Evolution Made to Order

Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America

AvHelen Anne Curry

Häftad, Engelska, 2021

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Beskrivning

Plant breeders have long sought technologies to extend human control over nature. Early in the twentieth century, this led some to experiment with startlingly strange tools like x-ray machines, chromosome-altering chemicals, and radioactive elements. Contemporary reports celebrated these mutation-inducing methods as ways of generating variation in plants on demand. Speeding up evolution, they imagined, would allow breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new food crop or garden flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America’s pursuit of tools that could intervene in evolution. An immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of midcentury genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation, Evolution Made to Order provides vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2021-07-06
Mått:152 x 229 x 30 mm
Vikt:399 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:295
Förlag:The University of Chicago Press
ISBN:9780226790862

Utforska kategorier

Växtböcker inom Djur och Natur
Botanik inom Naturvetenskap och teknik

Mer om författaren

Helen Anne Curry is the Peter Lipton Lecturer in History of Modern Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.

Recensioner i media

"A fascinating foray into a mutated cornucopia of agricultural and horticultural products and the tools that made them. Such varied and important insights into the history of biological innovation and its many aspirations seem as relevant as ever in our ongoing search for new tools to reshape living things to our goals, needs, and desires—and to envision life as it could be."

Innehållsförteckning

List of Abbreviations Introduction Part 1 Evolution by X-ray: The Industrialization of Biological Innovation 1 Mutation Theories2 An Unsolved Problem3 Speeding Up Evolution4 X-rays in the Lab and Field5 Industrial Evolution Part 2 Tinkering with Chromosomes: Colchicine in the Lab and Garden 6 Artificial Tetraploidy7 Evolution to Order8 Better Evolution through Chemistry9 Tinkering Technologists10 The Flower Manufacturers Part 3 Atoms for Agriculture: Evolution in a Large Technological System 11 Radiation Revisited12 Mutation Politics13 An Atomic-Age Experiment Station14 Atomic Gardens15 The Peaceful Atom in Global Agriculture Epilogue AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex