Mendel's Ark [electronic resource] : Biotechnology and the Future of Extinction /
Fletcher, Amy Lynn.author.
Does extinction have to be forever?  As the global extinction crisis accelerates, conservationists and policy-makers increasingly use advanced biotechnologies such as reproductive cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bioinformatics in the urgent effort to save species.  Mendel's Ark considers the ethical, cultural and social implications of using these tools for wildlife conservation. Drawing upon sources ranging from science to science fiction, it focuses on the stories we tell about extinction and the meanings we ascribe to nature and technology.  The use of biotechnology in conservation is redrawing the boundaries between animals and machines, nature and artifacts, and life and death.  The new rhetoric and practice of de-extinction will thus have significant repercussions for wilderness and for society. The degree to which we engage collectively with both the prosaic and the fantastic aspects of biotechnological conservation will shape the boundaries and ethics of our desire to restore lost worlds.
Description based upon print version of record.
""Contents""; ""Chapter 1 The Future of Extinction""; ""1.1 Goodbye to the Baiji""; ""1.2 Hello to the Anthropocene""; ""1.3 Wicked Problems and Socio-Technical Imaginaries""; ""1.4 Telling Stories about Extinction""; ""1.5 Taking Control of Nature's Realm""; ""1.6 The Once and Future Baiji""; ""References""; ""Chapter 2 A Political History of Extinction""; ""2.1 From Eden to Extinctionâ€? and Back Again?""; ""2.2 Fossils and Frontiers: Debating Extinction During the Enlightenment""; ""2.3 The Politics of Extinction in the Progressive Era""
""2.4 Spaceship Earth: Twentieth Century Environmentalism""""2.5 Climate, Catastrophe and Conservation Biology""; ""2.6 Everything Old is New Again: Biotechnology and De-Extinction""; ""References""; ""Chapter 3 Bio-Inventories: The Digitization of Nature""; ""3.1 They Had to Count Them All: Bioinformatics and DNA Barcoding""; ""3.2 Cracking the Code of Life: Bioinformatics in the Twentieth Century""; ""3.3 The Encyclopedia of Life""; ""3.4 A Barcode for Every Species""; ""3.4.1 Transforming Ecology: From Species to Genes""; ""3.4.2 The Taxonomic Impediment""; ""3.5 Digital Natures""
""References""""Chapter 4 Bio-Interventions: Cloning Endangered Species as Wildlife Conservation""; ""4.1 Is Nature Over?""; ""4.2 The Molecular Frontier: Biotechnology and Life as Code""; ""4.3 From Wistar Rats to Oncomice: Engineering Animals""; ""4.4 Dolly and Polly: Animal Cloning Hits the Big Time""; ""4.5 Noah's Ark: Cloning on the Edge of Extinction""; ""4.6 Preservation in a Petri Dish""; ""References""; ""Chapter 5 Bio-Identities: Cloning the Recently Extinct""; ""5.1 Liminal Lives: The Biopolitics of De-extinction""; ""5.2 The Past Comes Alive: Ancient DNA as Time Travel""
""5.2.1 No Longer Dead as a Dodo""""5.2.2 Everything Old is New Again""; ""5.3 Tasmanian Tiger Tales""; ""5.3.1 You don't know what you got until you lose it""; ""5.3.1.1 The Thylacine as Environmental Icon""; ""5.4 Spectacular Science""; ""5.5 Pickled Pups and Promises""; ""5.6 Reviving and Restoring""; ""5.7 See It Now, While It's Still Extinct""; ""References""; ""Chapter 6 Bio-Imaginaries: Bringing Back the Woolly Mammoth""; ""6.1 Entering the Hall of Extinct Monsters""; ""6.2 How to Resurrect a Woolly Mammoth""; ""6.2.1 Raising the Mammoth""; ""6.2.2 Pleistocene Dreams""
""6.3 Engineering Life: Synthetic Biology""""6.4 In Search of Lost Worlds""; ""References""
Does extinction have to be forever?  As the global extinction crisis accelerates, conservationists and policy-makers increasingly use advanced biotechnologies such as reproductive cloning, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and bioinformatics in the urgent effort to save species.  Mendel's Ark considers the ethical, cultural and social implications of using these tools for wildlife conservation. Drawing upon sources ranging from science to science fiction, it focuses on the stories we tell about extinction and the meanings we ascribe to nature and technology.  The use of biotechnology in conservation is redrawing the boundaries between animals and machines, nature and artifacts, and life and death.  The new rhetoric and practice of de-extinction will thus have significant repercussions for wilderness and for society. The degree to which we engage collectively with both the prosaic and the fantastic aspects of biotechnological conservation will shape the boundaries and ethics of our desire to restore lost worlds.
Biodiversity.
Social sciences.
Environmental law.
Environmental policy.
Nature conservation.
Wildlife.
Fish.
Nature.
Environment.
Biodiversity.
Social Sciences, general.
Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice.
Nature Conservation.
Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management.
Popular Science in Nature and Environment.