How to grow a human : adventures in how we are made and who we are / Philip Ball
Material type: TextPublication details: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019Description: xi, 372 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmISBN:- 9780008331788
- 612.028 BALL
Item type | Current library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Books | Vigyanpuri Campus | 612.028 BALL (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 004455 |
Browsing Vigyanpuri Campus shelves Close shelf browser (Hides shelf browser)
In his most mind-bending book yet, Ball makes that disconcerting question the focus of a tour through what scientists can now do in cell biology and tissue culture. He shows how these technologies could lead to tailor-made replacement organs for when ours fail, to new medical advances for repairing damage and assisting conception, and to new ways of growing a human. For example, it might prove possible to turn skin cells not into neurons but into eggs and sperm, or even to turn oneself into the constituent cells of embryos. Such methods would also create new options for gene editing, with all the attendant moral dilemmas. Ball argues that such advances can therefore never be about just the science, because they come already surrounded by a host of social narratives, preconceptions, and prejudices. But beyond even that, these developments raise questions about identity and self, birth and death, and force us to ask how mutable the human body really is - and what forms it might take in years to come.
There are no comments on this title.