Evolution Made to Order Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America |
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| Author:
| Curry, Helen Anne |
| ISBN: | 978-0-226-39008-6 |
| Publication Date: | Nov 2016 |
| Publisher: | University of Chicago Press
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $163.95 |
Book Description:
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Evolution Made to Order traces the nearly one-hundred year history of America's attempts to speed up evolution, to induce mutations long before molecular biology and recombinant DNA technologies took center stage. It tells the story of how chemical mutagenesis and radiobiology were used in plant breeding in the mid-twentieth century United States, focusing on their creation, application, and celebration as technologies of genetic modification. What we come to see is that...
More Description Evolution Made to Order traces the nearly one-hundred year history of America's attempts to speed up evolution, to induce mutations long before molecular biology and recombinant DNA technologies took center stage. It tells the story of how chemical mutagenesis and radiobiology were used in plant breeding in the mid-twentieth century United States, focusing on their creation, application, and celebration as technologies of genetic modification. What we come to see is that popular interest in, acceptance of, and even demand for methods that would extend human control over heredity fostered attempts to develop and apply promising methods of genetic manipulation. These genetic technologies were not limited to the research programs of either quirky or mainstream biologists, or to the ideologies of foundations and their grantees, or to the hopes of industrial producers. Curry uncovers how they were widely shared among agriculturalists, horticulturalists, and many other Americans who believed that living things could indeed be reshaped to human imagination given the appropriate technology. That is to say, this is above all a history of innovation.