Regenesis : how synthetic biology will reinvent nature and ourselves

Church, George M. (George McDonald) (Author). Regis, Edward, 1944- (Added Author).

Summary: A heady overview of the emerging discipline of synthetic biology and the wonders it can produce, from new drugs and vaccines to biofuels and resurrected woolly mammoths. In this authoritative, sometimes awe-inspiring book, geneticist Church and veteran science writer Regis team up to explore how scientists are now altering the nature of living organisms by modifying their genomes, or genetic makeup.

Record details

ISBN: 9780465021758 (hardback)
ISBN: 0465021751 (hardback)
Physical Description: print
ix, 284 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, c2012.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

From bioplastics to H. sapiens 2.0 -- -3,800 Myr, Late Hadean : at the inorganic/organic interface -- -3,500 Myr, Archean : reading the most ancient texts and the future of living software -- -500 Myr, Cambrian : the mirror world and the explosion of diversity ; How fast can evolution go and how diverse can it be? -- -360 Myr, Carboniferous : "the best substitute for petroleum is petroleum" -- -60 Myr. Paleocene : emergence of mammalian immune system ; Solving the health care crisis through genome engineering -- -30,000 Yr, Pleistocene Park : engineering extinct genomes -- -10,000 Yr, Neolithic : industrial revolutions ; The agricultural revolution and synthetic genomics ; The BioFab Manifesto -- -100 Yr, Anthropocene : the third industrial revolution ; iGEM -- -1 Yr, Holocene : from personal genomes to immortal human components -- Epigenetic epilogue. +1 Yr, the end of the beginning, transhumanism, and the Panspermia Era : societal risks and countermeasures.