Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School

“Can Science Make Sense of Life? highlights critical perversions in our present governance of biotechnology: confusions between decoding genetic structures and engineering happiness; conflations of privately profitable patent interests and overall human betterment; and elisions between raw data and techno-optimism’s myth-making capacity. Founder of Harvard’s Science, Technology and Society program, Sheila Jasanoff makes an urgent and eloquent case for restoring broadly democratic humanistic complexity to the governing bodies that govern our bodies.”Patricia Williams, Columbia Law School“For those of us concerned with equitable distribution of technology, biodiversity, and the long-term health of the Earth, here is a thoughtful and up-to-date resource from an experienced scholar very close to the exponentially shifting events of risk and hope.”George Church, Wyss Institute, Harvard University“This timely and important work is a powerful reminder that we are still in the midst of a scientific revolution that demands shared decision-making regarding the boundary between natural and artificial life — what life is — as well as what life is for.”Doron Weber, The Washington Post"An insightful, ambitious and sophisticated overview of the difficulties faced in protecting humanistic understandings of life when they intersect with the understandings of life offered by the post-genetic life sciences."Metascience​

• Acknowledgements viProlouge 11 A New Lens on Life 132 Book of Revelations 373 Life and Law: Constitutional Turns 644 Life in the Gray Zone 925 Language Games 1176 A New Biopower 1427 Life’s Purposes 169 Notes 180References 187Index 202

Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School

“Can Science Make Sense of Life? highlights critical perversions in our present governance of biotechnology: confusions between decoding genetic structures and engineering happiness; conflations of privately profitable patent interests and overall human betterment; and elisions between raw data and techno-optimism’s myth-making capacity. Founder of Harvard’s Science, Technology and Society program, Sheila Jasanoff makes an urgent and eloquent case for restoring broadly democratic humanistic complexity to the governing bodies that govern our bodies.”Patricia Williams, Columbia Law School“For those of us concerned with equitable distribution of technology, biodiversity, and the long-term health of the Earth, here is a thoughtful and up-to-date resource from an experienced scholar very close to the exponentially shifting events of risk and hope.”George Church, Wyss Institute, Harvard University“This timely and important work is a powerful reminder that we are still in the midst of a scientific revolution that demands shared decision-making regarding the boundary between natural and artificial life — what life is — as well as what life is for.”Doron Weber, The Washington Post"An insightful, ambitious and sophisticated overview of the difficulties faced in protecting humanistic understandings of life when they intersect with the understandings of life offered by the post-genetic life sciences."Metascience​

• Acknowledgements viProlouge 11 A New Lens on Life 132 Book of Revelations 373 Life and Law: Constitutional Turns 644 Life in the Gray Zone 925 Language Games 1176 A New Biopower 1427 Life’s Purposes 169 Notes 180References 187Index 202

Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School

“Can Science Make Sense of Life? highlights critical perversions in our present governance of biotechnology: confusions between decoding genetic structures and engineering happiness; conflations of privately profitable patent interests and overall human betterment; and elisions between raw data and techno-optimism’s myth-making capacity. Founder of Harvard’s Science, Technology and Society program, Sheila Jasanoff makes an urgent and eloquent case for restoring broadly democratic humanistic complexity to the governing bodies that govern our bodies.”Patricia Williams, Columbia Law School“For those of us concerned with equitable distribution of technology, biodiversity, and the long-term health of the Earth, here is a thoughtful and up-to-date resource from an experienced scholar very close to the exponentially shifting events of risk and hope.”George Church, Wyss Institute, Harvard University“This timely and important work is a powerful reminder that we are still in the midst of a scientific revolution that demands shared decision-making regarding the boundary between natural and artificial life — what life is — as well as what life is for.”Doron Weber, The Washington Post"An insightful, ambitious and sophisticated overview of the difficulties faced in protecting humanistic understandings of life when they intersect with the understandings of life offered by the post-genetic life sciences."Metascience​

• Acknowledgements viProlouge 11 A New Lens on Life 132 Book of Revelations 373 Life and Law: Constitutional Turns 644 Life in the Gray Zone 925 Language Games 1176 A New Biopower 1427 Life’s Purposes 169 Notes 180References 187Index 202