- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Douglas & McIntyre / Not Applicable (Jun 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374141231
- ISBN-13: 978-0374141233
- Product Dimensions: 24.9 x 15.5 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 476 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#1,085,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #47 in Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Bioengineering > Genetic Engineering
- #48 in Books > Engineering > Bioengineering > Genetic Engineering
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
The Second Creation deals with some of the most important issues confronting us today: genetic engineering and cloning, and the control that science has over the process of life. Written by the noted science author Colin Tudge, the book is based on interviews with Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell, the scientists who cloned Dolly the sheep. Its aim is to explain the story of how and why they came to cloning sheep and the implications for the future, from curing diseases to human cloning. But that's not easy to convey simply, according to Ian Wilmut:
The full story is, however, inescapably complicated. The science and technology of cloning, at least by our method, takes us into some of the most esoteric reaches of biology...
Their subject is complex and requires careful reading, but the reward is worth the effort. Inevitably, the issue of human cloning is looked at in some detail, and all three of the authors find the idea repugnant and do not believe society will accept it:
The pressures for human cloning are powerful; but, although it seems likely that somebody, at some time, will attempt it, we need not assume that it will ever become a common or significant feature of human life.
The book contains a comprehensive glossary to explain the scientific terms and abbreviations. Colin Tudge is the author of several books including The Engineer in the Garden, short-listed for the British Science Book Award. --Carina Trimingham, Amazon.co.uk
From Publishers Weekly
Scottish researchers Wilmut and Campbell are known to the world as the men who cloned sheep, producing in 1997 "viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells." The world said hello to Dolly with amazement and alarm--would the next step be cures for genetic diseases? Carbon copies of you and me? Unspeakable monsters? Or just tastier mutton? Now Wilmut and Campbell team up with prolific U.K. science writer Tudge (Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers) to explain their work--and to distinguish facts from theories and myths. Human cloning, they say, "is merely a diversion--and one we personally regret"; animal cloning's real promise lies instead in the study and application of genetic engineering. Genetically identical cloned animals can help us study the way genes interact with one another and their environment, and can help treat common diseases. After a handy introduction to genes and DNA, the authors explain basic embryology, including mammalian egg cell structures, cell reproduction and "differentiation" (how a cluster of fetal cells "knows" where to grow an arm, and where a head) as well as their work in "pharming"-- engineering animals to secrete pharmaceuticals. And they track the growth of knowledge about cloning from fetal animal cells, which produced Dolly's precursors, Megan and Morag. A final chapter looks (reluctantly) at the far-off possibilities of cloned people. Because they're often explaining quite technical processes, Wilmut, Campbell and Tudge can sound dry even though each (the book is told in their separate, if quite similar, voices) writes very clean prose. Nevertheless, this book belongs in the hands of anyone curious about clones: after all, who knows Dolly better than her parents?
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Insightful!,
By
This review is from: The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control (Hardcover)
Science is breeding new technologies at an unprecedented rate, and with the birth of each advancement comes a new generation of ethical concerns. Few developments have rattled the world's moral cage more than cloning, and it behooves any professional to have a working knowledge of the foundations of the current debates surrounding the genetic sciences. Of course, understanding how Dolly the Lamb was cloned from an adult sheep is probably beyond the grasp of most readers. But authors Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell (the two leaders of the cloning team) and Colin Tudge (an experienced science writer) examine every inch of scientific ground the project covered. While many details are presented densely, this clearly written, first-person account of a momentous, history-making event is fascinating, particularly for readers of a scientific bent. We [...] recommend this book to any and all readers as a basic education in a field that has the potential to impact all of our businesses and our lives. Hello, Dolly.
2.0 out of 5 stars
silly, patronizing, hardly qualifies as journalism...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control (Hardcover)
I was eager to see what Wilmut thought about cloning after reading his excellent essay in the best-selling anthology The Human Cloning Debate. But I was stunned when I read this book. Unlike the other work, this book comes across as silly, even patronizing. The book reads as though Wilmut is attempting to capitalize on Dolly, rather than as a thoughtful reflection on veterinary biology or genetics or human families. It is also very boring, even with the ghostwriter! Save your money; this expensive vehicle is not the best or the most interesting of the crop of cloned cloning books.
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Book on Cloning,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Second Creation: Dolly and the Age of Biological Control (Hardcover)
Ian Wilmut and Keith Cambell are the creators of Dolly the cloned sheep. They are also two of the three authors of this book. The book is all about how the historic event of cloning a mammal for the first time in history came about. It is wonderful reading and contains some great scientific insights. The only problem is that these two scientists have not embraced human cloning and all the good that it can do. It seems as if they stepped out of scientific mode and were forced to be against human cloning to keep their funding, placate their religions, and not become pariahs to the religious right. Great book. I highly recommend it for the fascinating story of cloning.
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