The Genetic Age: Our Perilous Quest To Edit Life

The Genetic Age explores the potential of gene editing technology CRISPR, which has the power to manipulate genes with precision, as a new tool in genetics. It highlights the benefits and dangers of this technology, weaving together stories of science, history, and culture to shed light on its future.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 01 September 2022
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

A TIMES ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
Brilliant. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough - Henry Marsh, New Statesman (about The Idea of the Brain)

A new gene editing technology, invented just seven years ago, has turned humanity into gods. Enabling us to manipulate the genes in virtually any organism with exquisite precision, CRISPR has given scientists a degree of control that was undreamt of even in science fiction.

But CRISPR is just the latest, giant leap in a long journey to master genetics. The Genetic Age shows the astonishing, world-changing potential of the new genetics and the possible threats it poses, sifting between fantasy and the reality when it comes to both benefits and dangers.

By placing each phase of discovery, anticipation, and fear in the context of over fifty years of attempts to master the natural world, Matthew Cobb, the Baillie-Gifford-shortlisted author of The Idea of the Brain, weaves the stories of science, history, and culture to shed new light on our future. With the powers now at our disposal, it is a future that is almost impossible to imagine - but it is one we will create ourselves.

Weight: 688g
Dimension: 164 x 241 x 42 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788167000
Edition number: Main