Includes live video seminars, enchanting renewal songs and a thousand page illustrated codex. A transformative network reflowering Earth's living diversity in gender reunion. New Scientist 24 Jan 98 Jon Turney teaches science communication at University College London. Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, will be 20 this year, and the technology has moved on apace. The range of techniques already proven in humans or animals is impressively wide.
Silver covers cloning, of course.
But the ability to transfer cell nuclei, which made possible the creation of Dolly the sheep last year, is probably more significant. This and other laboratory tricks mean that virtually any combination of biological, social and genetic parenting is now possible. And, Silver argues, they will all be used. Individual freedom is the American way, and that commitment, along with commercial imperatives, is likely to override any objections to particular applications. Then combine the virtuoso manipulation of embryos with our burgeoning knowledge of human genetics, and we are taking the first steps down a new evolutionary path.