Can Science Make Sense of Life?

ISBN-13: 9781509522705 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 156 str.

Sheila Jasanoff

Opis

Since the discovery of the structure of DNA heralded the birth of the genetic age, an entire vocabulary has emerged to express our growing command over the matter of life, from decoding and sequencing to manipulating and editing. Biology and biotechnology, scientists proclaim, are poised to rewrite the book of life.

Recenzje

"Can Science Make Sense of Life? highlights critical perversions in our present governance of biotechnology: confusions between decoding genetic structures and engineering happiness; conflations of privately profitable patent interests and overall human betterment; and elisions between raw data and techno-optimism's myth-making capacity. Founder of Harvard's Science, Technology and Society program, Sheila Jasanoff makes an urgent and eloquent case for restoring broadly democratic humanistic complexity to the governing bodies that govern our bodies." Patricia Williams, Columbia Law School "For those of us concerned with equitable distribution of technology, biodiversity, and the long-term health of the Earth, here is a thoughtful and up-to-date resource from an experienced scholar very close to the exponentially shifting events of risk and hope." George Church, Wyss Institute, Harvard University "This timely and important work is a powerful reminder that we are still in the midst of a scientific revolution that demands shared decision-making regarding the boundary between natural and artificial life -- what life is -- as well as what life is for." Doron Weber, The Washington Post

Spis treści

• Prologue
• Chapter 1. A New Lens on Life
• Chapter 2. Book of Revelations
• Chapter 3. Life and Law: Constitutional Turns
• Chapter 4. Life in the Gray Zone
• Chapter 5. Language Games
• Chapter 6. A New Biopower
• Chapter 7. Life s Purposes

O autorze

Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School