The Unnatural Selection of Our Species: At the Frontier of Gene Editing

Description

How are we supposed to handle these new tools that could end up changing our genetic material? The advancement of the new genetic technology has hurtled forward at breakneck speed. When the first genetically modified children, the twins Lulu and Nana, were born in China in 2018, it became clear that humanity was facing possibilities that we had, previously, only been able to imagine. With the pair of genetic scissors known as CRISPR, we could potentially choose the traits of our children and avoid ageing and disease. But with that ability comes a new set of risks, forcing us to face hard ethical and societal questions. Torill Kornfeldt has traveled all over the world to meet the people who are driving the research forward. She has visited fertility clinics in South Korea, oncologists in China who are experimenting on sick patients, and biohackers in the US who want to make the new technology available to everyone. In The Unnatural Selection of Our Species, she examines recent developments in gene editing and what might still be waiting around the corner.

Torill Kornfeldt is a Swedish science journalist with a background in biology. She has worked in the science department of Sweden's leading morning newspaper Dagens Nyheter and at the science branch of the Swedish public service radio. There she created the successful radio show Tekniksafari (Tech Safari) on new technology changing society. Her main focus is on how emerging bioengineering and technology will shape our future. Fiona Graham has a degree in Modern Languages from Oxford University, and has lived in Kenya, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Nicaragua, and Belgium. She translates from Spanish, French, Dutch, Swedish, and German, and is currently the reviews editor at the Swedish Book Review.

"A book filled with curiosity, but with a sober eye on the risks and dilemmas. Well written, knowledgeable, and engaging - exactly how really good popular science is supposed to be."-- Gustav Kallstrand, Nobel Centre "[T]he projects Kornfeldt writes about are incredibly compelling, given that we are living through a mass-extinction event that threatens the stability of the world's ecosystems." --The New Yorker on The Re-Origin of Species "This thought-provoking and deeply engaging book throws into the question the very meanings of life and death as we understand them." STARRED REVEW --Shelf Awareness on The Re-Origin of Species "Extinction might not be forever!...Free of most scientific jargon, Kornfeldt's book is an eye-opening introduction to an important new field of study that"s well fit for public library audiences." --Booklist on The Re-Origin of Species "The author's careful synthesis of accomplishment versus aspiration is also spot-on--even world-class scientists will be dreamers, and there is much more research to be conducted before mammoths once again lumber across the tundra. Wondrous tales of futuristic science experiments that happen to be true." --Kirkus Reviews on The Re-Origin of Species "Kornfeldt interviews researchers intent on recreating mammoths and passenger pigeons, saving the northern white rhino, and reintroducing chestnut trees to North America." --Publishers Weekly on The Re-Origin of Species "Any number of terms apply to Torill Kornfeldt's fascinating overview of this profoundly important subject: clear-eyed. Skeptical. Open-minded. But the word that sticks with me is one I haven't had cause to use in a very long time: hopeful. The Re-Origin of Species gives me hope." --Peter Watts, author of Blindsight and Starfish on The Re-Origin of Species