Description: Breakthroughs in biology and genetics raise issues that concern us all -- so claims this elegant stiletto of a book

Physics has ruled the world for the last four decades, giving us nuclear weapons, computers, and space flight. But the real power, both financial and political, has now passed to biology and its explosive implications of gene therapy, cloning, and eugenics. Physics may have vast implications for the human race, but only genetics has implications for what it means to be human.

Brave New Worlds is a primer for reclaiming the knowledge and power that is rightfully ours. In eminently clear, witty prose, Appleyard explores the promise and the danger of genetic manipulation. From here, he forges a link between a scientific juggernaut and its moral and ethical implications. Only by making this connection, Appleyard insists, can nonscientists accept responsibility for grave decisions that have no historical precedent. In the end, Brave New Worlds is a public appeal, a plea to realign technological advances with human values.

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