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Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes
by Sue Hubbell
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0618257489
- ISBN 13
- 9780618257485
- Seller
-
Frederick, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
We humans have been tinkering with genes for a long, long time. In Shrinking the Cat, Sue Hubbell shows how this tinkering is the definition of humanness by telling the stories of four important species we created. She tells how we made cats easier to live with by making them smaller and their brains less complicated, taking out much of the alertness that natural selection had packed in. How ancient farmers turned a wild grass into corn, a tremendously important crop that can't live without us. How silkworms were smuggled from China to the West and bred to be completely dependent on us. How silk traders picked up wild apples in their travels and how we manipulated the apple's complex genetics to grow only the best-tasting ones - and then made them taste worse. Today's tools are new, but we were engineering genes even before we knew about them, and we made some mistakes along the way. For example, the gypsy moths that regularly defoliate trees arrived through efforts to breed silkworms suitable to North America. Genetic engineering is controversial today. Some see it as a source of great benefit and great profits; others see it as a nightmare. Sue Hubbell shows that if we ignore our own history, pretending that genetic engineering is something completely new and dangerous, we are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Wonder Book
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- R13N-00269
- Title
- Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes
- Author
- Sue Hubbell
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0618257489
- ISBN 13
- 9780618257485
- Publisher
- Mariner Books
- Place of Publication
- Boston, Ma
- This edition first published
- December 12, 2002
Terms of Sale
Wonder Book
RETURNS are cheerfully accepted up to 30 days. We ship out within 1-2 business days and U.S. Standard Shipments usually arrive within 6-9 business days, Priority 3-6.
About the Seller
Wonder Book
About Wonder Book
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- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....