads review by Kemp on September 27, 2023

I got bogged down in the science trying to understand how the gene manipulation worked before realizing my focus should be on the moral issues of gene manipulation. Cobb told us in the introduction not to focus on the science but I went there anyway. Once there, I could see two sides of this coin. C......more

Goodreads review by Jeff on January 21, 2023

This book is a treasure. Matthew Cobb has delivered a readable, accurate, nuanced and enjoyable history of the dynamic field of molecular genetics. As a testament to his craft, it seems like the story wrote itself, with wave after wave of similar hopes, fears, ideals, ego and greediness pop up after......more

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