Description
The knowledge explosion has revolutionized genetics itself. No longer content simply to observe and theorize about the workings of life's blue-print, researchers now take an active role in changing it. Of course, human beings have been manipulating na- ture for millennia, ever since prehistoric societies first began to cross- breed plants to encourage desirable traits. But today's experimenters. armed with sophisticated laboratory tools and a wealth of detailed genetic information, are able to tinker directly with the blueprint's instructions, introducing into the cellular machinery alterations that would never have arisen naturally and that would have been impossible to achieve through crossbreeding
So far, most of the genetic manipulation has been carried out with bacteria, crops, domesticated stock, and laboratory animals. But scientists have already had limited success in treating human ailments by dosing patients with genetically altered cells, attempting to correct genetic flaws at their cellular source.
ISBN: 0705416011
